Basic Camera 1st Person View Needed

Okay. Yes, I play a lot of on-line games. But now I am getting ot the point where I want to be in a virtual world more. Hence, my involvement with SL.

I am surprised to see that with the rich diversity and options offered while touring the Maps, one thing lacking is the simple ability to SEE the Map in an unobstructed way. IE: there is NO First-Person View of the landscape (seeing out the avatar's own eyes). Practically ALL true 3-D Worlds have this feature now, even the lowly outdated, 'WORLDS.COM' system which is sorely antiquated can still do this. So it is very surprising that a cutting-edge graphic program such as SL is lacking in such a basic option.

Yes, I have been reminded that there is a 'Mouse-Look' feature and indeed it does work. But it is NOT the same thing. I don't want to be FORCED to use any 'mouse' simply to move in X-Y directions and be unable to TURN left and right when the ARROW KEYS work just fine. The Mouse-Look view destroys this capability to move about the way I am used to doing with just those keys alone.

So all in all, I would like to see a simple additional Menu selection that would leave the camera view 'over the shoulder' as it is now, or SWITCH to the Same View minus the avatar in the way. Even better, it should adjust the Camera to MATCH the location and height of the current position of the Avatar, allowing me to 'see' the landscape in correct perspective as the avatar does now.

Please.. if I wanted to play 'Tombraider' and be forced to always have to watch Lara Croft running around and blocking the view in front of me, I would do so. But SL is not that game. I ask that we are given the option to switch from 3rd Person to 1st Person view and back, on the fly.. while leaving the MOUSE-LOOK system in place as it is. Then everyone can have a choice and be happy.

quick fix is go into mouse look and hit ctrl i, it brings you into first person view mode... or atleast it did. this is kind of a buggy view, but you should atleast try it. Another neat trick is the mouse wheel, it is an interactive zoom.

Grrr... we don't all have mouse wheels! Some of us don't even have a mouse!

=/
#!

well then you should have only quoted the part about the mousewheel because clearly the first part has nothing to do with it!!!!

heh

That is all well and good, but to reinterate.. I want the advantage of having a 1st Person view, without the need to even TOUCH a mouse to move about the screen. Using that Mouse-Look method, I am still forced to working with the Mouse which is unnecessary for basic X-Y movement throughout the grid when in 3rd Person mode. Hence my request for this basic operation.

Yes, the best of both worlds... like they have on AC, AO, EQ, DAoC and the others.

some people are confused about your complaint, and i know what it is, so i'll help you out here, even though what i want is slightly different.

i need a first person view without it CHANGING to mouselook mode, so that I can still move around my windows and click on objects without having to change the camera angle or deal with my body being in the way.

i think that wraps it up

all i was saying was that this view exists, it just takes some fanagaling to get to. if you go to mouse view, and then hit ctrl i to bring up your inventory, unless they fixed it, heh, it will bring you to the firstperson view that you are talking about

Yes, but I want to be able to Switch between 3rd and 1st Person view... /without/ having to worry about entering the Inventory and/or MOUSE-VIEW Mode to do so. Just a menu selection or hotkey combo that does this on the fly, and still allows me to use my four ARROW-KEYS for movement up, down, left, right.. as I do now. Just what Dave is describing in the post above yours.

I agree with Kira 100%. In addition to the so-called "mouse view", they should have something along the top menu bar called a "face view" which essentially places the camera where the avatar's eyes are...and everthing else remains the same. This why, you can move around normally and not have your av in the way...also this gives a more realistic feeling when you're chatting with others, etc.

Lindens - would a feature like this be easy to implement? It sure would make life a lot easier for many of us if you could put that in...

J

Moved to a New Thread...

well put your hearts at ease, pre beta we had the first person point of view, with a little button and everything, and since we can still get to said view, even if it takes a couple key strokes(heh kind of like breaking into the network back in my c++ class in highschool), i am willing to bet it will be easily accessible once again.

Personaly i hate that view because you have no rotation about the x or y axis, and all you can do is spin around the z. If i am in 1st person view, i want to be able to look up and down, what can i say...oh and i played halflife and cc for incredibly large increments of time heh. Each to their own though

Yay!! Nada saves the Day.

Now if we can ONLY get them to add this back in.. POST Beta?

why post-beta, don't you want it for now?

I do, I do! Just that it sounded better saying "post" when you said, "pre" hehe.

I would welcome it being placed back in at ANY time. Then I won't have to stare at my Av's butt-crack all day long while playing in the game (It is way high-up as it is, anyway. But I suppose that is another 'graphic rendering' issue.

I don't know how you can get along without a mouse... granted I know a lot of keyboard shortcuts, but many programs aren't designed in mind of people who use the tab key to get from control to control.

The most advanced user interface today is a graphical one with a mouse. Get a mouse. If you can afford a machine that meets the minimum requirements for this beta, if you can afford to pay for broadband access, you can afford a mouse.

What. And throw away our Microsoft Trackball? hahaha.


Next...

I kinda agree with what's being said here, though what I'd like to see is slightly different.

I dig the 3rd person view for flying around and generally being "outside". It does it's job very well for that purpose (though I also think you should be able to choose a permanent 1st person if you wish).

What is bugging me right now though is that as soon as I go inside any kind of normal sized building (my own place for example is quite proportionate, not a huge open space as I often see in-game) the camera gets a little quirky. If I'm close to the wall of a room and I turn my back to it, the camera of course goes shooting outside and gives me a lovely view of that wall from the outside, completely obscuring the view of myself.

Edit: The camera does attempt to correct the view once you start moving around a little bit, but when you initially get close to stuff it kinda freaks out at first.