Games - Free look

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	Games - Free look

Free look (also known as mouselook) is a term that describes the ability to move the mouse to rotate the player character's view in any number of type of computer and video games. It is almost always for 3d engines, and has been included on RPGs, real time strategy games, third-person shooters, first-person shooters, racing games, or flight simulators. Free look is nearly universal in modern games, but it was one of the significant technical breakthroughs of mid-1990s first-person perspective games. For instance, in the seminal game Doom, it was not possible for the player to angle his view up or down, though he had full control over looking left and right. Thus the mouse was used for both changing the player view and for player motion. 3D games for console systems often have an analog control pad dedicated to free look functionality.

The first game to incorporate true 3D free look using the mouse and keyboard control scheme was Terminator: Future Shock
published by Bethesda in 1995. The free look concept was originated by Robert Stoll, Original Story and Game designer, who worked on the game along with Ted Peterson. However, Terminator: Future Shock
did not become very popular and the free look control scheme was popularized by games such as Quake instead.

Free look was allowed in Duke Nukem 3D and Star Wars: Dark Forces but did not become popular until Quake (although some older first person games did have the facility for changing the vertical aspect of the view angle, if inconveniently). The reason for the delay in usage is that before fully 3-D games became popular/available, there was no need for looking at different planes of height and that the keyboard alone was the standard method of control. Mouse usage and switchover did not happen until Quake came out.

In addition to making first-person perspective games more immersive, free look also radically altered gameplay. For instance, players now routinely aim rockets or other explosive weapons down at the floor (rather than directly at enemies) in order to cause splash damage or to perform a rocket jump, such as in games like Quake III Arena or Unreal Tournament.

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