Do you invert the Y axis in FPSs?

The Game Room
#1

I do, because some of the first games I played were my dad’s flight sims. I got used to the “down = up” idea, so it was natural to invert the Y axis when I started playing FPSs. My brother also does because he just used whatever options I had set for the game. But outside of my family, I can’t remember specifically noticing anyone else who inverts the Y axis. Whenever I take over a controller or keyboard/mouse from someone it seems like 100% of the time I have to immediately change the settings.

So I’m curious what the ratio is. From my experience (and the fact that it’s the default setting) I’m fairly sure non-inverters are the majority, but by how much?

#2

Strange, some of the first games I played were flight simulators as well, but I managed get used to the norm for FPS’s. I don’t really have a problem switching if I play a flight sim, though.

#3

Yep. I can’t function without inverting the Y-axis. Drives me batty to try to play it the default way. Again, probably because I played flight sims early in my life.

#4

I invert, but not because I ever played flight sims (I didn’t).
Was Quake 2 inverted by default? If so, that is probably why I play like that, as that was the first game I ever played that had the type of controls we use for FPS now.
Not that I ever play FPS’s anymore.

#5

I push up to look up. I remember GoldenEye on N64 was the first game to introduce me to the inversion system- totally messes me up. And I don’t play simulation games really for the record.

#6

I think so. Or at least, I think that in many early FPSs that inverted was the default.

#7

I do. I wonder why it went to non-inverted as the standard. Seems to me that with FPSs being developed out of the flight sim world, the change would stick.

How do FPSs work on PCs, with keyboard/mouse? Which peripheral controls the head movement?

#8

Hell no. Give me the usual up-is-up controls, please. On flight simulators, I don’t mind the inverted controls, though.

#9

For me, up is up in an FPS, but in a flight simulator it makes sense for up to be down and vice versa.

#10

Here’s the weird thing for me: I want it to change according to my view.

When I’m running down a corridor, and I want my character to look up at the ceiling, I want it inverted. That is, I want to mimick tilting the head back by tilting the joystick down.

But when I’m looking down a scope and I need to adjust my shot a little to high and to the left, I want to push the controller up and left. That is, I don’t want it inverted.

This is because, to me, moving your character’s arms should be literal - up is up- but moving your character’s head should be like an airplane (or your actual head) - down means up. As a result, I’m always terrible at getting it right. I keep screwing it up when I play Brothers in Arms because of all the second-floor-window-watching coupled with all the zoom-down-your-sights aiming.

Thus, I never play FPSs. I’ll stick to my flight sims, TYVM.

#11

This is exactly why I tend to only play FPS on PC (not to stir up that debate… just a statement). It’s also why third person shooters like MGS4 on the PS3 are so hard for me to get used to playing.

But that made me realize I can’t answer the poll. With a mouse, up is look up, with an analog stick, down is up. At least I think so, I’m at work so I can’t fire up Call of Duty and check.

Anyone else do this?

#12

Nope. And I’m glad you specified what you meant by the answers since some games invert what they mean by invert. Drives me batty it does.

#13

I cannot function without the inversion – on the game controllers, anyway; I’m with Another Stranger Me on the mouse up is up dealio…

A couple of weekends ago I was playing CoD-Modern Warfare 2 with my nephew and he had to have it uninverted. Every time we switched over, I was lost for the first 10 seconds until I could flip the flop.

Oddly, though, after playing Skate 2 for far too many hours, where I love to make little movies with ther replay functions, I got all ass-backwards. You can’t invert anything within the little video editing feature, so after hours of using that (pusing up to “look” up) and going back to FPS … it was like instant dyslexia. I had to retrain myself practically.

#14

Interesting…it’s a lot closer than I thought it would be (I was expecting about 25% invert, 75% not). And I never considered that some people would invert with the mouse and not with the analog stick, or vice-versa, although this does make some sense as an analog stick is more like a joystick than a mouse is. Also never considered Chessic Sense’s idea about inverting only some of the time.

#15

I wonder if age has anything to do with it, since it seems hard for me to imagine that anyone who grew up playing Top Gun on the NES could prefer the non-inverted controls.

#16

Hi. I played a lot of Top Gun. I prefer my missionary control scheme.

#17

Weirdo.

#18

Invert for flight/space sims on a stick/thumb, non-invert for anything else, non-invert for flight sims played with a mouse.

And yes, it always takes a minute or so to get used to it again when I go from one environment to the other.

#19

Invert. I didn’t play flight sims much but it just makes more sense to me. I think about moving the head rather than moving to where I want to look.

#20

I played flight and space sims long before FPS was a twinkling in John Carmack’s eye but there’s a division in my mind between the two of them. So I feel no need to invert.

I don’t recall any early FPS that was inverted by default though Quake definitely had the option. I recall discussions at that point with people who were more comfortable with the mouse inverted.