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Why aiming in your game feels like shit: bad aim mechanics explained

jigglet

Banned
I posted this in another thread but with the Halo beta going on (I'll return to this later) I thought this deserved a thread of its own.

If you've ever wondered why aiming in your game felt like shit? Or why it feels so weird to switch from one shooter to another, read on.

Let's start with what GOOD aiming controls are. Good aiming controls take us close to 1:1 movement. 1:1 basically means one unit of movement in your joystick equates to one unit of movement on the screen. It's linear, like this:

iaNnZDR.jpg


This is your optimal state. It's nice, clean, and consistent. Everything else is unpredictable. This is what all games should strive for, however...

A lot of the time, game controls aren't linear. Developers, trying to be too clever, will implement all sorts of crazy ideas. The most common is aim acceleration, which means the further you hold left for example, the faster the cursor goes. So pegging the stick half way may equate to one unit in cursor movement, HOWEVER peg it all the way (double the distance in stick movement) may equate to three units in cursor movement (instead of two). Basically - your crosshair moves faster depending on how far you peg the stick.

So it ends up looking like this:


nonlinear_functions_graph_3.jpg



This originated from the early days of console when no one was used to playing with dual analogue controls, so they were trying to find all sorts of unique solutions to help ease people into them. Those days are over, yet developers still cling onto these old concepts for some weird reason, even though industry leading games like BF and COD have largely moved away from them. The preferred controller aids these days are aim assist or bullet magnetism, not weird aim acceleration curves.

The very worst examples of this in the industry are Halo 5 and Rainbow Six Siege (console version). They don't only have aim acceleration, but they have acceleration jumps, which means it's not even a curve like you see above...its a wavy line with steps. Each of these games got about 3-4 aim mechanic updates over their lifecycle - they got better, but are still quite bad and still stand out as the two of the worst examples in the industry.

So now we come to Halo Infinite. I was reading comments last night about how the controls felt a bit off. I thought: oh fuck here we go again. It gave me flashbacks of Halo 5's launch where so many of us had to spend months begging on Reddit and Halo's forums for a fix. Luckily I've moved to PC as I'm sure it's the same team behind the controls.

Input latency also plays a role, as does a low or inconsistent framerate, but they are small potatoes compared to a bad aim mechanic. Think about how clean and crisp Destiny feels @ 30fps. Anyway I hope that sheds some light why some games have aim mechanics that feel like shit, and why switching between two games in the same genre (e.g. FPS to FPS) with the same framerate might feel day and night.
 
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PSYGN

Member
I wish they had universal aim control profiles on console, could even put it under accessibility so devs feel compelled to use it.

Two other things that mess with the aim:
  • Deadzone. Some games have way too much deadzone making it hard to make fine adjustments to your aim.
  • Aim assist strength. Some games have way too much aim assist and aiming near the enemy slows your aim down sensitivity way too much, making it more of a struggle to line your aim up with the enemy running perpendicular to you if you aim a little behind at the start.
I do appreciate a lot of the games as of recent have fine aim controls.
 
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jigglet

Banned
I've heard excuses that some games do it to give a sense of weight or because the developers don't intend your character to be agile, but I don't buy that excuse.

Yes it's all horseshit. I remember seeing this interview with the Halo 5 sandbox team talking about all this stuff they were doing to optimise the Halo 5 controls. All I could think was: you guys are trying to hard to justify your jobs. Take the easy route, make it 1:1 like everyone wants, shut the fuck up, and move on. No one wants your weird experimental shit that all good devs tossed out the window 15 years ago.

Everything you said about adding more weight etc, that should apply to the left stick. If any devs ever talk about it relative to the right stick, they are clueless.
 
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01011001

Banned
there are a few factual errors in your text there OP

aim acceleration IS NOT what you said it is.
aim acceleration means that your camera movement gets faster over time NOT exponentially faster the further you press the stick.

what your graph shows is a sensitivity curve. LINEAR is also a sensitivity curve

and NO linear is not optimal, at least not for everyone. linear is good if you want absolute consistency, but if you want more precision that second graph you showed there is way better.

pretty sure you are not actually informed that well about what you're talking here.
basically not a single game has a true linear curve for example, you can make one in Apex and Titanfall 2 if you go into advanced settings, but I wouldn't recommend that as it means you need a gigantic deadzone to compensate for the drift it brings with it
 
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jigglet

Banned
aim acceleration means that your camera movement gets faster over time NOT exponentially faster the further you press the stick.

what your graph shows is a sensitivity curve. LINEAR is also a sensitivity curve

Yeah I get it, but I figured if I just put a straight line at a minor incline it would be difficult to describe what was going on. But yes an exponential curve isn't right either.

That being said I disagree it provides more precision. In a third person game where all it does is move the camera, ala Zelda? Sure, I can buy that. But for any shooting mechanic, it is never ideal to have any acceleration at all. All the top tier aim mechanics are very close to 1:1, like BF and COD.
 
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01011001

Banned
Yeah I get it, but I figured if I just put a straight line at a minor incline it would be difficult to describe what was going on. But yes an exponential curve isn't right either.

That being said I disagree it provides more precision. In a third person game where all it does is move the camera, ala Zelda? Sure, I can buy that. But for any shooting mechanic, it is never ideal to have any acceleration at all.

again you are talking about acceleration and mixing it with sensitivity curve, they are not the same.

that second graph you show here is basically what the standard aiming settings in Apex Legends looks like. maybe a slight bit more linear than that but it's not far off.

would you say the aiming in Apex is bad? (and therefore also in Titanfall and Modern Warfare as the standard settings of Apex are based on those)
 
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jigglet

Banned
again you are talking about acceleration and mixing it with sensitivity curve, they are not the same.

that second graph you show here is basically what the standard aiming settings in Apex Legends looks like. maybe a slight bit more linear than that but it's not far off.

would you say the aiming in Apex is bad? (and therefore also in Titanfall and Modern Warfare as the standard settings of Apex are based on those)

I haven't seen the Apex or TF curve but I've seen the COD ones. I spent about 7 years working with controller curves and can say there is very little acceleration happening in COD.
 

01011001

Banned
I haven't seen the Apex or TF curve but I've seen the COD ones. I spent about 7 years working with controller curves and can say there is very little acceleration happening in COD.

YOU ARE AGAIN USING THE WORD ACCELERATION... but funnily enough CoD has acceleration, like actual acceleration. as does Titanfall if you use the standard settings.

I turn acceleration off in the advanced settings of course but the standard settings use slightly acceleration. (they call it "ramp-up" in apex tho)

and yeah, that curve up there is basically what CoD and Apex use. this is what almost every shooter with decent stick aiming uses as the standard setting.

the thing is, having a curve is good, you have way more fine movement in the inner circle of the stick, but can go full 180° by flicking the stick.

even if you set the curve to linear, almost no game actually uses a true linear curve. in Apex the term true linear is used to describe going into the advanced settings and settings the curve to 0.
the game has a linear settings in the normal control settings, that setting is not even close to the true linear 0 of the advanced settings. and that's true for every game that doesn't let you change the curve in detail.

and most of the games most people would agree have Great aiming controls use a curve that looks like that second one
 
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jigglet

Banned
Well I never said there was no acceleration, even in the original post I wrote "even though industry leading games like BF and COD have largely moved away from them", and by "largely" I meant it still has them but not to the extremes that we saw in the early 2000's.

I also wrote:

"The very worst examples of this in the industry are Halo 5 and Rainbow Six Siege (console version). They don't only have aim acceleration, but they have acceleration jumps, which means it's not even a curve like you see above...its a wavy line with steps."

This is perhaps the core of my point which I failed to put enough focus on. This is the very worst type of curve which is near impossible to develop muscle memory around. I got great at both games but that was only after many years of practice, and it shouldn't take years of practice to become competent at the most basic mechanic in the game (aiming).
 
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01011001

Banned
Well I never said there was no acceleration, even in the original post I wrote "even though industry leading games like BF and COD have largely moved away from them", and by "largely" I meant it still has them but not to the extremes that we saw in the early 2000's.

I also wrote:

"The very worst examples of this in the industry are Halo 5 and Rainbow Six Siege (console version). They don't only have aim acceleration, but they have acceleration jumps, which means it's not even a curve like you see above...its a wavy line with steps."

This is perhaps the core of my point which I failed to put enough focus on. This is the very worst type of curve which is near impossible to develop muscle memory around. I got great at both games but that was only after many years of practice.

That curve is still not acceleration, it's a sensitivity curve.

aim acceleration means (usually) that the longer you hold the stick in any direction, the faster you turn...
as in, you move the stick right to the edge but you don't immediately arw at 100% turn speed, but you instead have to wait and can see the camera speeding up over time even tho you had your stick at 100% the whole time... THAT IS ACCELERATION

a sensitivity curve (as shown in your graphs) changes how fast you turn in relation to how far you move the stick.
moving the stick to 100% ON ANY curve will always give you 100% turn speed if no acceleration is present.
the only thing a curve changes is the in-between, as in 10% stick movement might only give you 7% turn speed, BUT it's always consistent if no acceleration is applied. so if you have a curve like that where 10% stick movment is 7% turn speed, that's gonna be always exactly that no matter how long you hold it there.

these are 2 very different things and not at all related.

Titanfall, CoD and Apex use a standard sensitivity curve that looks almost exactly like your second image, and if not turned off they also have over-time-acceleration applied if you hold the stick to the 100% position.

so TL;DR:

Acceleration = Speed increase over time (usually applied after you move the stick to the very edge)

Sensitivity Curve = exponential speed increase in relation to the amount of stick movement (what you see in the graph in the OP)

my Apex Settings (in order you find them in the menu, I'm not gonna typenout all the options) are:

0
2
13

500
440
0
0
0
0

200
150
250
180
0
0

just in case you play Apex and wonder what I would consider optimal aiming settings
 
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there are a few factual errors in your text there OP

aim acceleration IS NOT what you said it is.
aim acceleration means that your camera movement gets faster over time NOT exponentially faster the further you press the stick.

what your graph shows is a sensitivity curve. LINEAR is also a sensitivity curve
You're mostly right but I would say a curve can still qualify as 'acceleration'. These aren't well-defined terms and it's definitely still acceleration in the common sense. But yeah linear isn't the thing for most people.

Everything you said about adding more weight etc, that should apply to the left stick. If any devs ever talk about it relative to the right stick, they are clueless.
Yeah, play PUBG on PC. The game is plenty 'weighty', and yet somehow you can still move your mouse around like any other normal shooter on PC.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Metro Exodus and Hunt Showdown have dogshit stick aiming. (have not played next gen upgrade)

I've heard excuses that some games do it to give a sense of weight or because the developers don't intend your character to be agile, but I don't buy that excuse.
That WWII shooter called Enlisted does that heavy feeling lag aiming too. Probably the worst aiming I've felt in a shooter in a long time.
 

01011001

Banned
You're mostly right but I would say a curve can still qualify as 'acceleration'. These aren't well-defined terms and it's definitely still acceleration in the common sense. But yeah linear isn't the thing for most people.

well no, because a linear aiming setting would then still have "acceleration" by that definition, which in the end would mean the whole term is useless as it would simply describe the act of moving the stick.

and yes some developers mislabeled these in the past, but I'm not gonna base terms I use on the incompetence of game devs
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
In games like Halo 5 and Siege you can. They are woeful. I once mapped out their curves using my PC analysis tools and felt like vomiting lol
I find Siege to have really good aiming on console. So much so that I wish I could apply it to every shooter in the future with the exact settings. Thousands of hours give it some bias, but I've had my settings the same for most of that play time and I feel it's perfect.

That being said I do adapt very quickly to other shooters when I jump between them.

And yes some games have terrible aiming. Metro Exodus was too slow even at max sensitivity. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts has the same issue.

Overall the Battlefield titles offer the most customization and fine tuning, and more games need to give more options.
 
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Keihart

Member
TLDR, OP is wrong, Aceleration is predictable and 1:1 only works on mouse like inputs.

OP, you are misunderstanding why aiming feels different in different games, it doesn't have much to do with the input method ( at least in most competent shooters) and it has more to do with what type of aiming is required by the game.

As a good example, Siege VS CSGO VS Quake.
In Siege, even more so than CSGO, it's all about crosshair placement, CSGO it's mostly about crosshair placement but even more so compensating recoil and Quake is all about tracking.
I can perfectly play Siege with a control on PC vs Mouse, mostly because i'm used to place my crosshair. Landing 3 headshots to kill in CSGO or Quake with a stick? no shot.
 
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Yup it's great and highly praised.
Nope, it's bad and highly criticized.

Fine, I'll be the sucker who actually tries to discuss something here. On PC/mouse there is very little granularity. The difference between 3 and 4 is huge even at low DPIs. Most games have figured this shit out. There are utilities to convert sensitivity between games, and they report 20% error for my settings going to Destiny. I can either pick way too fast compared to other games, or way too slow. Literally every other game I play I can get within a fraction of a percent and get the exact same feel between games. Also the ADS sensitivity is goofy. There's only one setting no matter the zoom level.

Which brings us to controller settings. Max sensitivity is pretty slow. There is no ADS modifier. There is no ability to adjust vertical separately from horizontal. You really can't get the game to control the way you want it to.

And that's pretty pathetic for a long-term GaaS title.

Sure Destiny gets a lot of praise for 'gunplay' but that's tangential to the actual point (aim mechanics) of this thread. Destiny had good input lag for 30fps, it has satisfying sound design and animations especially when headshotting things, and the massive aim assist/magnetism plays into it to. Nobody likes missing so of course getting more hits than you're used to in other games feels good.

Ahh another thread where I think I might learn something but it’s just everyone saying everyone else is wrong and I again learn nothing.
Ehh, if you read the OP and 01011001's responses you should be able to learn, sure there are some shitposts but by this forum's standards this thread is actually doing pretty well.
well no, because a linear aiming setting would then still have "acceleration" by that definition, which in the end would mean the whole term is useless as it would simply describe the act of moving the stick.

and yes some developers mislabeled these in the past, but I'm not gonna base terms I use on the incompetence of game devs
It's not entirely useless as a term as a line that curves up is understood to be 'positive' acceleration, a line that curves down is 'negative' acceleration, and a straight line is no acceleration. If we want to be super pedantic with 'time-based acceleration' we shouldn't just say acceleration either, we should probably say angular acceleration.

But I'm really not trying to argue with you. You're correct that the terminology has been fucked by people who don't know what they're talking about. As to where the actual blame goes... I don't know, the term "mouse acceleration" describes the same basic concept and that has been thrown around for a long time now. That's not how it's labeled in Windows, it's "Enhance Pointer Precision" there, and even though that's a stupid name as well I'm not sure we can blame Microsoft for people calling it "acceleration".
 
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II_JumPeR_I

Member
Aim acceleration is my biggest enemy when it comes to new shooters on consoles.
Doom 2016 Alpha with aim acceleration was terrible. But ID listened and gave options to remove it. Game played waay better without aim acceleration.

Halo Infinite currently feels very bad aswell. You cant fully deactivate aim acceleration.
 
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Fare thee well

Neophyte
Don't forget having high frame rates. If your screen only has a 60hz max refresh rate, you will suffer accuracy against people who have 100+ hz. That smoothness makes allllll the difference in a competitive pc shooter; at least from my experience.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
Yes it's all horseshit. I remember seeing this interview with the Halo 5 sandbox team talking about all this stuff they were doing to optimise the Halo 5 controls. All I could think was: you guys are trying to hard to justify your jobs. Take the easy route, make it 1:1 like everyone wants, shut the fuck up, and move on. No one wants your weird experimental shit that all good devs tossed out the window 15 years ago.

Everything you said about adding more weight etc, that should apply to the left stick. If any devs ever talk about it relative to the right stick, they are clueless.
1:1 mapping sucks though for games that use controllers exclusively though. A mouse is different, you don't need aim acceleration etc for a mouse. For a controller you do.

Halo 5s controls are among the best in any shooter on consoles to date. The aiming is perfect with a controller.
 

nivix

Neo Member
OP's heart is in the right place, but his reasoning is all wrong.
Ahh another thread where I think I might learn something but it’s just everyone saying everyone else is wrong and I again learn nothing.
Well, I'll throw some notes together for you. Here's what I've found works well as a solid starting point for Gamepad Look Controls.

Values/Settings
ElapsedTime - Time since last update, in seconds.
PitchRate - User applied vertical analog stick movement, -1 to 1.
YawRate - User applied horizontal analog stick movement, -1 to 1.
PitchSensitivity - Desired pitch rate in degrees per second. Default, 120.
YawSensitivity - Desired yaw rate in degrees per second. Default, 160.
ResponseCurve - Magnitude of the input adjustment. 1 is linear. Greater values give smaller movements closer to the center and larger movements closer to the edge. Default, 2.
ExtraPitch - Extra pitch to apply when at max input. Generally shouldn't be used. Default, 0.
ExtraYaw - Extra yaw to apply when at max input. Can allow for quicker turns. Default, 220.
RampUpDelay - How long to wait before applying Extra Pitch/Yaw, in seconds. Default, 0.
RampUpTime - How long it takes to reach total Extra Pitch/Yaw, in seconds. Default, 0.65.
RampUpLag - Add a slower or faster build-up to the acceleration of Extra Pitch/Yaw. 1 is linear. Greater values slowly add extra input and then pick up speed. Default, 1.5.
InnerDeadzone - The amount of input to ignore near center, 0 to 0.5. Default, 0.15.
OuterDeadzone - The amount of input to ignore near the edge, 0.85 to 1. Default, 0.99.

Use a Radial Deadzone Correction. Applying deadzone calculations independently will give you a cross shaped pattern that is not good for these types of games.

Next, determine if the user input is at max (edge). Keep track of how long it has been there.

Adjust Pitch/Yaw Rates using the Response Curve:
AdjustedPitchRate = pow(abs(PitchRate), ResponseCurve) * sign(PitchRate)

Calculate the "final" Pitch/Yaw Rates:
FinalPitch = PitchSensitivity * AdjustedPitchRate * ElapsedTime

If Time at Max Input is greater than Ramp Up Delay, apply the Extra Pitch/Yaw:
FinalPitch += pow(clamp((TimeAtMaxInput - RampUpDelay) /RampUpTime, 0, 1) RampUpLag) * ExtraPitch *AdjustedPitchRate * ElapsedTime

Finally, make these calculations adjustable by the users. CoD, Titanfall, Apex, Battlefield are all great examples.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I think these are getting worse. What's weird is that third person shooting feels much better in the majority of games.

Acceleration is the worst for tweaking, but it's a necessary evil. I think the big downfall on consoles is the different sensitivities required per scope. It's fkn awful. Games are at least providing different sens. per scope magnification but it's such a twat to configure each and as they are multipliers when you improve and nudge your sens. up, you have to recalibrate. I prefer consistency.

Spare a thought for games that don't have per magnification sens. as well. Nightmare going between being fast enough for CQC to grabbing a sniper or DMR with zoom floating all round the place. With a mouse, it all depends on how fast/slow you move your hand.

With games that use hip fire or non ADS weapons, it completely fucks up the entire experience.
 
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Copium level: TEXT WALLS !
Hey, speaking of useless shit posts... I know you struggle to read more than one paragraph, and stare in awe at those of us who can type said paragraph in under 20 minutes but maybe instead of vomiting a whole line of completely irrelevant Twitch-speak you can just quietly jerk off to some more anime until you figure out how to contribute something, even if it's just a shitpost with an ounce of wit.
 
Hey, speaking of useless shit posts... I know you struggle to read more than one paragraph, and stare in awe at those of us who can type said paragraph in under 20 minutes but maybe instead of vomiting a whole line of completely irrelevant Twitch-speak you can just quietly jerk off to some more anime until you figure out how to contribute something, even if it's just a shitpost with an ounce of wit.
Tmmbgrl.jpg

Holy shit! Get a load if this guy! Listen here all of these graphs and tech shit the op post IS coaping with the fact you or he aren't good enough and can't take the loss just like scrubs who blame the netcode or a certain character or mechanic, a good player should adapt to the mechanics of the game even if they feel "different" from other games THAT'S what seprates the Daigos of the world from the LTG ones.
 
Holy shit! Get a load if this guy! Listen here all of these graphs and tech shit the op post IS coaping with the fact you or he aren't good enough and can't take the loss just like scrubs who blame the netcode or a certain character or mechanic, a good player should adapt to the mechanics of the game even if they feel "different" from other games THAT'S what seprates the Daigos of the world from the LTG ones.
Ahh yes, Daigo, the guy that rolled up with a Hit Box instead of a standard DualShock, omg the COAPIUM amirite poggers!??!

Holy shit! Drink more water so you can get back to your jerkoff corner quicker.
 

TonyK

Member
I remember this when Uncharted 3 came out. They changed the aim for worse, but the thing that drove me nuts was that Naughty assured that they were the same. So, really people making the game didn't notice the difference. At the end, players went to Naughty Dog to explain to developers the difference and how to correct it. Thanks to that, they added the new control (new means equal to Uncharted 2) in a patch.
 

22•22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Does changing FOV settings fuck with your current saim settings? I've never figured out if that's indeed the case or it's just in my head... I always feel the need to adjust after changing FOV
 
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Skifi28

Member
Holy shit! Get a load if this guy! Listen here all of these graphs and tech shit the op post IS coaping with the fact you or he aren't good enough and can't take the loss just like scrubs who blame the netcode or a certain character or mechanic, a good player should adapt to the mechanics of the game even if they feel "different" from other games THAT'S what seprates the Daigos of the world from the LTG ones.
Your so c00l can i folow you on twiter??!??? pl0x
 
Ahh yes, Daigo, the guy that rolled up with a Hit Box instead of a standard DualShock, omg the COAPIUM amirite poggers!??!

Holy shit! Drink more water so you can get back to your jerkoff corner quicker.
You're so fixated on masturbation guy, you need help.

As for using hitbox you speak like it's some kind of cheating device when it's literally a keyboard.

Your so c00l can i folow you on twiter??!??? pl0x
Im l33t b1tch!
 

junguler

Banned
i'm usually able to completely ignore bad aiming mechanics on third person games either by shooting from the hip or mainly using melee/stealth combat but i understand how a first person shooter must feel like shit if the aiming system is not right, i'm not able to play first person games anymore so this doesn't bother me being a controller only gamer. as for the best first person games where it feels amazing to shoot it must be the call of duty franchise, they nail the feeling and no-one does/did it better.
 
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