EdZ wrote:jf031 wrote:But, as you are aware, the Dead Space series is in third person. 3rd person cameras swing around a very large radius (sorry if this is the incorrect term) that wouldn't at all be suited for an HMD-only setup.
The solution here would be to control the camera location using the controls as with regular screen-sitting-on-your-desk gaming, but control camera orientation on top of that using the head tracker. Think of it as using the mouse/right-stick to move an invisible floating camera. On a desktop screen, you look at the image the camera is capturing. With the RIFT, you're a tiny virtual person sitting on top of this camera and looking around.
I agree.
I believe too many people assume controlling the camera in 3rd person view is similar to controlling the camera in 1st person view, when it just isn't.
In 1st person view, the camera is fixed, you control where you point the camera at. Head tracking is very similar to how people are used to control the camera, and you could replace mouse/joystick aiming with head tracking.
In 3rd person view, it's the opposite, the camera always point at the same thing (usually a virtual point above your character's head or shoulder), you control where the camera is located. Head tracking here cannot be used to replace the traditional camera controls : head tracking adds more freedom to camera movement.
In my opinion there is no problem with playing 3rd person games with head tracking, provided you don't do the mistake of using head tracking to emulate the mouse/joystick camera control these games would really benefit from detaching the camera aiming from the game's aiming : I think that with proper support, these games would be just as immersive or more immersive than 1st person games.
In fact even with mouse control I usually find 3rd person games more immersive than first person games due the player usually having more advanced animation and interactions with the world than 1st person camera without a body, (or completely out of screen body in the rare few FPS that provide a body for the player).
Using real games as examples : I found 3rd person games like Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider games more immersive than Mirror's Edge. (even though I really liked Mirror's Edge)