See the video below. I'm attempting to do a "True First Person View" which allows the Player to see their actual Character (with equipment) when looking down. The traditional approach is to separate the First Person viewmodel from the model all other Players see (a la MS:C). There are pros and cons to my approach:
PROS:
- Animator-friendly: You only have to animate an item/action (like a sword swing) once. However, see the first CON below.
- Immersion. Just my personal opinion, but I think it helps put the Player into the game by being able to look down and see your character moving around with all its equipment.
- VR-friendly (if we choose to go down that road...).
CONS:
- Care must be taken not to annoy the Player with objects/animations that obscure their view, but still make it look good for other players looking at them.
- Hasn't been network-tested yet. The Player's Character is supposed to be replicated autonomously (instead of a simulated prediction) which IN THEORY eliminates this concern, but again... hasn't been tested. If it turns out there's a delay between Player actions/movement and what happens on-screen, well, that's a deal-killer.
EDIT: On a related note, I want to separate Player turn speed from the character model and animations. This means you can spin your camera in circles at 800 rpm if you want, and your Character model's animation will adjust to match your camera's forward-facing vector every second or so. But to other players, it won't look like you're a spinning top. For the purposes of Block/Parry/Attack, it will trust your view. It might irritate other players in PvP who don't think you can turn fast enough to block them, though.
View attachment viewmodel.mp4
PROS:
- Animator-friendly: You only have to animate an item/action (like a sword swing) once. However, see the first CON below.
- Immersion. Just my personal opinion, but I think it helps put the Player into the game by being able to look down and see your character moving around with all its equipment.
- VR-friendly (if we choose to go down that road...).
CONS:
- Care must be taken not to annoy the Player with objects/animations that obscure their view, but still make it look good for other players looking at them.
- Hasn't been network-tested yet. The Player's Character is supposed to be replicated autonomously (instead of a simulated prediction) which IN THEORY eliminates this concern, but again... hasn't been tested. If it turns out there's a delay between Player actions/movement and what happens on-screen, well, that's a deal-killer.
EDIT: On a related note, I want to separate Player turn speed from the character model and animations. This means you can spin your camera in circles at 800 rpm if you want, and your Character model's animation will adjust to match your camera's forward-facing vector every second or so. But to other players, it won't look like you're a spinning top. For the purposes of Block/Parry/Attack, it will trust your view. It might irritate other players in PvP who don't think you can turn fast enough to block them, though.
View attachment viewmodel.mp4
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