How do I look left and right without turning my whole body?

[bobd91]

Hi,

 

new player here.  I loaded in for the first time yesterday and whilst running to the trader I heard a noise to one side.  I wanted to look around to to see what it was but couldn't find out how to do so.  I can look up and down but if I try to look left or right I turn my whole body, it seems that I do not have a neck that can rotate.

 

I have looked through the key bindings and searched for info to no avail.  I found someone else who had the same question but they didn't get an answer.

 

Can I look left and right without turning, if so, how?

 

Thanks,

Bob

 

 

[theFlu]

Welcome to the forum!

 

Nope, we have no necks; it's quite common in FPS style games. The camera moves your view and your aim at the same time. Might take some getting used to, especially if you've played some "proper 3rd person" games before, but you'll get the hang of it quickly.

[bobd91]

Thank you.  

 

I guess if everyone else manages then I will just have to get used to it.

 

 

[Roland]

Once you are traveling with a vehicle you can hold down the right mouse button and turn to look behind you while still driving forward.  I’ve never thought to try doing that while running…

[theFlu]

17 minutes ago, Roland said:

I’ve never thought to try doing that while running…

I do have to assume that you have done a power attack while running at some point, and just forgot

[Crater Creator]

I’m trying to understand how this perceived problem manifests. You didn’t mention being on a vehicle. Are you using the debug command to see yourself in third person? If not, then all you can see are your hands. It’s not clear, then, how you would even tell whether you’re turning your whole body or not.

[theFlu]

12 minutes ago, Crater Creator said:

If not, then all you can see are your hands.

Heh, now I want to see how you are turning your head tbh.. At least for me, if I put hands up in front of my chest to emulate what we see in game and then turn my head left to my limit, my hands still remain in front of my body, and thus disappear from my field of view. If I try to keep them in view, my opposite shoulder gets a good stretch ..

 

For the OP, I'm assuming it's a perception issue learned from console games, where the character rotates separate from the camera - the character has a turn rate limit (while the camera may not) and the "action direction" is based on the character direction etc etc. Couple examples I've tried and hilariously failed at: early Spyros, Witcher 2; has a whole different feel to it.

[Roland]

7 hours ago, theFlu said:

I do have to assume that you have done a power attack while running at some point, and just forgot

 

I have done so but only when charging straight at an enemy in front of me and then I pressed the right mouse button and released. I did not hold it down while turning left or right as I've done on a bike.

[theFlu]

23 minutes ago, Roland said:

I did not hold it down while turning left or right as I've done on a bike.

I guess it's technically possible, but having your character keep power swinging at the "straight" direction while free-turning your camera seems like a really weird design for me. Then again, that's how those games I mentioned feel like to me anyway

[beerfly]

1 hour ago, theFlu said:

I guess it's technically possible, but having your character keep power swinging at the "straight" direction while free-turning your camera seems like a really weird design for me. Then again, that's how those games I mentioned feel like to me anyway

If we are in a situation with multiple zeds it wouldn`t be beautiful as not only an experience for the eye, but our blood would be everywhere also. Well said, sir. 

[Crater Creator]

15 hours ago, theFlu said:

Heh, now I want to see how you are turning your head tbh..

 

15 hours ago, theFlu said:

For the OP, I'm assuming it's a perception issue learned from console games, where the character rotates separate from the camera - the character has a turn rate limit (while the camera may not) and the "action direction" is based on the character direction etc etc. Couple examples I've tried and hilariously failed at: early Spyros, Witcher 2; has a whole different feel to it.

That seems less like a console game thing and more like a third person game thing. Some first person games may have the hands lag behind a little to the left or right when the ‘head’ turns, to impart a sense of inertia, or feel more loose/natural. But so long as the crosshairs are locked to the center of the screen, and pressing M1 is instantly responsive, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have the hands fall off screen. Plus you temporarily lose the benefits of seeing the hands in the first place, e.g. identifying as the player character instead of as a disembodied camera, and remembering what you have equipped.

If we want to talk about earlier games, the idea of looking left or right without turning the whole body in a first person game immediately brought to mind Marathon. It was rare in that you could ‘glance’ left or right, turning the upper body 90° while the lower body didn’t rotate. It was as if your waist was on a swivel, so the hands stayed in lockstep in first and third person. But that was 1994, before mouselook, when devs were still figuring out this whole moving in 3D in first person thing.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Crater Creator
fixing image (see edit history)

[theFlu]

That's the spirit, all natural-like ..

 

1 hour ago, Crater Creator said:

That seems less like a console game thing and more like a third person game thing.

 

Yeh, for me they are interchangeable, I used "proper 3rd person" as a descriptor earlier, meaning essentially the same thing. A whole story where I see the design for controllers being solely driven by the consoles and then game development following the decisions from there - "we have two thumb sticks, one controls the aim, but we gotta do something with the other as well ... - I know, free camera!" Whenever a game feels designed for two thumb-sticks == "console game" in my head ..

 

1 hour ago, Crater Creator said:

But so long as the crosshairs are locked to the center of the screen, and pressing M1 is instantly responsive, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have the hands fall off screen.

Yeah, no, I'm not advocating for adding such things in any FPS, I'm not bothered about it at all. Just offering the OP some ideas where his expectations might stem from. I wouldn't cry foul from adding smooth visuals to both 1st and 3rd person modes (as long as the controls are still not turn rate limited). That would probably require a whole new system to have the characters gun, hands and head smoothly follow the aim while the body would do some delayed sidestepping & shuffling animations to "catch up realistically". Not really worth the dev time in my opinion, though.

 

I hadn't even heard of Marathon before, had to google it... sounds curious, but yeh, I can see the usefulness for a side look when your turn rate is limited due to being a keyboard implementation, but heh, "keyboard turner" is an insult nowadays.

[RyanX]

It's very common in first person games in 2024 (and for quite a while before) to be able to look in a different direction than you are running.  Often accomplished by holding the alt key for example.  But not in 7D2D.  That's a bit advanced for this crew.

[Riamus]

I really see no reason to have free look available in this game.  This isn't a shooter game where you need to have your head on a swivel to find enemies.

Edited January 13 by Riamus (see edit history)

[Arez]

On 12/26/2023 at 2:20 PM, Crater Creator said:

It’s not clear, then, how you would even tell whether you’re turning your whole body or not.

In first person mode in PUBG you can free look while running. I've seen it done on streams but I've never played PUBG, so don't quote me on this. I imagine that it would snap back to looking forward when you let go of whatever modifier button is needed. I'm not sure about the whole body turning or if anything appears to turn when doing it. They probably just turn their heads.

Edited January 13 by Arez (see edit history)