Video games with variable translation control

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Variable translation control

Translation (geometry) and Rotation are the two types of movement of a solid body. 3D video games almost always give the user variable rotational control (mostly pitch and yaw, sometimes also roll Flight dynamics (aircraft)) This allows rotation in any rotational direction at any speed. However, rarely is the user given variable translation control. With variable translation control the user can translate in any translational direction at any speed. This yeilds very smooth fluid motion.

Without variable translation control only 1 speed is available for each axial direction, hence only 8 directions are possible for each 2D plane (usually the longitudonal/lateral plane) and only 1 speed possible for each of those 8 directions. This results in jerky and coarse movements. To compensate for there only being 8 directions relative to the user, the user will GeneRally face thier avatar a certain direction so that one of the 8 directions aligns with thier intended travel direction, or if they are aiming at a target they have to continuously press and let-go of a movement key to 'zig-zag' along thier intended travel direction.

Possible reasons for not supporting variable translation control

  • To Avoid sliding feet. Without sophisticated animation code, an avatar's feet will appear to slide on the ground at any other speed than what the animator specifically animated for. This May Be the case with Heretic II as the game went from first person POV to 3rd person POV. Every speed at every direction had to be manually pre-animated for. Perhaps with advanced skelatal animation code variable translation control can return as it would not cause 'sliding feet'. A player would need variable translation control to take full advantage of new sophisticated animation code.
  • To reduce network traffic. 1bit per direction is less than many bits per direction when a client communicates a move to a server. With network prediction code a client sends thier input data, as thier future position can be calculated from this. This may the case with Quake III Arena as it went from singleplayer to multiplayer focused. Perhaps as network bandwidth has increase many times over the years variable translation control can return to multiplayer games. What could be done is population based scaling. When more players come near eachother, the number of bits per direction could proportionally scale down. As less players are near eachtother the number of bits per direction back could scale up. This will at least allow the player fluid motion or near fluid motion at least some of the time in multiplayer games.

PC Games that DO support variable translation control

Doom (video game) and the following games using its engine

  • Doom II: Hell on Earth
  • Heretic (video game)
  • Hexen

Quake and the following games using its engine

  • Hexen II

Quake II and the following games using its engine

  • (none?)

Descent (video game) and Descent II and and Descent 3 and Forsaken (video game) (all 4 also have Six degrees of freedom)

Duke Nukem 3D

PC Games that DON'T support variable translation control

(the purpose of this list is for one to not waste time trying to get variable translation to work when the engine doesn't have support for it)

Heretic II

Quake III Arena and the following games using its engine

  • Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force
  • Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²

Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 The relativity slow acceleration and high velocity causes the avatar to travel at many speeds in transition, so animation would not be a issue here. Perhaps the decision not to support variable translation control was a network bandwidth issue.

PC Non-Game applications that DO support variable translation control

Google Earth