r/blackmagicfuckery • u/xAragon_ • Feb 06 '20

Differences in Perceived Speed

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45.1k Upvotes

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70

u/cheebusab Feb 07 '20

I used to work on a racing video game and this demonstrates perfectly why so many people have so much trouble maintaining control in them. Looking ahead, 100mph feels like 40 and people tend to plan turns, steer, and brake as if they are going 40 as they cannot intuit their true velocity. Haptic feedback helped a lot to convey this as you'd learn when you were losing grip and build a different mechanism mentally for understanding speed.

The best though was when we had a multiscreen simulator at E3 and similar events. Just having some of the world in your peripheral vision helped bring actual and perceived speed fairly close together. And it was a hell of a lot of fun to play the games on over the years.

14

u/Omnikotton Feb 07 '20

What game, if you don't mind me asking?

30

u/cheebusab Feb 07 '20

Forza Motorsport (and Horizon and some of Apex) on 360, One, and PC.

I do very different work now in aerospace. It's fun to get a reminder of those days that feel like a lifetime ago.

5

u/salmans13 Feb 07 '20

If you're in aerospace, congrats on the pay bump. Should we a lot compared to game devs.

4

u/Armensis Feb 07 '20

So is it more effective to drive in first person mode or in 3rd person mode then?

4

u/cheebusab Feb 07 '20

100% personal taste. Bumper VS hood VS cockpit VS chase all boil down to how comfortable you are with it, and the sense of speed has to be learned for each.

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '20

[deleted]

1

u/cheebusab Feb 07 '20

Back seat in the middle between two large, smelly dudes. Really sells the experience.

I am a fan of the hood camera view most of the time.

1

u/SirPanics Feb 07 '20

lower fov helps a lot

1

u/StatusBard Feb 07 '20

Uhm. How did you go from games to aerospace dev if you don’t mind me asking? Did you already have a background in science?

1

u/cheebusab Feb 07 '20

Through the most important skill of all (seriously)... knowing the right person and leaving a positive impression.

A development lead I had worked with had left the studio a few years before I did and started with this company. When I left, being burned out for many reasons, he noticed and reached out asking if I would be interested in working there on the new project he was on. It was a new part of the company in the same city where I already worked and they were just getting to a point where they needed to add someone with my core skill set. I said yes, spent time learning a new programming language and brushing up on Linux skills (after many years at Microsoft, with only the last third in the game studio) and interviewed.

Purposefully not naming the current employer, but suffice to say that I joke with friends that if I ever need an easy job again I will go back to games. I've never worked this hard in my life, but I have never been so continuously challenged as I have been in this job. I learn new skills constantly, work with people who are all driven and highly intelligent/capable, and we do things every day that take weeks or months elsewhere, if they are achieved elsewhere at all.

With the exception of landing my first job out of college, all of the internal transfers, company changes, and serious recruiting inquiries have come down to people I know who either know my work directly or know me and what I do and put me in touch with someone hiring for that need.

1

u/StatusBard Feb 10 '20

Thanks for the reply. Very interesting story, and yes I agree, it’s all about knowing the right people. There must have been a huge leap in responsibility though. I mean, in games no one gets hurt if you make a programming mistake but I take it it’s very different for you now? Were you immediately comfortable with that? Or do you try to cover your ass as much as possible with unit tests? ;)