Weapon bobbing based on actual movement speed

[HotWax]

Currently the view bob settings are only adjustable by the player, and cannot be linked to a custom player class, even if that class changes the player's speeds around. This most commonly leads to slower-moving classes that still have the full weapon bob effect, making for greatly exagerrated movements that at the least look ugly and at worst can cause motion sickness. This suggestion is, rather than let the author directly control the bob amount (since that control belongs with the player), to have the bob amount based on the speed the player is actually moving.

As an example, if you set the player's run speed to be equal to his walk speed, the view bobbing is still increased when the player is in run mode, even though he's not moving any faster. (See this thread.)

The simplest way to fix this would be just to define a set of speeds for walking/running that activate the bobbing effect. If the player is within the normal "walking speed" range, the slow bob would be activated. If he's actually moving at the original running speed (or faster), than the faster bobbing effect would occur.

Alternatively, the speed/amount of the bobbing could be scaled by the movement speed and multiplied by the user's setting, thus giving a more appropriate bobbing effect at all speeds. This would of course be harder to implement.

[CaptainToenail]

I like, I like, can we also have the option to reverse the 'bobbing arc' upside down, so that it resembles the walking animation from the Doom demos

[Sarah]

That is funny. I just posted a thread on the same thing, but I wanted the bob to be settable in the DECORATE. Your way makes more sense though but it would give authors no more new control over new player classes. And it's funny that you put a link to my thread. Maybe we'll get this feature after all?

[Sarah]

I have a suggestion. Would it be too much trouble to not only make it so that weapon bobbing is based on the player's movement speed, but also let the values be settable in DECORATE for new player classes?

This would give more realism to the game and give authors more flexibility when working with the engine. Further I think it would be good if the bob was changeable. What I mean by that is the possibility to change the actual graphic movement of the weapon bob. I do not know an algorithm that would create a curve like this, however from a 2 dimensional point of view, and considering the engine renders a 2D image as the weapon and then moves it on a curve, it makes sense to me that if the values were settable in DECORATE, then authors would only need to set an X and a Y value for each side of the curve.

I don't know how effective this would be, but I do think it would give authors a lot of flexibility when making new player classes. Great. That's all.

[HotWax]

I specifically avoided suggesting that because it's less likely to be implemented any time soon.

[Sarah]

Nevertheless, it's something that should be implemented. Are you for some reason against more control for authors?

I understand that your method could be put into use much sooner than mine, but I don't see why they both couldn't be put in. It just makes more sense to me to give us authors more flexibility.

I wish I had some experience with engine programming, because then I would just do this myself.

[HotWax]

Nevertheless, it's something that should be implemented.

By who? The paid programmers of ZDoom? Good luck finding one.

Are you for some reason against more control for authors?

No, I'm against threads that sit around for months or years because the feature suggestion is too ambitious and the programmers don't have an infinite amount of time and/or interest in getting the feature working.

I understand that your method could be put into use much sooner than mine, but I don't see why they both couldn't be put in.

You code it, and it'll get put in.

I wish I had some experience with engine programming, because then I would just do this myself.

And until you do, it's probably best not to question why feature X isn't there yet.

[Ryan Cordell]

For now, just be hacky and use inventory items and the OFFSET frame property. =/

[Nash]

I remember requesting this at least two times, maybe even three or more:

1) First time ever, if I remember correctly, was when there wasn't even a zdoom.org yet - that's right folks, waaaaaay back at the Notgod phorums! I'm not entirely sure about this, but I'm 90% positive about this.
2) I remember bringing up about this when there wasn't a Feature Suggestion forums yet. Ah, here it is.
3) Yes, I've also requested this before... let's see... ah, here it is! Oh, here's another one! And they both go NO'ed! XD

I sure as hell won't expect this to be considered any time soon... I am actually surprised this didn't go straight to the dumpster before there was a second post in this thread!

[JonayaRiley]

Well, from Graf's comment at the end of that last thread you linked, maybe it's time for this feature to be implemented. After all, the custom player classes have since been added and are pretty robust. This would definitely be a useful addition to the player class definitions, and I can't see any other way of doing this.

[Ryan Cordell]

Reading what I said would be nice too.
Making it speed dependent would just require a simple velocity check and inventory item give away.

[JonayaRiley]

Reading what I said would be nice too.
Making it speed dependent would just require a simple velocity check and inventory item give away.

Either way would be fine, given that we have nothing right now. I was just responding to Nash's general comments about the previous suggestions.

[Sarah]

Nevertheless, it's something that should be implemented.

By who? The paid programmers of ZDoom? Good luck finding one.

Are you for some reason against more control for authors?

No, I'm against threads that sit around for months or years because the feature suggestion is too ambitious and the programmers don't have an infinite amount of time and/or interest in getting the feature working.

I understand that your method could be put into use much sooner than mine, but I don't see why they both couldn't be put in.

You code it, and it'll get put in.

I wish I had some experience with engine programming, because then I would just do this myself.

And until you do, it's probably best not to question why feature X isn't there yet.

I'm not here to argue with you. I just think that a decent discussion on this would be useful. Show that people are interested in this and it gives points. If it's something the community wants, it will be put in. And by the way, I have meager c++ skills but I have friends who know this stuff. I might just do it myself. But more ideas about how to do this would be helpful. So stop bashing every idea.

[Sarah]

For now, just be hacky and use inventory items and the OFFSET frame property. =/

This isn't helpful! We need examples. Specifically me. Hotwax posted this because of a problem post I did. This is specifically related to a problem with a new player class I made. It made the run speed be the walk speed so the player always walked. The only problem with this was that the bob is only changed by those 2 values. This means the bob you see when you run is now the bob you see when you walk, no matter what. So this is why we need this to be added to ZDoom.

[Ryan Cordell]

You'll see examples once I'm done with my mod, don't you worry.