1st vs. 3rd : view

I was wondering the other day if there is a statistically preferred view when in-world. so, you're job is to choose which option you normally use, thereby garnering information that can be used when designing builds in SL.

so, without further ado... 1st or 3rd?

Ps - voters identities are not revealed with answers, so it's your choice to mention your answer if you want to or not.

I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority, but I've always used first person when possible. To me the over-the-shoulder view feels like I'm driving someone else's body.

i use third person only because i find manipulating myself in mouseview very difficult. if we had an actual first person mode in which all the movement keys worked as they do in third, i would use it almost exclusively.

seriously

very seriously

we used to have an actual first person mode and it was a deciding factor for me when i was scanning the groups for something to do lo those many months ago.

3rd person.

maybe i am a control freak. i wanna see who all and what all is around me. i am moving my camera all over all the time, zooming in on this or that.

so sayeth:

marilyn

3rd person view. Going into mouselook gives me motion sickness so I never use it.

Alexa

most DEFINITELY 3rd person

when someone builds a space so confined that I have to shift to Mouselook, I usually don't stay very long lol

3rd, becasue in mouselook all the UI gets hidden.
I reall like this new mouse-controlled 3rd - not a bad compromise.

Definitely third person.

First of all, I didn't spend all the time to make my av look all hot & sexy in order to not look at her. If I'm gonna stare at a screen for hours, I'm gonna make damned sure I've got something pleasing to look at as a constant.

Second, it's pretty tuff to tell what you're doing in relation to the world when in mouselook (first person) mode. In the real world, your eyesight is fixed in first person view, but you have the capability of "feeling" what's going on. If your leg is raised, you know it; if your arm is waving, you know it; if your head is turned, you know it; if you're standing, sitting, lying down, falling over, running, walking, etc., you just know it. In the computer though, you can't "feel" anything, so you have to make up for it by being able to see everything.

Third, there are constant practical situations where you really need to see what your av is doing. If you build a staircase, you can't really judge how effective of a staircase it is unless you watch yourself walk up and down it a few times. You can't tell if you've built a chair to the right dimensions until you sit in it. And what's the point of animations if you can't see yourself using them? What's the point of clothing and skins and tattoos and hair and jewelry if you can't see how you look in them?

Fourth, FPS games tend to make me nautious (which is unfortunate since there are some really great games that I just can't play). The last thing I want is for SL to feel like that.

Please build for 3rd person view. If you don't, the camera angles get all wacky. If you accommodate the 3rd-person view in a build, you can still have a nice experience for mouselook. But if you only play to mouselook, then you have wonky crap for the others.



I'm so relieved to hear an experienced and high-techy type player say this. I can't tell you the times I've been blasted by condescending architects for not being able to get mouselook to work for me. Look, it just doesn't work, OK? Because the movement keys don't work intuitively or well, OK? So get over yourselves.

What I do as a kind of workaround is I press alt and the left-click my mouse to zoom into the picture. Often, this just fails to work. You have to click around stuff to get it to work.

One of the most annoying things I find in this game, and one which really, really hobbles me in trying to learn to build (which is already a steep learning curve) is the way your av bounces around in the picture inside the thing/area you are trying to move. He is simply in the way. (Same for land parceling, where he can go crashing down on to a sim if you don't work him right.)

Yes, I'm aware of the camera controls you can bring down from the panel on the top -- but who wants to do that every time?

I find that if you put an item in edit, it rocks you into a position where you cannot see it to work on it! Most often, in a building or house, it rocks you right out on to the roof or next floor, so you are completely hobbled!

So you have to use alt-mouse click to zoom into that thing you're editing to be able to see it right.

I find this hobbles me hundreds of times throughout the night. I struggle with it constantly. To all the jerkimers who tell me "use mouselook" I can only say now, with pride, "Even the famous Khamon Fate, designer extraordinaire, says it doesn't work right."

I like mouseview becuase I just press W and point where I want to go and I go there, I find it much easier to get around. It's especially handy when you're flying, your av always flys in the direction you're looking.

i expected that 3rd person would be the most popular, but also expected 1st to be more popular than it's proving so far.

also, just for the trivia of it.. i always use 3rd person. the only time i find myself in mouseview is if i'm on a ride or playing something that requires it.. for intanse the Spook House.

and yes, i build with the 3rd person view in mind.


thanks to everyone who is taking the time to do this, it may come in handy for others as well sometime. plus, it's fun to see the responses and the reasoning behind them.

if you haven't voted yet, please feel free to do so.. i've this poll open-ended, so there is no cut off date/time as to when you can vote. just some data collecting.

I didn't even know there was a 1st person view available. But I tend to prefer 3rd person views in games anyway, precisely because the computer screen is such a limited input device. Lacking so many clues, it's difficult to get a sense of one's avatar's environs without seeing it in context.

Personally, I prefer mouselook for most movement.. Or at least I have, until they recently got the mouse-driven av thing working right.

Why? I'm big into FPS games, so I'm used to that conrol scheme on the keyboard.

Also, I like having the ability to side-step in Mouselook.

That, and lacking a really great video card at the moment, I've found Mouselook to be much less laggy for me.

I still use 3rd person for important stuff and when I don't need to move around a lot, however.. And I've recently started using it for movement again, with the mouse-steering.

3rd person most of the time because its easier to see who is standing around me and the UI is easier to use. Mouselook always while flying. If you have not tried mouselook flying, its a little awkward at first but once you get the hang of it, much more fun than flying in 3rd person. I also use mouselook if in a confined space.

You can side step in 3rd person also. Just hold down shift and use your arrow keys.

True, but with Mouselook, all I had to do was press A or D(using the WASD scheme).

I guess its all just we are used to. I can't stand mouse lock because I'm an ultimate user of Alt, Ctrl, Shift for camera my controls. My fingers probably spend 80% of their time on combanations of those keys.

First person almost always when flying. LL messed up my first person flying a bit a few months ago where my wings show up in my view and block the scenery On the ground its probably half and half.

Ahh finnaly someone brings this up. I am a first person dude,seeing as I dont go out much this is a clsoe to RL as it gets for me =D

3rd person, I like seeing my avatar rock out all over the place!!
http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=4302&sort=PictureID+desc&Name=daz+Groshomme

I like the feature where you can follow someone around in mouselook! I accedently discovered this while looking at my lovely neighbor lily and her avatar smiles as she walks around aww!

Black Flag! w00t!
T.V. Party Tonight!

I prefer 1st-person view, and use it as often as possible. However, the features are very limited with that view. You can't even right-click objects/land for info or to edit in 1st-person.

3rd. You cant use the alt/control/shift camera tricks otherwise.

-Adam

I use 3rd. person view almost exclusively, but only because the 1st. person view is so restricted.

If I was able to do all the things I do now, in 1st. person view, I think I would use that view almost excusively.

I think another poll would be in order:

If both 1st. person view and 3rd. person view, had the equally powerfull keyboard and mouse functionality, which would you prefer:

1st. person view
3rd. person view

or perhaps even: 2nd person view!!

Where's the option "where's my person" (when you have zoomed and panned so much around that you've forgot where your av is)?