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incel

Protagonist Portrait Point ?

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I was thinking about Doomguy's portrait lately. Besides little glimpses into his humanity, it obviously has it's function – telling you some useful stuff (like where you're being fired from), but did they really need to do it in such an elaborate way? Again, if we go back to W3D, there we have similiar portrait, but less "telling". And let's go even deeper, to the very Catacombs! Here we have portrait too.

 

Doom

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Wolfenstein 3D

DOS_01.gif

 

Catacomb 3D

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In Quake 1 portrait became but a part of UI, akin to icon and not really a face.

Quake_gameplay.png

 

In Quake 2 portrait was absent (isn't it the reason Q2 protagonist is the most forgetable?), but in Q3, the game without protagonist, it returned!

I guess, it's there to remind you, which skin you picked xD.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall any other "big" FPS that has a portrait of protagonist sticked to the screen. It's like an id trademark. Strange, isn't it? These status bar faces actually remind me of RPG games.

 

But what makes Doom portrait special is how expressive it is – Doomguy has the most character of all. He's often called an avatar for the player, an empty shell, and yet there's this in-your-face evidence of the contrary. So I must say it's not like Doomguy = Player, it's more like player plays as Doomguy. the same way Mario isn't a player, but the player plays as Mario. And this was a deliberate change, hence originally there was no portrait or grey-status-bar – it was an explicit POV game with the helmet UI over.

 

Yet again, I want to repeat how bizarre it is to see a face in FPS UI.

Edited by incel

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It's certainly a nice touch. It adds a sense of player identity, since there's no other way to see yourself. Especially in games where you can choose your character, since it reinforces that choice. Of all the games, only Quake III has both. That's one of the things I liked about it.

 

In Quake 1, I don't think the face turns to look at where you're being attacked from, but does react to pain and gets gradually more bloody as you lose health. It's also smaller than the Doom portrait. In Quake III, the face does turn to look (assuming you have 3D icons enabled), but it's just your skin's head model used by itself, so you can be down to 1 health and not have a hair out of place.

 

Only other game I know of offhand that shows your face in first-person is Metroid Prime, where bright lights (or taking damage?) can illuminate your face, which you can see reflected on the inside of your visor for a moment.

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6 hours ago, incel said:

But what makes Doom portrait special is how expressive it is – Doomguy has the most character of all. He's often called an avatar for the player, an empty shell, and yet there's this in-your-face evidence of the contrary. So I must say it's not like Doomguy = Player, it's more like player plays as Doomguy

This!

The status bar face is what gives doomguy an identity of it's own, and it's one of the most striking features of classic doom. The way how it glances to the sides, probing with caution, how the facial expression and glancing gradually changes as the player takes damage, getting more and more battered, bleeding even more profusely, his hair getting messed up, still glancing but with a progressively pained and tired expression. It also looks like a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Cloud.

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13 hours ago, Rainne said:

Only other game I know of offhand that shows your face in first-person is Metroid Prime, where bright lights (or taking damage?) can illuminate your face, which you can see reflected on the inside of your visor for a moment.

 

I'm afraid this doesnt't count, since this is a reflection and not a part of the game UI.

You can see reflections in Duke Nukem, Red Faction, Undying, Portal (sorta)... not that anyone of them react to it somehow, since it's first person and if they start to break control of the player, it'd be very strange. With 3rd person it's a usuall thing: panting/swearing in SH, loosing balance in RE, showing teeth in Max Payne.

 

It probably was stated before, but this effect (reflection of eyes) is now used in Doom: Eternal.

 

 

Redneck Rampage has Leonard's mug on status bar. But it's just a picture / sticker.

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South Park FPS uses health-status-face, but it's not expressive at all. My take, it's here, because id games have them and it supposed to be a funny "Doom Clone". (Yeah, I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel)

hqdefault.jpg

Edited by incel

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Come to think of it, Paladins and Overwatch also show your character portrait in the HUD, but in both cases it's just a static image and is tucked away into the lower-left corner of the screen. Both games have a character roster, all with distinct abilities, so "who you are" is valuable information to reinforce.

Paladins Overwatch HUD portraits.jpg

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15 minutes ago, Rainne said:

Both games have a character roster, all with distinct abilities, so "who you are" is valuable information to reinforce.

 

Yes, regarding the gameplay, I think it's the only purpose.

 

Animated, live portraits make sence for RPG games with party. But only if it's POV game! Strange, right? If it's POV RPG portraits are probably animated, but if it's topdown, than not. If it's POV game than you supose to relate to characters, hence live faces, but in topdown, they but a pawns! So it's just a select button.

 

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In RPG's the player, of course, has plenty of time to see the reaction of the party members, but in FPS, the player is usually occupied with the action on screen, so it makes little sense to bother with the portrait and yet id walked that mile. Like there's something more behind it. ("RPG portrait" in Doom, fantasy monsters in Quake - id games with troubled production came up the most unique, memorable and successful)

Edited by incel

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Recently I started playing without status bar for that increased Ver+ FOV, and I have to say sometimes I miss having it there. Doomguy's face provides quick info about your health since it's so close to your weapon, and also since it's always centered, you can rely on it for aiming when your weapon isn't.

 

I also miss the "Doomguy doesn't change facial expressions" video.

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The very first FPS are an evolution of the POV RPG of the back old days, where the played move a set of heroes in mazes step by step. They were called Dungeon Crawlers to differentiate them from the regular RPGs of their time. Its a regular trend of RPG showing the Avatar of the player, to remind him/her how awesome he/she is on that fantasy world.
The first RPG to use a side combat interface was the first Final Fantasy, as Dragon Quest serie and Phantasy Star serie both started with a POV battle interface, but with a third person outside roaming, and these were just the first console RPGs. Some PC WRPG used a third person isometric POV including the fight during that interface.
Thats why Catacoms 3D then Wolf 3D and Doom have the portrait in the hud. Here the programmers searched for a dynamic way of playing an action game but to be inmersive at the same time.

Edited by P41R47

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I do miss Doomguy's mug when in fullscreen. I think a way to bring that back is to use a Half-Life style damage compass with his face indicating where you're being hit from. Maybe use ouchface for attacks from the rear.

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9 hours ago, P41R47 said:

The very first FPS are an evolution of the POV RPG of the back old days <...> Thats why Catacoms 3D then Wolf 3D and Doom have the portrait in the hud. Here the programmers searched for a dynamic way of playing an action game but to be inmersive at the same time.

 

As we on RPG's trail, we might as well bring up Dungeon Master, the 1st POV real time RPG. I wonder, if it had any influence on Catacombs 3D. [Oh, wait, what am I saying?! It was Ultima Underworld prototype that started it all, but, you know, I'm speeking about portraits and not real-time]

 

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No portraits here, though.

 

Oh, wait, they show up in the inventory

 

64064-dungeon-master-atari-st-screenshot

 

P.S. Now I want to make Fantasy Doom hack.

Edited by incel : Forgot about UU

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I just want to say how much I love the HUD face in Doom. In just 42 frames, so much is expressed - he’s wearing more than blood when he gets damaged, he’s wearing his emotions. At low health he looks like a defeated man. At mid health he looks pissed. At high health he looks alert, but almost calm in another sense.

 

The fact that it serves as a basic radar is SO useful too. I’m one of the only players I know who has never moved away from the classic HUD. For me it’s part of the soul of the game.

 

Its great in Wolf3D too, but unfortunately isn’t a radar in that game. Still very expressive though.

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There are a couple possible reasons the portrait exists. One, it's an homage to Wolfenstein. Two, Doomguy wears a helmet on the promotional art so you get to see what he looks like now (in game only). I'm sure there are more (undeniably more).

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I love the classic HUD. I always play with it on, no matter which source port i'm using. I wish newer games had a HUD like Dooms although i'm not sure how well that would work.

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Nowadays with the widescreen monitors we have, the classic HUD is too big of a concession, you lose too much space. Back then it was great optimisation, avoiding to draw the whole screen res significantly cuts down on the CPU/GPU work needed. For software rendered engines.

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I never liked how the classic HUD has those green rocks on the side in widescreen. That part of the HUD should simply be transparent, meaning the HUD is still 4:3 despite the screen being 16:9. It would be the best of both worlds.

 

I've actually replaced the GRNROCK flat in some of my wads just to make the HUD less ugly in widescreen mode.

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9 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

I never liked how the classic HUD has those green rocks on the side in widescreen. That part of the HUD should simply be transparent, meaning the HUD is still 4:3 despite the screen being 16:9. It would be the best of both worlds.

 

I've actually replaced the GRNROCK flat in some of my wads just to make the HUD less ugly in widescreen mode.

Which port do you use?

 

In GZDoom I like the HUD in the Dead Marine mod, check it out, it has the portrait, too :D

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Two more FPS that use a HUD face: Daikatana and Chasm: The Rift. In Daikatana it’s obviously there as a nod to Romeros Doom legacy. In Chasm there’ a HUD face because they practically copied Quake, but it is at the side, not in center.

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A static icon is not equivalent to an animated reactive face which shows health, direction of damage taken, whether you are in godmode etc.

 

 

What I like is that they kept the supergrin from Wolfenstein 3D when you pickup the SSG. I think it was the Chaingun in Wolf3D that triggered it?

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6 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I just want to say how much I love the HUD face in Doom. In just 42 frames, so much is expressed - he’s wearing more than blood when he gets damaged, he’s wearing his emotions. At low health he looks like a defeated man. At mid health he looks pissed. At high health he looks alert, but almost calm in another sense.

 

The fact that it serves as a basic radar is SO useful too. I’m one of the only players I know who has never moved away from the classic HUD. For me it’s part of the soul of the game.

Absolutely agreed. I will never switch from the vanilla HUD. It would be as if a part of the game was missing if I played with some of the "modern" HUDs.

 

I also use the face very often to tell my health level instead of looking at the number.

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The earliest animated status bar face I can recall is from Domark's awful Friday the 13th for the 8-bit machines. It came out in 1986. Your character's hair sticks up as he or she gets more scared. It's terrible but at least they tried.

 

 

In the case of Doom it's one of those things that lightens the game and makes it feel darkly funny instead of being pompous. I remember one of the criticisms levelled at Quake was that the brown colour and Nine Inch Nails soundtrack made it feel humourless, as if Id were trying to turn it into a serious work of art, even though it was just a simple action game.

 

On 2/7/2020 at 4:35 AM, incel said:

As we on RPG's trail, we might as well bring up Dungeon Master, the 1st POV real time RPG.

 

The first I can remember is Swords and Sorcery from 1985, for the 8-bit machines. It's simplistic - you lead a party of one - but it's notable for having a real time 3D dungeon at a time when the likes of e.g. The Bard's Tale had flick-screen:

 

 

It wasn't very good and even at the time it was very obscure. Knightmare, the TV show, also had an animated head-turning-into-a-skull life force meter, but it was prerendered and only appeared at intervals:

 

 

Z, the Command and Conquer clone, has quite detailed protagonist portraits, but that came out in 1996, several years after Doom.

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