Movement in FPS?

[TripleDES]

Okay, here's a good one: Why does movement in FPS not involve inertia?

I came to think of it reading yet again about complaints regarding people that strafe like spazzes. In games, any movement and stopping of such is pretty instant. In real-life, I can't just change direction instantly, nor do I get to an instant halt. Sure as hell would reduce epileptic movements and maybe make some multiplayer games more enjoyable.

[Trippy]

No it wouldn't, and the movement in games that try to model it fucking suck. It feels like you are driving a hovercar around rather than moving a person. The main problem is you don't get tactile feedback regarding your acceleration, momentum, traction, and other movement parameters so you always feel like your movement is lagging behind your movement control inputs. That fucking sucks.

[Malakili]

No it wouldn't, and the movement in games that try to model it fucking suck. It feels like you are driving a hovercar around rather than moving a person. The main problem is you don't get tactile feedback regarding your acceleration, momentum, traction, and other movement parameters so you always feel like your movement is lagging behind your movement control inputs. That fucking sucks.

Trippy has nailed it. 

I'd also like to note that almost any game that has a delay between when you push a button, and when the thing happens that is associated with that button gets absolutely slammed for feeling like it has "unresponsive" or "sluggish" controls.  It might be realistic, but it just doesn't feel right in terms of a game.

[pxib]

Interestingly, procedural animation actually does allow this to work in 3rd person games because players can watch inertia affect their characters, and get visual feedback the instant they try to change direction. Most don't bother... why buck tradition? Then they have to create elaborate and occasionally bizzare animation sequences to allow today's more realistic characters to unrealistically change direction.

[Trippy]

Visual feedback is not enough though it helps a little. it still feels like you are controlling a vehicle. E.g. I hated that fucking acceleration crap in ME2. In combat mode it felt I was trying to drive a car around.

[Samwise]

In real life, you can compensate for inertia in ways that would be difficult to model in a game.  For example, grabbing on to something, digging your heels into the ground, shifting your stance around before you actually start moving, that sort of thing.

[pxib]

In real life, you can compensate for inertia in ways that would be difficult to model in a game.  For example, grabbing on to something, digging your heels into the ground, shifting your stance around before you actually start moving, that sort of thing.

Indeed... the game I was actually thinking of in my last post is nothing like an FPS: Fight Night 2004. It's boxing without an abstract health or stamina display. Everything is done with animation. An injured boxer looks and acts injured in ways specific to his injury. A tired boxer looks and acts tired, and acts progressively less responsively. The animations for his actions start right when you activate them, but they get longer and slower. Throwing a punch is hard... for both the boxer and the player.

I didn't like the particulars of the control scheme, they were too fiddly and specific for me, but the immersion was phenomenal because the characters actually do all of the things Samwise mentions.

[Nebu]

Keep movement the same and have movement cause a profoundly negative impact on aim, damage, and accuracy.  Problem solved.  I'm fine with letting the kiddies strafe and jump like rabbits as long as they can't hit anything. 

Alternatively, you could have jumping, running, shooting, and other actions drain endurance.  No endurance = no shooting or movement. 

[Malakili]

Keep movement the same and have movement cause a profoundly negative impact on aim, damage, and accuracy.  Problem solved.  I'm fine with letting the kiddies strafe and jump like rabbits as long as they can't hit anything. 

Alternatively, you could have jumping, running, shooting, and other actions drain endurance.  No endurance = no shooting or movement. 

I'm all for that in a game that is supposed to be realistic, but frankly its just not always needed.  A game like TF2 or Quake 3 is fine as is. 

[LK]

Mario 64 comes to mind as one of the first, best examples of good physics on movement in a third-person setting.

[Sheepherder]

Most Valve games seem to have a very small amount of acceleration / deceleration in player movement.