Tomb Raider (2013) Camera Analysis 01

Notice that efforts have been made to make the reticule crossover on the avatar's head less noticeable

This game has some serious camera going on. It will likely take me many articles to describe the camera for it. The first article will just be a quick comparison with some of the features I called out in Hitman: Absolution.  Furthermore, I am almost finished my catalogue of cameras to wrap up the Hitman camera analysis series so I do not want to make a large digression yet.

I may have been quick to judge Hitman: Absolution in a previous post for putting a reticule on the back of its' avatar's head. Even Tomb Raider was unable to avoid this completely, although their treatment is much more elegant, and the reticule seems to quickly slip over Lara's head unless one is really focusing on it.

Tomb Raider has much more sophisticated crossover aiming. If the player aims far away in the background, it might seem as though the reticule has simply moved horizontally. However, when aiming an object in the foreground it is more obvious that the camera is actually doing its' best to maintain the player's intended target throughout the crossover. My guess is a raycast is emitted from the player avatar in the direction specified by the reticule and the target hit by that that raycast is maintained during the crossover using vector math. The only time this seems to fail is when objects in the foreground or midground move across the reticule, which is maintaining position relative to a target in the background. If the blocking object remains between the reticule and the previous target, the point on the blocking object is considered the new target if the player activates a subsequently crossover (shoulder swap).

Crouching is completely contextual for Tomb Raider's single player campaign, and ranged weapons can only be used while aiming. These design decisions limit the complexity of all the shared constraints compared to the gameplay cameras found in Hitman: Absolution. The relative budget spent on camera for a game like Tomb Raider is much higher though, because it has platforming elements and cinematic gameplay sequences that demand unique cameras.

This non-traditional ledge camera allows players to focus on moving forward, instead of forcing a 180, and adds emotional weight

One difference that Remi Lacoste calls out in his talk Creating an Emotionally Engaged Camera for Tomb Raider is that their gameplay camera maintains its orientation when Lara drops from standing to a ledge grab on the same platform as where she had been standing.  Their camera design plays with conventions to optimize the gameplay experience here, and in other areas to deliver a new standard for cameras in adventure and platforming games. 

This game does a lot to improve on third person cameras, but it is not without its faults. I am interesting in identifying these faults as well as determining how to achieve similar results when designing and implementing a camera system.

For the remainder of my analysis of this game, I will take a closer view of each mission to create a Camera Beat Chart as well as pointing out my newly discovered shots, cameras, and intricacies of the camera implementation. When this series is done, I hope to move on to Rise of the Tomb Raider to see what advancements Crystal Dynamics has made in the last 3 years.

... but sometimes the ledge cam hides the player avatar

and other moments force the player to aim where they cannot see