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I've always wondered that why in most of FPS games, You can rotate camera view very quickly, (almost zap to look in any direction, along with your handheld item's bearings). Though there are plenty of camera and character movements in games which defy inertia of motion. But this one stands out to be most common. So my questions:

  1. Is there a specific reason for this ?

  2. How will be the overall gaming experience affected, if first person camera is constrained to move realistically, using real data collected from human head and eye movements ?

For example in a FPS match, if all players have some constraint like, how fast they can turn and look at something, that heavier equipment will take more time to bring to bear, that they can't immediately stop from a sprint etc. Will it ruin the experience ?

This question might be in Game-dev SE but I'd prefer gamers opinion on this.

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There are many reasons. Ease of coding being just one :) – ChrisF Oct 9 '12 at 8:50
When you see a typical AAA video game budget, I don't think that the ease of coding is the center of the problem... – Anto Oct 9 '12 at 9:26
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The absolute main reason games break 'realism': to make the game more fun to play. That's it. The end. – StrixVaria Oct 9 '12 at 14:53
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IMO a cleaned up version of this could be asked on Game Dev, at least for question 1. Question 2 would require some specific research I'm not sure exists. By clean up I mean asking about the reason to/not do this, not just asking for opinions as to whether this is "good". – Ben Brocka Oct 9 '12 at 14:59
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@wingman Take a look at the close reason - this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. We don't do discussion here. We're not a forum. – fbueckert Oct 9 '12 at 15:39
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closed as not constructive by StrixVaria, SaintWacko, fbueckert, Wipqozn, Ben Brocka Oct 9 '12 at 14:57

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

2 Answers

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1/ Probably for the same reasons that you almost never see your own legs or hear your own breath or heartbeat in FPS (counter-example: Mirror's Edge, for instance, where body awareness took a big part): camera inertia can be a strong frontier between the player and the hero he embodies in the video game. Your character becomes less reactive to the orders you give him. There are some serious debates among game designers and gamers communities about how body awareness is actually not always an immersive game design for first person shooters. NoFrag had an excellent article about it (in French); the link seems dead, but you can read it from Google's cache.

Also, while Mirror's Edge body awereness is excellent, it's not always a success.

Finally, in a more "medical" point of view, I wouldn't be surprised that view inertia could sometimes cause nausea when it's too strong.

2/ The first and most obvious impact to me is that you'll get a pretty angry FPS pro-gaming community. Fps pro-gamers like "bare" video games, with the lowest details level as possible. Actually, the first thing most of the pro-gamers do on a FPS is setting off everything that could slow down the game or the gameplay: texture details, bloom, motion blur, dynamic lights, vision inertia, ... The technical performances must be at their top, but also the gameplay has to be centered on pure skill, without any flourish immersive stuff.

On a final note, since you asked about gamers opinions, I'd say that I'm pretty fond of body awareness. I've recently been playing Hawken where "body" (well ok, it's not a human body, but still) awareness and view inertia take a big part, and I really enjoy it.

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Pro-gamers do that for a reason, the main intention is to get edge on opponents (or perhaps zen mind state). Some would go as far as turn off shaders like fog etc just to boost visual range, some find ways for less recoil etc, hence blurring the notion of fair play. for them, dev's can put motion settings in game. More over, since these rules apply to all players, Inertia can be actually exploited in clever ways. I had an opposite view of the medical grounds you stated, but having no access to proper sources I can't really say anything concrete about that.Thanks for you answer. – User117 Oct 9 '12 at 9:43
Exactly. And I totally agree with you about how inertia (or any other innovating gameplay mechanics) could be exploited in clever ways, but I think that typical pro-gamers simply don't want that kind of new mechanics or complexity in their games. But this is a different subject. – Anto Oct 9 '12 at 9:53
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I think the problem is that inertia in looking around would lead to nausea in many players. If you don't have a force feedback mouse, you would move the mouse always at the same speed, but the camera moves at different speeds. I'm pretty sure this will mess up your brain.

Many games do modify the speed at which the viewpoint can move/turn, for example, if you've been flashbanged or similar, but that only changes the sensitivity of the mouse input and the speed at which you turn will still be a linear transformation of the speed at which the mouse is moved.

If anyone agree with me on this and knows a reliable source for my claim, I'd be happy to know about it ;)

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What about console exclusives? =] – GnomeSlice Oct 9 '12 at 15:05
A couple more examples of changing settings to affect gameplay - In COD MW3 you can disable the blurring of the screen when you aim down sights (in PC at least). This way you can see enemies clearer around you, but this might prove a distraction and be more of a hindrance - its up to personal preference. You can also enable colour-blind mode so that enemy names pop up in bright orange instead of red (which could be obscured by red smoke or be hidden against a red background). – Robotnik Oct 10 '12 at 3:59

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