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Does this bother anyone else? (Sight lines in videogames)

Do short sight lines in games bother you?

  • Yes. Everything happening 33.5m away from the player is annoying.

    Votes: 8 33.3%
  • No, I don't even notice it. Not bothered by it at all.

    Votes: 16 66.7%

  • Total voters
    24

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Two trailers that bugged the hell out of me roughly 4.27 seconds into watching the gameplay...





It feels like 99.9% of modern games (and old games) suffer from everything happening between 0 and 80m in front of the player. The vast majority of PvE engagements happen 30m in front of the player. All the enemies can run up to you in 4 seconds. It's all shotgun and AR range for literally everything.

Does this bother anyone else? Shouldn't we be getting more 500m+ distance engagements in games by now?


(Better representation of a more realistic, interesting virtual world)
KRpYBj.gif
 

March Climber

Gold Member
How could a PvE engagement ever happen far away from a player?
I think he wants it to work like a Battle Royale where you can get sniped from a long distance away and never know who did it.

The problem is that BR's have a level of randomness to them, which helps alleviate the annoyance. In PvE you'll simply restart and spend some lives figuring out where the bullet even came from, which leads to more frustration.
 

sono

Member
Can you name a game that illustrates your point in that it shows how it should be done
 
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Kamina

Golden Boy
One reason why i like to play sniper.
Playing NCR Desert Ranger in FO New Vegas and FO4 (modded) with an Anti Materiel Rifle is glorious.
 

Aion002

Member
It's all about what most people like and close combat is way more popular than long range combat.

In first person shooters I tend to play with shotguns and smgs... So no. It doesn't bother me.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Can you name a game that illustrates your point in that it shows how it should be done
Death Stranding and Ghost Recon play with 300+meter distances a bit...though not to my satisfaction.

The Arma games, DayZ and PUBG do it on the multiplayer side.

Then there are games like Horizon Forbidden West and Zero Dawn that offer massive open worlds but everything is designed in a way where your sight lines never exceed 140m for some God forsaken reason.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Thats why they nerve snipers in mp games
No, the snipers are just slightly more effective ARs. Think Widowmaker from Overwatch. They design every level to give her perches where she's most effective but the mid range characters like Soldier 76 are nearly as effective as here in those perches.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I think he wants it to work like a Battle Royale where you can get sniped from a long distance away and never know who did it.
That's part of the draw, but really it's about creating more compelling virtual worlds.

When we travel in cities or rural areas IRL, we rarely find ourselves far away from 1,000+m sight lines. Videogame maps seem designed specifically to rid themselves of anything longer than 180m. Once you see it, you can't help but notice it all the time. It's Truman Show esque.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
I can think of 2 reasons why this isn't more common in PVE.

1) Rendering stuff that far away is taxing. Sure you can lower the LOD with distance but that isn't the best if you want a clear view of what's that far away. Animations specially can look super choppy.

2) Getting sniped from 2km away ain't fun at all. Stopped playing PUBG because of that.

Some PVE games have long distance stuff. Earth Defense Force 5, for example.

Tribes-chads GET IN HERE
Man I miss playing Ascend. Wonder if the community is still alive.
 

Griffon

Member
Shooting at 2 pixels-wide smears on your screen isn't that fun.

CQC offers a lot more gameplay opportunities.
 
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Hrk69

Gold Member
Then there are games like Horizon Forbidden West and Zero Dawn that offer massive open worlds but everything is designed in a way where your sight lines never exceed 140m for some God forsaken reason.
Try shooting off that specific part you need at long distance

Plus the robots aren't going to stand idle while you try and snipe them. Of course they are going to attack you or run away.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Try shooting off that specific part you need at long distance

Plus the robots aren't going to stand idle while you try and snipe them. Of course they are going to attack you or run away.

That's not the point. Think of it this way...

When you go out hunting and see a deer at 300 yards, you have to ask yourself if it's worth taking the shot or if you should relocate & how to relocate.

In videogames that suffer from Truman Show sight lines, every time you see an NPC it's like the game doesn't want you thinking too deeply about things. The NPC is there so you can probably kill them with half of your weapons.
 
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March Climber

Gold Member
That's part of the draw, but really it's about creating more compelling virtual worlds.

When we travel in cities or rural areas IRL, we rarely find ourselves far away from 1,000+m sight lines. Videogame maps seem designed specifically to rid themselves of anything longer than 180m. Once you see it, you can't help but notice it all the time. It's Truman Show esque.
Do you feel that this is probably due to hardware and engine limitations? It sounds like that level of sight line would take an insane amount of distanced fidelity.

Assuming you're wanting something better than this for example?

sit-ups-peter-parker.gif
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Do you feel that this is probably due to hardware and engine limitations? It sounds like that level of sight line would take an insane amount of distanced fidelity.

Assuming you're wanting something better than this for example?

sit-ups-peter-parker.gif
I think it's more just harder to pull off from a design point of view. We saw games like Arma, Operation Flashpoint, and DayZ 15 years ago.

If you want to make interesting engagements at 500m - 1,000m away, you need to give the player more interesting strategic or logistical choices. Why do that when you can just create a thinly veiled shooting gallery game and, judging by this poll, no one seems to mind.

The Spiderman GIF you posted strikes me more as a skybox (non interactable) than what I'm talking about. I know the player can see a bridge way off in the distance and get to it real quick but I don't think enemies really grasp anything at real distances in that game.
 

Boralf

Member
But all that light in the gif, it's literally coming from the sun which is like a lot of kilometers away.
 
That's not the point. Think of it this way...

When you go out hunting and see a deer at 300 yards, you have to ask yourself if it's worth taking the shot or if you should relocate & how to relocate.
I wasn't sure of what you were saying in your thread, now I do.
In videogames that suffer from Truman Show sight lines, every time you see an NPC it's like the game doesn't want you thinking too deeply about things. The NPC is there so you can probably kill them with half of your weapons.
I disagree with  that
I think there is thinking that goes into the games you mentioned, it just that it requires quicker thinking, the one you want more of, requires more patient thinking.

Is like the difference between Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 6.
Believe it or not, ammo in RE 6 is actually not that plentiful.

That game requires the same amount of precision from you, that RE 1 does. The difference is that the encounters in 6 are more constant, and intense. And in RE 1, they tend to be spaced out, but intense when they happen.

They both ask for you to think and to be precise, just in different ways.

I don't know if it makes sense, but I understand what you want more of, and I want more of that too.
 

Wildebeest

Member
You think that is the annoying thing about sight lines? In most first person games the camera is not at eye level but at chest or neck level. This is because the line of sight of a gun is more important than the line of sight of a human.
 
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Gp1

Member
I'm a huge huge Arma fan since the first OPF.

But one of the most boring things in single player Arma is navigate through the map for hours, prone on the grass, and be spotted/headshoted by a fucking half-pixel blob from 1 km distance, that you don't know if it is an enemy AI or the LOD glitching.

Edit. And half pixel blob when you are aim down sight with a good scope.
 
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