Why this looks realistic, when it really isn't.

[drongo]

Can anybody show me one bodycam video where the camera is located in the eyeballs ?

This isn't a bodycam view, it's an FPS view with some incredibly clever tricks designed to fool our simple brains.

It's a great illusion by using the exaggerated arm movements and it's definitely unique, and I am looking forward to playing this game, but as someone who watches bodycam videos every single day, and has done since they first were a thing this is not an accurate representation of any bodycam view you will ever find in real life.

Now before anyone shoots me down, I will explain a bit more why I say this and what I think is going on here. So let me go into a bit more detail, I will use my experience as someone who has been heavily into sim racing since the late 90s to first talk about realism vs immersion. As a sim racer I know how effective immersion is in replicating a realistic feeling game which is what I think we are seeing with this style of game.

Despite this "Bodycam" view being completely unrealistic it is extremely immersive in a way that "tricks" us into thinking it's incredibly realistic. This immersion vs realism is something that is used a lot in sim racing, things like motion blur, FOV shifts, head bob, camera sway, camera lag etc are all examples of how certain techniques although completely unrealistic, they increase immersion, and in turn fool us into thinking something is more realistic than it actually is.

For example when driving a real race car our heads bob, sometimes a lot, but our eyes essentially stabilise the view. When watching go pro footage from myself racing my head can be bouncing all over the place but at the time I don't notice that, my eyes stabilise everything, but if in a sim racing game we had the view completely stabilised as it is in real life and there was no camera shift when hitting curbs or bumpy sections of the track, when turning, when crashing etc then it would feel a lot less realistic. We need those over exaggerated camera movements to fool us into thinking that the 2D picture in front of us is actually moving, and to give us a false sense of speed. That's just one example but I think it highlights what I mean with this immersion vs realism point I am making.

So back to this game, I believe the over-exaggerated arm and hand movements is the main reason for this immersive effect that creates a false sense of realism. Now to explain what I mean about the camera being in the eyeballs, as you can see in the videos when aiming the weapon the player still brings the weapon up and you use the weapon sights to aim, as you would in any FPS game, however this completely breaks the bodycam style for me, as you should not be aiming with the weapon sights unless the bodycam is located in the players eyeballs. If in this game the player was using a chest mounted bodycam, which is what I believe the Devs are going for, then the weapon would come up above the camera, you would not being aiming with the weapon sights.

I also want to state that I do have a bit of experience in handling weapons, as a military veteran who served in Iraq I can tell you that you don't wave your arms around like that when aiming a weapon, whether it be a pistol or rifle the weapon will always stay relatively centred in your view as it's kind of hard to aim when the weapon is waving all over the place. When we aim we don't just turn our head and arms, we generally turn our body from the torso which means any bodycam would also turn with the weapon, this is what we see in real life bodycam videos. Anyone who has used any sort of a weapon, or even done paintball / airsoft etc would know this.

The movement of the weapon in this game is so far from realistic but it adds an increased sense of movement that traditional FPS games lack, that over exaggerated movement fools us into thinking it's way more realistic looking than it really is. The exaggerated head bob also adds to this, then you have the fish eye effect and bodycam overlay which all come together to gives us a visual representation that is very immersive, so much so that our brains completely overlook the basic flaws in this being an incredibly inaccurate bodycam view.

Now that I have pointed out these things, If you go back and rewatch the videos, and try to picture how it would look without the weapon sway, without the headbob and without the bodycam fish eye effect you will find this FPS view is actually a lot more like what we had in older FPS games like Doom, Quake etc.

The weapon is low, centred and kind of looks like its being pointed forwards from the centre of the hip area, the head tilt and camera sway when moving is very similar to the original Quake in my opinion.

Now I am not trying to say there is anything wrong with this game, I am actually excited to play it. But I do find it interesting that we have seen YouTube videos where Police & Military members for example have spoken out about how this looks like real life, when clearly it doesn't look anything like a real life bodycam video. It's being labelled as an ultra realistic bodycam view when it's actually a completely unrealistic bodycam view.

I am not trying to rag on the Devs, this game looks epic, I just find it interesting the way it's been perceived by most people, when I see it in a completely different way myself.

I honestly think this game has opened a door to using these immersive techniques in a way that we haven't seen before, which will make FPS gaming incredibly interesting over the next few years. For anyone that does any sort of sim racing you would most likely be aware of all the little tricks the games use to fool us, and I think we are now seeing the same principals applied to an FPS game which is great, because the FPS genre has remained relatively unchanged and stale for many years.

Anyway that's my thoughts, I would love to know what you guys think.

[dnrob7]

Couldn't make it past: "I will use my experience as someone who has been heavily into sim racing since the late 90s"

Anyway. Dude had the gopro strapped to his head. Problem solved.

[MightyBalian]

Originally posted by dnrob7:

Couldn't make it past: "I will use my experience as someone who has been heavily into sim racing since the late 90s"

Anyway. Dude had the gopro strapped to his head. Problem solved.

Dude's right though. I also watch way too much bodycam footage. I didn't read the entire thing either but this is clearly a video game.

First off, the animations are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too smooth. From the movements of his arms to the way the door swings open to even the death animations. People don't fall like that when they die and things, in general, just don't move that smoothly in real life.

Also, the graphics don't actually look quite as good as people seem to think they do. Yes, overall, the graphics are great, but, when you look closer, you can see that some textures are noticably lower resolution. The van was the most noticeable to me but some of the rubble is lower res and smaller of the smaller objects lying around are as well.

The faces being blurry is also a big factor. Faces are notoriously hard to get realistic, and so, by blurring the faces, the devs don't have to worry about that.

Bottom line, it's just a game. A fairly good looking one, but just a game.

[drongo]

Originally posted by dnrob7:

Couldn't make it past: "I will use my experience as someone who has been heavily into sim racing since the late 90s"

Anyway. Dude had the gopro strapped to his head. Problem solved.

If you don't want to read the entire thing then your reply really doesn't make any sense, I am also a Veteran, also a game dev, and I also run a motorsport team with multiple cars and drivers, but yeah whatever. Just read the first part about sim racing and make an uneducated response haha.

Not here to argue with anyone, I wanted to share my views and start a discussion.

I'm excited for this game, and if you read the whole post you would see why.

[TJ]

Maybe he has spy glasses on...

[Syncroniam]

Sacrificing core gameplay for realism is stupid. Good thing you aren't a developer.

[TJ]

Originally posted by Syncroniam:

Sacrificing core gameplay for realism is stupid. Good thing you aren't a developer.

game is gonna look wayyy different when actual people are playing it normally. Not like it's a trailer. Someone with high mouse sensitivity will kill all the 'realism' there is, really quickly.

[Iron Mal]

Bro you wrote a book on a fact almost no one else will care about. Who cares, it looks cool to me and it will look fine to most people, im not saying you're wrong Im sure you're right but no one will care dude.

[drongo]

Originally posted by Iron Mal:

Bro you wrote a book on a fact almost no one else will care about. Who cares, it looks cool to me and it will look fine to most people, im not saying you're wrong Im sure you're right but no one will care dude.

Dude this isn't a book, it isn't even a chapter of a short story. But if that's your level of education then I won't judge you.

I would suggest possibly a tutor, or maybe one of those kindles for kids to help you get started.

[Iron Mal]

Originally posted by Azza:

Originally posted by Iron Mal:

Bro you wrote a book on a fact almost no one else will care about. Who cares, it looks cool to me and it will look fine to most people, im not saying you're wrong Im sure you're right but no one will care dude.

Dude this isn't a book, it isn't even a chapter of a short story. But if that's your level of education then I won't judge you.

I would suggest possibly a tutor, or maybe one of those kindles for kids to help you get started.

Oh my god dude you're such an intellectual, you're so amazing, I totally wasnt just making a joke about your pathetic post into the void about some ♥♥♥♥ no one cares about. Wasn't even trying to roast you, as i said im sure youre right just no one cares but if you wanna look dumb I won't stop you.

[drongo]

Originally posted by Iron Mal:

Originally posted by Azza:

Dude this isn't a book, it isn't even a chapter of a short story. But if that's your level of education then I won't judge you.

I would suggest possibly a tutor, or maybe one of those kindles for kids to help you get started.

Oh my god dude you're such an intellectual, you're so amazing, I totally wasnt just making a joke about your pathetic post into the void about some ♥♥♥♥ no one cares about. Wasn't even trying to roast you, as i said im sure youre right just no one cares but if you wanna look dumb I won't stop you.

I honestly had no idea you were making a joke about my pathetic post. You're way to clever for me. Thank you my friend for caring enough about my post to reply multiple times when like you said, nobody cares.

May the world make you smile just as you have made me smile today.

[Soul Nibbler]

tl;dr

[Tactic_Kill88]

it really does not matter what anyone thinks.. news flash, this game is NEVER gonna drop. it's just a tease!

[Rasg0s]

tl;dr throw some image noise, motion blur, and a loose camera: realistic

[diMaggio]

Just imagine you're actually playing an android and that is the video feed of its perspective.
Or imagine you have a cyber-eye and this is the recording.

Or just accept that this is a game and playing from the perspective where your arms are *above* your POV is gonna be a non-starter for most players.

[shiv]

What a dumb thread. It's a game. Gameplay comes first so a realism-based camera placement is completely out of the question... the game does enough to convey the concept of a reality based body cam STYLE recorded footage experience and thats all thats necessary. It's obviously not intended or feasible (hence why even bring it up) to create a real bodycam game because you'd never be able to fully see nd reliably control what's happening most of the time.

You haven't had the 'gotcha' moment you think you have. You haven't figured out something amazing or caught the developers out or had some clever witty realisaton or insight. No one has an issue about this but you.