Hi folks, it's time for me to use this forum for the first time.
If you've been hanging around mgdev or related IRC channels, you may be aware that I've been hard at work recently to bring Tremulous
more-interactive spectator modes. Many people who play the game frequently (and in particular, competitively) spend a lot of time spectating. Spectating is also the best way for new players to learn how to play well. Thus, why not make spectating more fun and exciting?
To that end,
I have created and enhanced several new spectator modes. They are being tested on mgdev right now for you to play with. When I finish tweaking the feature as per receieved feedback and finish cleaning up the code,
this feature will be put to svn/trunk for everyone to enjoy in 1.2. Don't forget that mgdev also has deadspec, so you can try it out while you're waiting to spawn, too (by the way, deadspec + stickyspec are going into trunk too; it's just taking a while because they're a big pain in the butt
).
Specifically,
we now have two different modes of mouse-controlled third person spectating available. You know the bind that switches from free-flying spec mode to follow spec mode? Press that a third time to find yourself in third-person view. Now, you can use the mouse to rotate a camera around the player you're following and look around. You may have seen this in some other FPS games, but now it's in Trem too. Cool, eh? Beats just passively watching, I say... BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
In my testing, I came to the conclusion that spectating someone who's wallwalking in third person is a big jerky mess (and has to be like that, really), so I came up with an alternate camera mode for that situation:
third-person shoulder view. While I only made it for wallwalkers, it turns out that I also think that view is pretty cool, so I fleshed it out some. In this view, imagine that your camera is stuck to a big pointy stick lodged into the back of the guy you're following. It moves with them, but you can still rotate it and look around using the mouse. By default,
shoulder-view is accessed when you are spectating in third person (see above) and that person starts to wallwalk. You can use cg_thirdPersonShoulderViewMode to change this . Set that cvar to 0 if you'd prefer to never switch to shoulder mode automatically. Set it to 2 if you'd prefer to use shoulder-view in place of regular third-person all the time.
But what can *I* do to improve this feature?Well, I'm so glad you (didn't) ask! This implementation has some extra cvars put in that allow you to determine a few minor bits of the system that we haven't quite decided on. Ultimately, they aren't planned to stay user-configurable, but for now, the feedback helps me determine what to keep.
cg_thirdPersonPitchFollow (default 0): Set this to 1 if you want your camera to move up/down with the aim of the person you're following (you move left/right with them regardless). On one hand, with this off, moving your camera around is much more natural and the view jerks around much less. On the other hand, with it on, you can more easily see where they are aiming. Which mode should stay? I like 0. Kevlarman likes 1. Try it out and tell us what to keep.
actually this is broken right now. hold off on that please cg_shoulderViewOverride (default 0): Setting this cvar to 1 activates the following cvars: cg_shoulderViewUp cg_shoulderViewRight cg_shoulderViewForward. By doing so, the game ignores the position offsets (from the character's regular first-person view position) that I designed and uses those three cvars instead. Do you think the view is crappy when using shoulder-view from class X? Turn on Override and mess with different locations. Then post here some triplets of (up, right, down) you think are better for each class. We'll try them out and decide, with your feedback.
* Note: No, there are not currently any plans to make either form of third-person mode available while playing. Please do not make this thread about that. This thread is for feedback on these modes while spectating only. 
