Scale was RE: AC2 was RE: [MUD-Dev] Total Annilation ofDowntime

[John Buehler]

eric leaf writes:
> From: "Amanda Walker" <amanda at alfar.com>
>> On 12/17/02 4:33 PM, Brian Hook <brianhook at pyrogon.com> wrote:

>>> For a hoot, look at the size of a doorway in a typical FPS.
>>> It's about the size of a garage door in real life.  If you were
>>> to put in a real sized doorway (30-36" wide), the amount of
>>> precision to navigate through there at full speed (30mph) is
>>> tough to acquire.  It looks like a slot.  If the door was sized
>>> normally in height, you'd constantly feel that you were about to
>>> slam your head into top of it.

>> Well, some of that is a result of the wide-angle field of view
>> (which also increases the sense of speed, I realize).  In FPSs I
>> often narrow down my fov a bit to make things more "realistic".
>> It also makes it easier to aim, which is pleasant.

> What do you mean by "narrow down your fov to make it more
> realistic"? I do the exact opposite, for reasons of making it more
> realistic. The "real" field of view of a human is much greater
> than the 90 degrees that are commonly the default view in most FPS
> games. I'd like to set up maybe 3 monitors someday (as soon as
> games and the OS support it) where I can have a normal full view
> but avoid the tearing effect that exists when I increase my fov to
> 130 or so. Either that of get some VR goggles...

I thought that doing multiple monitors would be a good thing too,
but it works out that it isn't.  In order for this to work well,
you'd need a continuous set of monitors through the 180 degree range
of human vision.  Having one in front, one on the left and one on
the right doesn't work well.  Discontinuities cause the eye to
refocus and the brain to have to 'refigure out' what's actually
going on.  It's very tiring to do when there are noticeable gaps
between the displays.  I have no idea at what size gaps become
noticeable, but they're smaller than what we were able to accomplish
with three 19" monitors set up left, front and right of the player.
Even putting the three monitors adjacent to each other wasn't very
satisfying.  It's easier to show than it is to describe.

VR goggles are far more fun to fool with.  It is an absolute kick in
the pants to be able to 'look around' in a virtual world.

By the way, the reason that going to a smaller field of view works
so well is that the field of view occupied by the monitor for the
player is small.  If you match that field of view with the game
display field of view, everything works very intuitively, as if the
player were truly looking into the game world through a 19" window.
If the player's nose was only about 10" from the screen, you could
display a full 90 degree field of view and it would seem natural.
Things that are 90 degrees to the right of the game character would
be at 90 degrees to the right of the player's field of view.

If the player has a 60" high definition plasma panel in front of
them at the usual 24" or so distance, you would want to widen the
game field of view considerably.  For the same reason that narrowing
it makes things seem more realistic when the monitor occupies a
smaller field of view for the player.

JB


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