Mod Idea: Immersive View Restrictions

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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Ah_Ftagn
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Mod Idea: Immersive View Restrictions

Post by Ah_Ftagn »

One of my favorite types of mods in Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim/Fallout 3/Fallout New Vegas has been the "Enhanced First Person View" mod series.

In case you haven't heard of them, these mods basically render your character's body so that when you look down in first person, you see yourself.


Why this wouldn't work in Daggerfall Unity:
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I am very much aware that this would not be possible (or at least worth doing in regards to effort versus payoff) due to restrictions imposed by using sprites combined with the sheer number of outfits in Daggerfall. However, playing Resident Evil 7 gave me a bit of an idea that might make up for it.


Alternate Implimentation (Stolen from, and with examples from, RE7)
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Luckily, we might be able to "Cheat" when it comes to implementing a similar level of immersion to being able to see your own body in first person. Namely: we can let the imagination fill in the blanks.

In Resident Evil 7, the body is only rendered during specific events. At all other times, the degree to which you can look down is restricted, exactly as much as is necessary to give you the illusion your body is still there (and not one bit more!). This same approach, to use a different example, was baked into the mouselook in Build Engine first person shooters such as Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior etc, though this was also to hide the inherent problems in software rendering a 3d space in that engine (Visual warping?).


The Mod Idea itself:
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Effectively the idea for this mod is a basic one. Prevent the player from looking straight down and realizing their character is naught but a floating head with no body and a pair of limbs that appear and dissappear at will (Thus allowing the imagination to fill in the blanks). A simple tweak to mouselook that pays in immersion.


Potential Difficulties:
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I haven't poked around in the Daggerfall Unity tools myself, so I don't know if it's possible to limit mouselook like that just yet.


Alternate Implimentation:
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I would love to see this in any capacity- A mod, a baked-in feature togglable in the enhancements setting, anything. With or without the ability to specify the disallowed angle from the ground that you cannot look into.

Lokkrin Zhataros
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Post by Lokkrin Zhataros »

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Last edited by Lokkrin Zhataros on Wed May 26, 2021 3:37 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Hazelnut
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Re: Mod Idea: Immersive View Restrictions

Post by Hazelnut »

Ah_Ftagn wrote: Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:16 pm I haven't poked around in the Daggerfall Unity tools myself, so I don't know if it's possible to limit mouselook like that just yet.
You would if you had tried out the enhanced riding module of my Roleplay & Realism mod. :) Yes it's possible and the restriction is used to limit mouselook so that the horse head animation stays relative to the terrain.
See my mod code for examples of how to change various aspects of DFU: https://github.com/ajrb/dfunity-mods

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King of Worms
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Re: Mod Idea: Immersive View Restrictions

Post by King of Worms »

This usually sounds more immersive and cool on paper and in imagination than in the real gameplay.

There you forget its there and its just a feature u dont notice.

I used to love this, untill I realized I dont even notice it. Same as in real life I dobt observe my legs during the day ..

What I like is seeing hands and the body (invisible) dropping shadows when lit from behind etc.

Just my observation! :)

Ah_Ftagn
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Re: Mod Idea: Immersive View Restrictions

Post by Ah_Ftagn »

For me it's one of those things that I don't notice until it isn't there anymore, then its absence suddenly becomes glaring. The fact that you can look straight down and not have a body is a huge immersion breaker for me.

As for shadows based on your clothing... it MIGHT be possible to fake it using sprites rendered along the ground that are aware of light sources? Possibly a copy of the paperdoll image without a background that is kept out of player view to allow the shadows to render without having to animate the sprite? If you combine this with the careful limiting of the player view, it SHOULD give the proper impression AND allow for the dynamic shadows of DFU to do their job in reacting to the shape of the player.

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