When did camera controls get inverted?

[Togath]

So after getting back into console gaming after having taken a break once the ps2 era ended...
Why are what used to be the "normal" controls now the "inverted" controls for most games?
When did things change?.. And why?

[KillianHawkeye]

I feel like camera controls have never been all that consistent, and they are also effected greatly by whether a game has a 1st-person or 3rd-person view. I am curious, though, if you're referring to the movement of the x-axis specifically (because that's the one that I find is usually different from game to game), or something else?

[Togath]

All axises.
And I mean 3rd person cameras(first person ones on a controller have never been something I could use).
Maybe I'd mainly played weird games in the ps2 era... Or maybe platformers and rpgs used a specific set of stuff back then? Stuff like Sly Cooper, or Dragon Quest 8(which were the first two that came to mind).
Trying to figure out how to word the camera controls I'm used to...
For side-to-side, if from behind you pushed left, it would go to showing your character's left side, and then their front.
For up/down, pushing forward would rotate the camera over their heads toward the ground in front of them.

[danzibr]

I can't speak for old games as a whole, but it sure seems to me that inverted was the norm. I started on the NES when I was about 4, btw. For more recent games (Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty come to mind) I have to go in to the config and change the controls to what I'm used to.

[Alent]

I can't speak for old games as a whole, but it sure seems to me that inverted was the norm.

I think this is actually correct. Most early 3D games were flight simulators, so the initial "free look" camera controls were set up to match the controls of the airplane they were chasing.

The thing that's slowly unified the different styles together is that many game devs, even the Japanese ones who typically suffer not-invented-here syndrome, have slowly migrated over towards middleware like Unity and Unreal that use the old flight sim interface norms.

[KillianHawkeye]

Trying to figure out how to word the camera controls I'm used to...
For side-to-side, if from behind you pushed left, it would go to showing your character's left side, and then their front.
For up/down, pushing forward would rotate the camera over their heads toward the ground in front of them.

Okay, the way I describe that is like you have an actual floating camera following you around (think Lakitu-cam from Mario 64) and you're controlling it's movements. This camera scheme works best when the camera distance is further away from your character.

Incidentally, unless the focus of the camera is to be viewing the character (rather than the character's surroundings), those controls ARE inverted; the camera rotates to the left and its view shifts to the right.

[Psyren]

I think this is actually correct. Most early 3D games were flight simulators, so the initial "free look" camera controls were set up to match the controls of the airplane they were chasing.

This - it's because joysticks were first used in flight sims, and in an airplane, pushing the stick forward lowers the aircraft's pitch.

For me it feels natural to invert a joystick and have a mouse played straight (up is up.)

[huttj509]

This - it's because joysticks were first used in flight sims, and in an airplane, pushing the stick forward lowers the aircraft's pitch.

For me it feels natural to invert a joystick and have a mouse played straight (up is up.)

What bugs me for a lot of games is my inclination varies.

Slow looking at the scenery? Inverted mouse vertical.

OhcrudIgottashootthat? Forward -> up is what feels instinctive.