Suggestion: 3rd Person Science Module

[boxcartenant]

Hey, so I know most modern space games stick to a few tried models for space pov:

1st person cockpit
1st person "camera somewhere on your ship"
3rd person "camera floating behind ship"
3rd person "magic"

The third person options we've commonly tried have crappy explanations, and they mess up immersion. But I love 3rd person, and I miss Freelancer's open-world, 3rd person, fast-paced combat. So..... with the technology that we have in real-life today, we can generate 3d models of our environments using camera arrays. We can do the same thing with radar and rotating dishes. If we didn't care about emitting large quantities of radiation into our environment (and, in space we wouldn't, because it's already full of radiation), then it's easy to imagine a device which floods the surrounding area with radiation and generates a 3d model, interprets it with modern image processing algorithms, and presents a 3rd person image on a screen in the cockpit, with a hud overlay on it.

Here are the mechanics I'm imagining if this were added in-game:

To use this, you have to build and install a science/sensor array module on your ship. The module eats a small amount of power and gives you a 3rd person view of your ship, with a hud, and shows you everything which is in line of sight of your ship. So, for example, if you're hiding behind an asteroid, you could peak around it, but you wouldn't see anything there because it's not in line of sight of your scanning module. Instead, your sensor array might put a 50% transparent purple shape in that area, indicating that the sensor array doesn't know what's there.

Then, if you've upgrade the module enough, you can trigger it to pump a large amount of power into it, intensifying the different types of radiation you're flooding the area with. This mode uses a lot more ship power, and slowly eats into the non-line-of-sight area behind the asteroid. So, in an expanding sphere around the ship you become able to see everything in 3rd person mode. Naturally, when you turn it off, you lose view of the non-line-of-sight areas.

Anyway, what do you guys think? I think it would be really cool, and it would be a good way to implement 3rd person without sacrificing immersion.

--Boxcar

 

[Sachys]

But... you can already scroll out and fight or walk about in 3rd person.

What am I missing here? - Is it more coffee?

 

[MChain]

shift+mousewheel for 3rd person. And no purple transparent cones please, the game has graphics issues as of now, no need to put more load on it.

 

[boxcartenant]

Sorry it took me a while to respond. I had to experiment a little with your suggestions.

Clarifying question... maybe I'm missing something... I understand you can scroll directly backwards to fly your ship from behind, with the ship locked forward-facing in the center of the screen. And I found a means to look around the ship without crosshairs, and another way to look around without being able to turn the ship. Is that what you mean?

If so...

1. It's a far cry from the example I cited, (Freelancer).
2. It's magic. It doesn't solve the immersion problem.
3. It's not that practical to fly and fight in this mode.

no purple transparent cones please, the game has graphics issues as of now, no need to put more load on it.

So, the assumption I'm operating on is that when new graphical features are implemented, they will be implemented well or not at all. And in my experience programming 3d environments, those kinds of frustums exist all around you in-game anyway, you just don't typically render them.

But really, it was just an idea to resolve one of the common objections I've seen in online arguments against useful 3rd person in space sims (there are many many threads about this in the star citizen forums), which is that it's not realistic to be able to peak at the other side of asteroids when you're hiding behind them. It's not a necessary part of this idea. You could leave that out and say that you can always see everything in 3rd person, because radiation goes through stuff anyway... but I figured it makes for some interesting dynamics which could be expanded later to add depth to the game's material properties and stuff.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I like your idea from a realism perspective, but a lot of people would just want to have basic 3rd person. The current 3rd person with scrolling the mouse wheel could do with improvement. Such as being able to preposition it for convenience.

If you want realism, you can use the floating camera Saber created for build mode. This would look like the probes that constantly orbited the SeaQuest. You could use the excuse that it is an external probe, introducing an new entity use with onboard AI.

 

[Sachys]

SeaQuest.

offtopic, but now theres a blast from the past. Might have to see just how cheap it is locally on DVD now.

 

[NeonSturm]

If you have enough screen space and graphic power, it is not a problem to fly with 3rd and 1st ... only code/performance-wise it is.