zdoom extra side of head pixels idea

Imagine wherever doomguy looks, he has THREE cameras inside his head instead of 1. The 2 extras point left/right. All 3 follow the player's pitch/ xy coordinates every tic, of course like they are extra eyes.

Put a fourth camera in an outside room (this 4th represents the player's fake head) then paste those 3 'head' camera views to 3 textures that surround the 4th camera in a 'U' shape (side,forward,side views) as if they were around the 4th camera's 'head' (or maybe just a straight line, not sure if either would look cool, but the point is to see extra side pixels around your head beyond the normal 90 degree field of view, and it might be cool if you see a view where the sides wrap around your head.
http://zdoom.org/wiki/SetCameraToTexture
Then I guess make that 4th camera the primary screen view, fiddling with the shape of the 'U' and 4th camera position until it looks cool (..if ever).

I think this would work but hassling with xwe and animdefs and crap is too yuck because you have to quit doombuilder, open xwe, find the saved wad, add animdefs but you know it will take 8 tries because you don't know how to do it yet, quit xwe, restart doombuilder, repeat = not fun.

By the way, while looking at the zdoom wiki I found out about typing:
FOV 135
or
FOV 150
etc
into the zdoom console... very trippy! (I'm pretty sure doing the above would be different than this).

I tried something similar (only 2 cameras) when experimenting with magic mirrors for someone else's project, but the results didn't meet my expectations in terms of quality of image.

About FOV, I never understood why the sides of the screen are always wider in video games. Is it a limitation of the technology? In real life, if my eyes look at a specific point, the image on the sides isn't distorted in any way (and the field of view in RL is much wider than on your standard widescreen).

This sounds like some kind of virtual multiple monitor setup. Interesting.

Phml said:

About FOV, I never understood why the sides of the screen are always wider in video games. Is it a limitation of the technology? In real life, if my eyes look at a specific point, the image on the sides isn't distorted in any way (and the field of view in RL is much wider than on your standard widescreen).

Pretty sure that's mostly just a limitation of 2.5d engines, I haven't noticed it in newer games. Could be a goofy field of view too, though.

gggmork said:

I think this would work but hassling with xwe and animdefs and crap is too yuck because you have to quit doombuilder, open xwe, find the saved wad, add animdefs but you know it will take 8 tries because you don't know how to do it yet, quit xwe, restart doombuilder, repeat = not fun.

You don't have to restart DB ever time you edit resources! In DB2, go to "Tools > Reload Resources". Or just hit f8. ;)

Phml said:

About FOV, I never understood why the sides of the screen are always wider in video games. Is it a limitation of the technology?

That's because the game assumes that you're closer to the screen then you really are.

Well, its slightly interesting for like 2 minutes I guess (zdoom doom in hexen, greyghost's map was useful):

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29247504/sideview.WAD

It basically works but not tweaked 'perfectly' (it would always look hacky anyway). Its mostly kinda meh but whatever.

Nomad said:

You don't have to restart DB ever time you edit resources! In DB2, go to "Tools > Reload Resources". Or just hit f8. ;)

This is the case with SLumpEd and with Slade 3.0, but not with XWE, because XWE is incapable of dealing with other programs accessing files at the same time as it. Trying to do so will corrupt the wad, so I wouldn't recommend it.

So, gggmork, if you're tired of having to quit and reopen your editors every time you want to edit a script lump or something, try SLADE 3.0 instead of XWE :P

gggmork said:

Well, its slightly interesting for like 2 minutes I guess (zdoom doom in hexen, greyghost's map was useful):

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29247504/sideview.WAD

It basically works but not tweaked 'perfectly' (it would always look hacky anyway). Its mostly kinda meh but whatever.

Interesting. It switches to chasecam mode when I hit a wall. Needs more Duct tape.


(1440x900 - 131k)

Depending on how obliquely the wall's struck, Doomguy's momentum can leave the cameras far behind.


(1440x900 - 132k)

Ha ha, that's not a bug, its a feature.
I didn't know slade/etc can 'share' files like that, which could definitely be useful.

That 'fov ###' stuff leaves an impression similar to the illusion of still feeling like you're rocking on land when you get out of a boat.

Nomad said:

Pretty sure that's mostly just a limitation of 2.5d engines, I haven't noticed it in newer games. Could be a goofy field of view too, though.

I've noticed that "fisheye" effect in newer games with high FOVs. CoD4 with FOV > 90 = fisheye effect; Bad Company 2 does it as well with high/triple digit FOVs.