Real-Time Cameras in Unreal Editor 4 - Part 11

Screenshot from the Metroid Prime trilogy, with camera design and programming by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson

Reference: Mark Haigh-Hutchinson. 2009. "Real-Time Cameras: A Guide for Game Designers and Developers." Elsevier.

So far, my focus has been on third-person cameras. I will share some first person camera wisdom from the reference textbook in this post, and also give third person camera examples to contrast between tho two camera schemes. These examples will demonstrate the following three points as they pertain to both first person and third person:

1. "Do not require the player to manipulate the camera simply to play the game - unless it is a design requirement. For third person presentations, the camera system should be able to choose the most appropriate solution automatically, even in the most complex of situations. It is permissible to allow the player to control the camera when it is absolutely necessary or desirable to do so, but it should certainly not be required. Many games adopt a laissez-faire attitude to camera manipulation, which is unfortunate given its importance. If camera manipulation is allowed (or specified as part of the game design) then care must be taken to ensure the player cannot position the camera outside of the world geometry or into a position occluding the player character. The range of motion and method of manipulation must be carefully matched to the game design and technical requirements. An obvious exception to this rule would be first person games, where camera manipulation is an important part of regular game play. Even in this case, there are times where the camera orientation may be automatically adjusted to aid the player without overriding player control. Usually this is a subtle assistance to the player in clearly defined situations. Motion up or down steep inclines may induce some vertical pitching of the camera to assist in aiming or navigation of the world.
2. Allow camera manipulation when possible or dictated by game design requirements. Certain game play situations will disallow camera manipulation, but certainly denying the player this control can often seem restrictive. Naturally, we should strive to present a view that does not require this manipulation, but there are certainly cases where the design would demand the player to examine their environment in detail. It is also true that it can be difficult to judge player intent and camera manipulation allows a greater sense of control and determinism for the player. There can be nothing more frustrating to a player than being prevented from seeing the world in a manner relevant to their current situation or intended action. The problem, however, is that the camera designer should not abdicate this responsibility as a solution. Additionally, restrictions to camera manipulation after such control has been allowed may be confusing and frustrating to the player unless adequately explained...
3. Limited roll should be allowed in most regular game cameras. Little or no rotation should normally occur around the forward axis of the camera. Again, this is distracting and disorienting during regular game play, but within cinematic sequences, it is certainly permissible. Occasionally roll is used as part of an interpolation sequence to change the player's view of the game world, perhaps as part of a special mode of game play (e.g., climbing a wall and crawling along it). Some games have used this effect to intentionally disorient the player, but it should be used sparingly. Flight simulators and their ilk are an exception to this rule, as they usually present a view of the game world from the point of view of the vehicle. Even so, many people react poorly to extreme roll, so in external vehicle views it may prove wiser to only allow a limited amount of roll to emphasize a vehicle banking, etc. There are cases where roll can be used to a limited degree to emphasize differences in game play or to underscore an emotional state of the player character. Clearly, roll is perfectly allowed during cinematic sequences."

1. Camera manipulation in Alien: Isolation and Bloodborne

Alien: Isolation started production as a third person game, and serves as an example of how camera manipulation and other elements of the first person perspective can improve an experience, in this case by making it more immersive. These links provide developer insight about why the team decided to switch to a first person perspective for this title:

• http://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-17151-Alien--Isolation-Interview---The-Creative-Assembly-Talks-Terror.html
• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/240907/Video_Building_fear_in_Alien_Isolation.php

I provide this example not only to show when camera manipulation can be a good thing in first person games, but also where games commonly do not follow the final piece advice in the first point: "Motion up or down steep inclines may induce some vertical pitching of the camera to assist in aiming or navigation of the world." The Beacon mission in Alien: Isolation where Ripley goes outside of the spaceship involves climbing steep gradients, and aside from the cinematic camera changes all the camera adjustments are manual: https://youtu.be/fZ4lJNzI3CA?t=1h21m41s. Also, there are long staircases with a high gradient inside the spaceship that leave the player either facing at the ceiling or stairs in front of them for extended periods. Naturally, a human would not have to think to do this so one could argue that it ruins the immersion.

Bloodborne is a counterexample to the statement third person games shouldn't force the player to manipulate the camera to play the game. One could argue that this is part of their combat design, which is meant to be punishing if you agree with
this description: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/240839/Bloodborne_You_are_the_experience_points.php

Many people experienced camera control difficulties while fighting the first boss, but players can solve this by taking a different approach. The video below describes one way to avoid these issues. However, if a player approaches combat with the Cleric beast in the wrong way, the camera seems very hard to control and obscuring their view as it clips through the sides of the bridge. It would have been expensive and counter to the game's design to create the perfect camera solution for this level, but many players won't accept responsibility for being bad at camera control even if there is another approach, as demonstrated by the creator of this Bloodborne DLC: The Old Hunters playthrough titled The Camera Strikes Again! https://youtu.be/X1jA6ZK2EoE?t=13m27s. Camera is an area where player expectations make or break their experience of your game. If you are targeting anyone other than From Software's demographic with your game, I suggest following the textbook advice and providing camera solutions for players who get stuck in situations like these during playtesting.

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2. Camera manipulation in Dishonored and Gears of War 2

Dishonored does an excellent job of giving players control during it's cutscenes. Even a little bit of freedom to look around adds a lot to immersion. This approach is similar to Tomb Raider 2013 who uses look-at camera pulls in-game, but still allows wiggle room so the player can adjust framing and thereby feels less constrained. Camera pulls with constrained control instead of no control are quickly becoming the industry standard, however, other games find acceptable alternatives.

The Gears of War series does a lot of narrative development in-game as a welcome complement to its non-interactive cutscenes. In the picture below, a tutorial arrow calls out a feature that separates GoW2 from other third person perspective games. These Points of Interest are context sensitive cameras that can be triggered by player action alone. In many games, a forced camera pull would achieve the same result but here power is given back to the player. They can zoom in to view the explosives in this encounter, or choose not to look if they are focused on other elements of gameplay. With this feature, a prompt, similar to a quick-time event, denotes the player's option to draw their own attention to objects in the scene. If looking in the direction intended by the designer is counter to their current intentions, then they can ignore the prompt.

This opt-in camera adjustment is not used in many other games but it provides the player with an interesting choice: is what I am focusing on right now more important that what the game designer thinks I should be focusing on? It supports the replay value too, by allowing repeat players the opportunity to maintain complete control if they know what to expect and don't need the handholding.

The game's design supports replay value with many features, and the multitude of playthroughs on YouTube reveal the success of that design. The tutorials are so well encapsulated within the gameplay that it is hard to find a playthrough with the training the rookie sequence included, because repeat players mostly choose to skip training instead of "learning" the most basic controls again. Achievements and unlocking modes, e.g Insane difficulty, encourages players to play through the game again as they improve their skills. In general, camera design should support the goals of the overall game design and GoW2 demonstrates this principle in action with its' Points of Interest feature.

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3. Camera roll in Unreal Engine 4 tutorial and Kane & Lynch 2

This tutorial by Franck Fitrzyk shows a new Unreal Engine 4 user how to add pitch and roll changes to the First Person Blueprint Project in less than than 8 minutes. Camera shake adds to player immersion, but developers should be careful about excluding players with sensitivity to motion sickness by going too far with these effects. John Lesky says it best as one of the 50 Camera Mistakes, which is the talk that inspired me to start implementing gameplay cameras.

• This talk is now available for free to the general public at http://gdcvault.com/play/1020460/50-Camera

One cautionary example of going too far with camera effects is Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. The developers achieved their intended effect of creating a camera style that supports the gritty and desperate themes of their subject matter. The result was a game that was as visually difficult to watch for some viewers as it was thematically difficult to watch for others.

Hopefully, this article provides some guidance for those learning to implement first person cameras. Unreal Engine 4 has an industrial-grade first person camera available out of the box, so a rookie developer's problems only begin when they start adding features to support other elements of their game design. I intentionally provided examples of failures and contradictions to the textbook advice because every game is different and general rules do not always apply.

Ultimately, you choose whether to skip training and forge ahead with a radically-different camera system or to accept that this is one of few areas in game design where there are known guidelines; and how well one implements them into different situations is how they show their understanding. As always in games, if you fail and are determined to try again you can always restart from the beginning - just make sure you pay attention when Fenix is training that rookie this time!