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54-477: Syphon Filter is a third-person shooter video game series developed by Bend Studio (formerly Eidetic) and published by Sony Computer Entertainment (previously 989 Studios ), for the PlayStation , PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable . In the series, Syphon Filter is the name given to a mysterious biological weapon. The plot centers on special agents, Gabriel Logan and Lian Xing, who are tasked by
108-461: A graphical perspective rendered from a fixed distance behind and slightly above the player character. This viewpoint allows players to see a more strongly characterized avatar and is most common in action games and action adventure games . Games with this perspective often make use of positional audio, where the volume of ambient sounds varies depending on the position of the avatar. There are primarily three types of third-person camera systems:
162-405: A virtual camera system aims at controlling a camera or a set of cameras to display a view of a 3D virtual world . Camera systems are used in video games where their purpose is to show the action at the best possible angle; more generally, they are used in 3D virtual worlds when a third-person view is required. As opposed to filmmakers, virtual camera system creators have to deal with a world that
216-518: A 3D third-person perspective include Nintendo 's Radar Scope (1979), Atari 's Tempest (1981), Nihon Bussan 's Tube Panic (1983), Sega 's Space Harrier (1985), Atari 's Xybots (1987), and Square 's 3-D WorldRunner (1987). and JJ (1987) Third-person shooters for home computers include Dan Gorlin's Airheart (1986) and Paul Norman's Beyond Forbidden Forest (1986). Konami 's run & gun shooter Contra (1987) featured several third-person shooter levels where
270-420: A control system inspired by Prince of Persia . Mega Man Legends (1997) by Capcom is another early 3D third person shooter which took a different approach to the genre, mixing this with a role-playing game influence. Around the same time, Deathtrap Dungeon (1998) by Eidos Interactive and MediEvil (1998) by SCE Studio Cambridge (then Millennium Interactive ) were some of the first 3D games in
324-438: A direct sequel to Dark Mirror , Gabe receives a mission to retrieve stolen military equipment from Somali pirates, while discovering that his partner, Lian Xing, could be a double agent. The PS2-port released in 2010. Third-person shooter Third-person shooter ( TPS ) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters , but with
378-412: A first-person viewpoint for challenges that require precise aiming, while others simply allow a player to freely switch between first and third-person perspectives at will. The first-person shooter Halo: Combat Evolved was actually designed as a third-person shooter, but added a first-person perspective to improve the interface for aiming and shooting. The game switches to a third-person viewpoint when
432-561: A greater emphasis on two player cooperative play, as does Resident Evil 5 (2009). As of 2009, the third-person shooter genre has a large audience outside Japan, particularly in North America. Vanquish (2010) by PlatinumGames featured a gameplay style reminiscent of bullet hell shooters, with bullets and missiles coming from all directions. The third-person shooter genre is still quite popular in contemporary gaming circles. In 2012, Rockstar Games released Max Payne 3 , which
486-404: A mixed reception of The Omega Strain , Dark Mirror is a return to the series' roots. Gabe investigates a terrorist incident in an Alaskan oil refinery, only to discover a big conspiracy around the titular Dark Mirror. This is the first Syphon Filter title developed for PlayStation Portable. The PlayStation 2 port removed multiplayer and mature content, but restored the roll ability. Serving as
540-414: A popular third person shooter which introduced the player being allowed to control aiming of their weapon themselves by means of two control sticks. In Tomb Raider and Syphon Filter , on the other hand, the protagonists automatically aimed at antagonists. Forcing or allowing the player to control aiming themselves, either using control sticks or a mouse, would go on to become commonplace in later games in
594-427: A realtime chat application. Bill Tomlinson used a more original approach to the problem. He devised a system in which the camera is an autonomous agent with its own personality. The style of the shots and their rhythm will be affected by their mood. Thus a happy camera will "cut more frequently, spend more time in close-up shots, move with a bouncy, swooping motion, and brightly illuminate the scene". While much of
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#1732852265198648-419: A set of visual constraints. In other words, the constraint solver is given a requested shot composition such as "show this character and ensure that he covers at least 30 percent of the screen space". The solver will then use various methods to try to create a shot that would satisfy this request. Once a suitable shot is found, the solver outputs the coordinates and rotation of the camera, which can then be used by
702-407: A two-player competitive 3D third-person shooter vehicle combat game, Cyber Sled . A year later, Elite Systems Ltd. released Virtuoso on the 3DO . This was an early example of a home console third-person shooter which featured a human protagonist on-foot, as opposed to controlling a vehicle, and made use of polygonal 3D graphics along with sprites in a 3D environment. Fade to Black (1995)
756-403: A vehicle. However, the third-person perspective can interfere with tasks that require fine aiming. Third-person shooters sometimes compensate for their distinct perspective by designing larger, more spacious environments than first-person shooters. The boundaries between third-person and first-person shooters are not always clear. For example, many third-person shooters allow the player to use
810-531: Is an improvement over the tracking camera system. While the camera is still tracking the character, some of its parameters, such as its orientation or distance to the character, can be changed. On video game consoles , the camera is often controlled by an analog stick to provide good accuracy, whereas on PC games it is usually controlled by the mouse . This is the case in games such as Super Mario Sunshine or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker . Fully interactive camera systems are often difficult to implement in
864-404: Is interactive and unpredictable. It is not possible to know where the player character is going to be in the next few seconds; therefore, it is not possible to plan the shots as a filmmaker would do. To solve this issue, the system relies on certain rules or artificial intelligence to select the most appropriate shots. There are mainly three types of camera systems. In fixed camera systems ,
918-488: Is very simple to implement. However, there are a number of issues with it. In particular, if the current view is not suitable (either because it is occluded by an object, or because it is not showing what the player is interested in), it cannot be changed since the player does not control the camera. Sometimes this viewpoint causes difficulty when a character turns or stands face out against a wall. The camera may jerk or end up in awkward positions. This type of camera system
972-526: The player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em up games also employ a third-person perspective, the TPS genre is distinguished by having the game presented with the player's avatar as a primary focus of the camera's view. A third-person shooter is a game structured around shooting, and in which the player can see the avatar on-screen in a third-person view . Third-person shooters are distinguished from other shooter games that may present
1026-461: The "fixed camera systems" in which the camera positions are set during the game creation; the "tracking camera systems" in which the camera simply follows the player's character; and the "interactive camera systems" that are under the player's control. With a fixed camera system, the developers set the properties of the camera, such as its position, orientation or field of view , during the game creation. The camera views will not change dynamically, so
1080-474: The "real-time, over-the-shoulder tracking shots of Gus Van Sant 's Elephant evoke third-person shooter games like Max Payne , a close cousin of the FPS". 2D third-person shooters have existed since the earliest days of video games, dating back to Spacewar! (1962); third-person perspective shooting is also featured in its clones , Galaxy Game (1971) and Computer Space (1971). Arcade shooters with
1134-476: The 2000s, especially on game consoles . It features shooter game elements, sometimes combining these with the jumping and climbing elements of puzzle-based games and brawlers . Third-person shooter games sometimes incorporate an aim-assist feature to compensate for the difficulty of aiming from a third-person camera. Many include some form of first-person view, which allows precise shooting and looking around at environment features that are otherwise hidden from
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#17328522651981188-466: The United States government to apprehend Erich Rhoemer, an international terrorist. The plot picks up immediately after where the previous Syphon Filter ended. Gabe sets out to cure the virus, whilst being targeted as a "terrorist" by the United States government. Gabe and his team are suspected of treason. Summoned to prove their innocence, the team recounts the incidents that led to this moment. In
1242-446: The area surrounding the avatar more clearly. This viewpoint facilitates more interaction between the character and their surrounding environment, such as the use of a tactical system in Gears of War , or navigating tight quarters. As such, the third-person perspective is better for interacting with objects in the game world, such as jumping on platforms, engaging in close combat, or driving
1296-596: The avatar is piloting a vehicle, and this combination of first-person for aiming and third-person for driving has since been used in other games. Metroid Prime is another first-person shooter that switches to a third-person perspective when rolling around the environment using the morph ball. Many games in the genre such as the ARMA series and its descendants (including the popular battle-royale shooter PUBG ) allow players to freely transition between first and third-person perspectives at will. Alexander R. Galloway writes that
1350-527: The background, Gabe moves to rid the world of Syphon Filter once and for all. Gabe, now commander of a government agency, leads global investigation of viral outbreaks in order to stop a deadlier strain of the titular virus from emerging. Unlike previous games, the main protagonist is I.P.C.A. recruit Cobra, while Gabe and Lian Xing appear as supporting NPCs. In multiplayer, a maximum of three more characters may join Cobra, these are Python, Dragon and Viper. Following
1404-496: The camera does not move at all, and the system displays the player's character in a succession of still shots. Tracking cameras , on the other hand, follow the character's movements. Finally, interactive camera systems are partially automated and allow the player to directly change the view. To implement camera systems, video game developers use techniques such as constraint solvers , artificial intelligence scripts , or autonomous agents . In video games, " third-person " refers to
1458-499: The console. This was later modified by Oliver Kreylos of University of California, Davis in a series of YouTube videos which showed him combining the Kinect with a PC-based virtual camera. Because the Kinect is capable of detecting a full range of depth (through computer stereo vision and Structured light ) within a captured scene, Kreylos demonstrated the capacity of the Kinect and the virtual camera to allow free-viewpoint navigation of
1512-458: The cover system as its core game mechanic, along with a blind fire mechanic. Gears of War (2006) employed tactical elements such as taking cover, influenced by Kill Switch , using off-center viewpoints inspired by Resident Evil 4 . The game also employed grittier themes than other titles and used a unique feature which rewarded the player for correctly reloading weapons. Gears of War , as well as games such as Army of Two (2008), place
1566-432: The current shot for commonly seen shot scenarios called film idioms. Typically, the script is going to be triggered as a result of an action. For instance, when the player's character initiates a conversation with another character, the "conversation" script is going to be triggered. This script will contain instructions on how to "shoot" a two-character conversation. Thus the shots will be a combination of, for instance, over
1620-487: The default camera. In early examples of the genre, the player would often be required to stand still to use first-person view, but newer titles allow the player to play like a FPS. These games are closely related to first-person shooters , which also tie the perspective of the player to an avatar, distinguished only in a minor change of position of the player camera . While the first-person perspective allows players to aim and shoot without their avatar blocking their view,
1674-559: The earliest documented virtual camera rig when he fixed a Polhemus magnetic motion sensor and a 3.2 inch portable LCD TV to a wooden ruler. The Walkthrough Project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill produced a number of physical input devices for virtual camera view control including dual three-axis joysticks and a billiard-ball shaped prop known as the UNC Eyeball that featured an embedded six-degree of freedom motion tracker and
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1728-416: The game from a third-person view such as shoot 'em ups , as the game is presented with the player's avatar as a primary focus of the camera's view. Third-person shooters are analogous to first-person shooters in terms of immersion, but simply displace the camera from being at the eyes of the character to a point slightly above and behind them in most cases. It is a 3D genre that grew to prominence during
1782-474: The genre to include third person shooter influences in a fantasy setting, with fictional or alternative weapons achieving the same effect as a gun for the player. Die Hard Trilogy (1998) by Fox Interactive was met with critical acclaim at the time of its release, and the section of the game based around the first Die Hard film in the trilogy was another early take on a 3D third person shooter. Syphon Filter (1999) by Eidetic (now Bend Studio) combined
1836-539: The genre, such as Oni (2001), Max Payne (2001) and SOCOM (2002). Max Payne (2001) was acclaimed as a superlative third person shooter, inspired by Hong Kong action cinema . Several platform games with third-person shooter elements were also released during that time; examples included Ratchet & Clank and most of the games in the Jak and Daxter series, both of which were designed for younger audiences than most third-person shooters. Resident Evil 4 (2005)
1890-444: The graphic engine renderer to display the view. In some camera systems, if no solution can be found, constraints are relaxed. For example, if the solver cannot generate a shot where the character occupies 30 percent of the screen space, it might ignore the screen space constraint and simply ensure that the character is visible at all. Such methods include zooming out. Some camera systems use predefined scripts to decide how to select
1944-485: The line of action, matching placement of virtual characters so they appear to look at one another across cuts, and favors those shots which the human operator had previously used in sequence. In 2010, the Kinect was released by Microsoft as a 3D scanner / webcam hybrid peripheral device which provides full-body detection of Xbox 360 players and hands-free control of the user interfaces of video games and other software on
1998-458: The perspective of Tomb Raider with action elements of games such as GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Metal Gear Solid (1998). Richard Rouse III wrote in Game Developer that the game was the most popular third person shooter for the PlayStation . The Nintendo 64 version of Army Men: Sarge's Heroes by The 3DO Company was released the same year as Syphon Filter, and is an early example of
2052-420: The player could switch at any time. The first one was a standard tracking camera system except that it was partly driven by artificial intelligence . Indeed, the system was "aware" of the structure of the level and therefore could anticipate certain shots. For example, in the first level, when the path to the hill is about to turn left, the camera automatically starts looking towards the left too, thus anticipating
2106-496: The player trudges through indoor enemy bases. Konami's Devastators (1988) is a third-person shooter where, rather than moving forward automatically, the player walks forward by holding the Up direction, as the background slowly scales toward the screen. Devastators also featured various obstacles that could be used to take cover from enemy fire, as well as two-player cooperative gameplay . A similar shooter released that same year
2160-418: The player's movements. The second type allows the player to control the camera relatively to Mario 's position. By pressing the left or right buttons, the camera rotates around Mario, while pressing up or down moves the camera closer or away from Mario. There is a large body of research on how to implement a camera system. The role of a constraint solver software is to generate the best possible shot given
2214-459: The popularity of this genre". Other commentators have considered it influential on later third person shooters such as BloodRayne (2002), The Contra Adventure (1998), MDK (1997), Duke Nukem: Time To Kill (1998), Burning Rangers (1998), and Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 (2000). The game eschewed the popular first person perspective of games such as Doom , instead making use of "third person" viewpoints, wide 3D environments and
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2268-443: The position of the player character rather than the camera position; this allows the player to maintain direction when the camera angle changes. Tracking cameras follows the characters from behind. The player does not control the camera in any way – they cannot for example rotate it or move it to a different position. This type of camera system was very common in early 3D games such as Crash Bandicoot or Tomb Raider since it
2322-595: The prior work in automated virtual camera control systems has been directed towards reducing the need for a human to manually control the camera, the Director's Lens solution computes and proposes a palette of suggested virtual camera shots leaving the human operator to make the creative shot selection. In computing subsequent suggested virtual camera shots, the system analyzes the visual compositions and editing patterns of prior recorded shots to compute suggested camera shots that conform to continuity conventions such as not crossing
2376-403: The range of depth, although the camera could only allow video capture of the scene as shown to the front of the Kinect, resulting in fields of black, empty space where the camera was unable to capture video within the field of depth. Later, Kreylos demonstrated a further elaboration on the modification by combining the video streams of two Kinects in order to further enhance the video capture within
2430-484: The right way. Thus GameSpot argues that much of the Super Mario Sunshine' difficulty comes from having to control the camera. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was more successful at it - IGN called the camera system "so smart that it rarely needs manual correction". One of the first games to offer an interactive camera system was Super Mario 64 . The game had two types of camera systems between which
2484-542: The same place will always be shown under the same set of views. Games that use fixed cameras include Grim Fandango (1998) and the early Resident Evil and God of War games. One advantage of this camera system is that it allows the game designers to use the language of film , creating mood through camerawork and selection of shots. Games that use this kind of technique are often praised for their cinematic qualities. Many games with fixed cameras use tank controls , whereby players control character movement relative to
2538-491: The shoulder shots and close-up shots. Such script-based approaches may switch the camera between a set of predefined cameras or rely on a constraint solver to generate the camera coordinates to account for variability in scene layout. This scripted approach and the use of a constraint solver to compute virtual cameras was first proposed by Drucker. Subsequent research demonstrated how a script-based system could automatically switch cameras to view conversations between avatars in
2592-436: The third-person shooter shows the protagonist from an " over the shoulder shot " or "behind the back" perspective. Thus, the third-person perspective allows the game designer to create a more strongly characterized avatar and directs the player's attention as in watching a film. In contrast, a first-person perspective provides the player with greater immersion into the game universe. Third-person shooters allow players to see
2646-423: The view of the virtual camera. Kreylos' developments using the Kinect were covered among the works of others in the Kinect hacking and homebrew community in a New York Times article. Virtual cameras have been developed which allow a director to film motion capture and view the digital character's movements in real time in a pre-constructed digital environment, such as a house or spaceship. Resident Evil 5
2700-513: Was Cabal (1988), which inspired many of its own " Cabal clones," such as NAM-1975 (1990) and Wild Guns (1994). Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 cites Sega's Last Survivor (1988), released for arcades and then ported to the FM Towns and FM Towns Marty , featuring eight-player deathmatch. He notes that it has a perspective and split-screen similar to Xybots , but with entirely different gameplay and controls. In 1993, Namco released
2754-481: Was also a fully 3D third-person shooter released around this time, but as well as featuring an on-foot protagonist rather than a vehicle, utilised entirely polygonal 3D graphics. Tomb Raider (1996) by Eidos Interactive (now Square Enix Europe ) is claimed by some commentators as a third-person shooter, and Jonathan S. Harbour of the University of Advancing Technology argues that it's "largely responsible for
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#17328522651982808-437: Was influential in helping to redefine the third-person shooter genre, with its use of "over the shoulder" offset camera angles, where the camera is placed directly over the right shoulder and therefore doesn't obscure the action. An important gameplay mechanic that helped revolutionize third-person shooters in the past decade was the cover system . Koei 's WinBack (1999) has a cover system. Kill Switch (2003) features
2862-771: Was praised for its refined gameplay. In 2015, Nintendo published multiplayer third-person shooter game Splatoon for the Wii U , which was followed by two sequels for Nintendo Switch in 2017 and 2022 respectively, with Splatoon 2 being one of the console's highest selling games and Splatoon 3 becoming one of the fastest selling Switch games. In the late 2010s, the third-person shooter battle royale game Fortnite Battle Royale saw huge popularity. The survival horror games Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis were remade in 2019 and 2020 respectively, featuring third-person shooter gameplay similar to Resident Evil 4 . Virtual camera system In 3D video games ,
2916-610: Was the first video game to use the technology, which was developed for the 2009 film Avatar . The use of motion capture to control the position and orientation of a virtual camera enables the operator to intuitively move and aim the virtual camera by simply walking about and turning the virtual camera rig. A virtual camera rig consists of a portable monitor or tablet device, motion sensors, an optional support framework, and optional joystick or button controls that are commonly used to start or stop recording and adjust lens properties. In 1992, Michael McKenna of MIT's Media Lab demonstrated
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