Possible game camera methods and optimisations *spawn

In theory. In reality it's fairly rare that we can get rid of even one wall in a putative six walled room (floor and ceiling included).

 

Granted.

Which I think was the original point of this thread: a comparison of graphical detail with games that don't have such a directed camera system.

And not just the camera system from another talk by the Lead programmer of GOW 1 (Name escapes me). Which is what makes it so brilliant in my opinion. That the designers have control over the streaming system and memory pools etc is what we should be doing as programmers.

 

Maybe that artist driven camera system is the reason why the GOW games have the best camera system available (with minimal problems).

Compare this to the camera in the Ninja Gaiden games...which in my opinion is just a joke and sometimes even downgrades gameplay!!

 

Agreed. It's a problem in Bayonetta too.

I've only had one problem in a GOW game (rare) - it was when I was fighting grunts on a ledge...and every time I moved Kratos near the ledge, the camera would flip round to show him form the front....I move an inch back and the camera would flip back again. Odd...secret was to stay away from the ledge

 

Getting those red chests at the back of the Temple of Fates was not helped by the camera angle either. However since that's an optional puzzle I let it slide . I never struggled with the camera during combat.

 

Personally I would refer to any camera I can not control as "fixed" - just as a term.

But in all honesty, I don't think a user should not be given the choice to control the camera. A game is a game, and if the way camera works gets in the way of a gameplay - it needs to be changed.

On more instances than I care to count I found myself not being able to see what Kratos is doing, or what's going on on the screen, because there is some obstruction between the camera and the place I need to see. The same - about the direction in which I'm trying to move: I simply don't see where I'm going. On too many occasions I had Kratos simply fall off a cliff some where, because I couldn't see it. Plus, with so many details, even if the edge is on screen - it might be difficult to notice, because what you're seeing on the screen is essentially a 2D representation of the scene without any cues as to its depth.

So pardon me for saying this, but I must say it: non-user controllable cameras must die.

 

I saw the camera section in the making of vid included with GOWIII. In the vid, I thought it was mentioned that maybe there would be areas that the user would be able to control the camera.

Having played through it twice (on my 3rd playthrough), I don't recall any area that I could control the camera. Was this option/feature pulled? The camera is very good most of the time, but like the user above, I wish I could control the camera at times.

 

Few areas have hot points where you can go & press R1 to get a view, you can pan the camera left,right,up or down & even zoom.

 

Really???? I thought I hit all the R1 spots. I didn't notice one that I could pan...I may have missed them.

I will check again at all the R1 points on this playthrough. Watching the making of vid, I can kind of understand the approach to the scripted camera.

It is too bad, that they couldn't figure out a way to let you have some sense of camera control while keeping the cinematic feel. I know I owe quite a few deaths to not knowing that there was this invisible death pit. Ironic when you consider that Kratos jumps from Olympus to the Labyrinth with no problems.

 

Oh what a coincidence. I was also thinking about would it be possible to implement a hybrid camera system for the next Gow? Say the camera is player controlled but for certain scenes it would pan out to reveal puzzle hints or showcasing epic environments and scripted fight sequence? For as excellent as the camera is in Gow series, a hybrid system like that would be flawless to me.

 

If this means seeing the world with less fidelity or just seeing all the non-interesting parts in the world I cannot disagree more.
After a certain very long fight with a large and gorgeously crafted creature seeing almost nothing more than the creatures hind, I tend to be slightly disapointed with user controller cameras in terms of showing the art in a best light.

 

I'm late to this thread by a long shot but I just wanted to say that I'm pretty bummed Phat didn't come back to the conversation after the guy who programmed the camera showed up.