Z-Look beyond 180°? How do you think it would feel?

[Seahonk]

Maybe AoT has this already, it's not clear from the screenshot saturday videos. How would you guys feel about an unlocked vertical look?

Usually in FPS, even games with a strong vertical element, you can spin freely left/right with mouselook, but looking down or up there is a "barrier." What if we could freely orient ourselves that direction, too? Like you can look all the way up, and keep looking "up" until you are upside down, looking behind you. Or do a complete front-flip by moving your mouse down.

It wouldn't really add any critical functionality, and it might be a little disorienting at first not having a "home angle" orthogonal to gavity, but I think it would really do a lot to reenforce the feeling of the 3D aspect and freedom of movement.

Maybe if it didn't feel too wonky there could be some extra reason to do it- maybe the back of your Tachikoma is especially vulnerable in some way, so if you can you have an incentive to think about your body's orientation and choose your axes of rotation carefully so that asshole on the bridge there doesn't have a shot at your backside as you turn around.

If there was a benefit to learning to think in this totally free manner it would introduce another element to gradually master, raising the skill ceiling organically. Maybe if it was too disorienting the user could disable it in settings until they're comfortable.

What do you all think?

Edit: Maybe to help ease the adjustment you could hit a button to "realign with movement" and automatically move your look-axis along the shortest straight line so you're looking into the wind.

[Seahonk]

Maybe not the best idea, actually; Justin demonstrates with gifs:

[23:07] <@JustinPierce> re:mouselook -- so what separates oriented mouselook (most games) and 6dof mouselook is gimbal lock
[23:08] <@JustinPierce> notice if you look up in most games and move hte mouse to the side, you rotate
[23:08] <@JustinPierce> it's gimbal locked
[23:08] <@JustinPierce> so if you disabled that, looked up, then moved the mouse to the right, you'd fall over on your side
[23:09] <@JustinPierce> if you keep gimbal lock, you can still do sort of what you described, Seahonk -- you don't necessarily have to stop at the top
[23:10] <@JustinPierce> you could let the player rotate vertically 360
[23:12] <@JustinPierce> when you're upside down, your rotation is reversed, but I could probably check for that and normalize it
[23:12] hmmm
[23:13] <@JustinPierce> but it's a bit awkward to be upside down
[23:13] It's weird how difficult this is to picture. It's not like it's complicated, it's just such a deeply rooted expectation after so many years I suppose.
[23:15] <@JustinPierce> making a gif showing that now
[23:16] I wouldn't mind so much the upside down part as long as left/right didn't change behaviors, but maybe the whole thing is a ton of weirdness-overhead for no real atmosphere-payoff.
[23:16] ooh, kk
[23:17] <@JustinPierce> like, it's sorta cool in some instances but it's also easy to have it be awkward
[23:19] i think it probably helps to differentiate the feeling of being in 0g vs. in normal g
[23:19] <@JustinPierce> http://gfycat.com/KlutzyAppropriateAntarcticfurseal
[23:19] <@JustinPierce> so that's gimbal locked, but without clamping the values (like most games do at bottom/top)
[23:19] Trying to picture some highspeed action in a gravity zone with just totally no gimbal lock, and it feels pretty cool if I'm picturing it right, but it might be pretty disorientating.
[23:20] oh man that looks weird
[23:20] haha, that actually makes me sick to me stomach
[23:21] i can see how that would be cool
[23:22] Hmm, it's not awful, but maybe it's more an impediment to intuitive play than coolness justifies.
[23:22] <@JustinPierce> yeah
[23:23] <@JustinPierce> so here's a demonstrate of mouselook without gimbal lock in zero g (how it is in game) http://gfycat.com/WelltodoBrownAmericanbulldog
[23:23] <@JustinPierce> so if you look up, then right, your local up is now different
[23:23] <@JustinPierce> the up and down changed
[23:24] <@JustinPierce> made one more gif
[23:25] <@JustinPierce> so here's how that'd work in normal gravity http://gfycat.com/RaggedOilyHeron
[23:25] <@JustinPierce> obviously not very practical
[23:25] rofl
[23:25] Damnit, you're right.
[23:25] It's a shame.
[23:26] I suppose it would make zero-g and gravity zones more like each other, too, which would be less cool.

[Zedniac]

It looks pretty reasonable to have no gimbal lock in zero-gravity but not so much in normal gravity. However I did like the idea I saw in the first gif in which you can shoot further than 180 degrees down or up. Maybe a vertical lock (in normal g zones) of 190-230 degrees?