Why do games need inversion along the Y axis? The mystery of the inverted mouse What is inversion in games

1. Linear transformation of a complex variable

can be represented in the form

and defines a transformation in the plane of this variable, which is reduced to its rotation by an angle a, similar to a transformation with a similarity coefficient and parallel transfer to a vector represented by a complex number

The general fractional linear transformation can be represented by the formula

It follows that the general circular transformation of the plane is reduced to movement and to the transformation expressed by the formula

where a is a real number.

Let's perform a mirror reflection relative to the real axis and consider the transformation

which is called inversion.

The circle expressed by the equation

is called the circle of inversion, and its center is the center of inversion. For simplicity, placing the center of inversion at the origin of coordinates, we obtain a simpler formula

from which it is easy to see that the points corresponding to the inversion lie on the same straight line emanating from the center of the inversion, and if one of them lies inside, then the other is outside the inversion circle, and their distances from the center are connected so that

A point located on the inversion circle turns into itself. The center of inversion does not have a corresponding point, but for generality it is said to go to the point at infinity of the plane.

Any circle can be defined by the equation

where are real, complex conjugate numbers. The circle degenerates into a straight line at After replacement

equation (3) will take the form

Thus, during inversion, a circle is transformed into a circle if it does not pass through the center of inversion, and into a straight line if it passes through it, while the straight line is transformed into a circle passing through the center of inversion.

Differentiating (1), we obtain

We obtained the relationship between the linear elements of the plane before and after inversion

2. The real and imaginary parts of a number which are the rectangular coordinates of a point can be considered as curvilinear coordinates for an inverted point. The rectangular coordinates of the latter are expressed in terms of x and y using the formulas

directly following from (2).

To clarify the nature of the coordinate network, we note that lines that were straight before the transformation will turn, generally speaking, into circles passing through the origin, and only straight lines will remain straight and turn into themselves. On the other hand, from the conformality of the transformation it follows that the circles are orthogonal to the line and the circle to the line. Thus, the coordinate network consists of two families of circles touching at one point two mutually perpendicular directions. Each of these families is called a parabolic pencil of circles (Fig. 47),

and the bundles are conjugated with each other. We will call the network formed by these bundles a network of circles of the first kind.

From (4) it follows that the linear element of the plane related to curvilinear coordinates, which we will call circular coordinates of the first kind, has the form

3. Returning to the general case of inversion at and making an additional parallel shift by a vector corresponding to a complex number

we get a transformation expressed by the formula

With this transformation, the origin of the coordinates and the point at infinity will turn into points with affixes

and a bundle of straight lines passing through the origin of coordinates - into an elliptic bundle of circles, i.e., into a collection of circles that pass through these points.

A family of circles with a center at the origin will be transformed, under the same transformation, into a hyperbolic pencil conjugate to the specified elliptic pencil, i.e., into a set of circles intersecting at right angles all the circles of a given elliptic pencil. We will call the network formed by both of these bundles a network of circles of the second kind (Fig. 48).

How to remove inversion?

Master's answer:

Mouse inversion is a kind of operating state when it works “in reverse”. That is, we move the mouse to the right, and its cursor moves to the left, and vice versa. It would seem, what is this for? But in fact, this function is very convenient for fans of computer games, and also greatly simplifies the life of left-handed people while working at the computer. But what can we do if inversion bothers us? Removing it is a matter of a few minutes; you just need to determine the cause of its occurrence.

Let's go to the mouse settings. They will have an item to control its inversion (turn on/off). Click the turn off button. In the same way, you can enable inversion by making adjustments along the X and Y axes (by moving the corresponding sliders to the right). Mouse inversion is very convenient for computer games, but for normal operation.

If the control panel and mouse settings do not contain anything like this, click “Start”, then “Run” (or win+r) and enter regedit. Let's find the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse and look at the SwapMouseButtons value. If it is indicated as 1, then you need to change the value to 0, then the inversion will be disabled.

If an inversion suddenly appears, you can roll back the system back to a point in time when there was no inversion.

You can try to remove the mouse through the dispatcher. After this, you need to clean the registry with CCleaner, or something stronger. Next, we restart the computer and connect/install the mouse again. Now it should work as if “from scratch”, without inversion.

Let's download and reinstall the driver for our mouse. The problem could be caused by a simple thing - if the mouse is wireless, then the battery could simply be dead, which directly affects how it works. In this case, an unwanted inversion may occur. Let's just change the batteries and test the controller.

Let's go to the start menu/settings/control panel. Select the mouse here and the “Buttons” tab. It is likely that there is a checkmark next to the “for left-handed” item. If this is the case, put it next to “for right-handers”, then the inversion will disappear (or vice versa if you are left-handed). Some games contain a special function to disable inversion. Let's go to the controller management menu item and select the inversion button, and then disable it.

The Mystery of the Upside Down Mouse

"Do-o-own is the new U-u-up!"
Thom Yorke

Introduction

I've been using an inverted mouse for gaming for a long time. And there are many of us: although we are not the majority, we are not a statistical error either. And there is no worse insult than going into the game settings and not seeing the options there "invert mouse". This happens rarely, but it does happen. Despite the fact that technically there is no explanation for this. It is usually possible to turn the mouse over yourself, through the game files, but it’s unpleasant when you are ignored. There are also developers who, although adequate enough to create the option, will not always work. For example, if my memory serves me right, in WoWP In free view mode, the mouse is reset to standard. It's not fatal, but it's also somehow offensive. And considering that control in games is generally a topic of great interest to me, it’s doubly offensive.

And if game makers allow themselves such an attitude, what can we say about other players. Most people are perplexed about who needs to turn the mouse over and why. And some people don’t even know what this option is and sometimes confuse it with rearranging the buttons for the left hand, etc. For those who don’t really understand the meaning of mouse inversion, I’ll now dot the i’s. As I understand it. Moreover, I will convincingly explain why, from a logical point of view, an inverted mouse is no less “correct” than a standard one.

Just in case, let me clarify that we mean shooter-like action games with 1st and 3rd person views. Of course, “hidden objects”, although with a view from the eyes, will not fall into this category, and neither will other games with a cursor.

Let's start with a definition, for clarity. Strictly speaking, inverted is a control layout in which moving the controller toward itself shifts the field of view upward and, conversely, moving away from itself moves the field of view downward. Formulations like “where up is down”, “mirrored vertically”, “not as usual, but upside down” are intuitively clear, but formally not correct * ( *however, this is true regarding the software implementation; the Y-axis actually changes sign to the opposite). Because, I repeat, from a logical point of view, inversion is a completely normal and not particularly strange control, and I will prove this further. For now, let's agree to name the options. Let one be called normal, standard or normal, and the other called inverted, inverted or reversed. Well, for simplicity, we will talk about the mouse, although this, of course, is not the only controller in the world.

First things first, first things planes

So, moving the controller towards itself shifts the field of view upward and vice versa. Yes, yes, that's right, like on an airplane. And this is often how the origin of this type of management is explained. Indeed, the first games with full 3D controls were not shooters, but flight and space games. And the joystick directions migrated to the keyboard. Perhaps this was not the case in all games in a row. But I definitely remember playing the classic game a long time ago F-how-much-there, and the control was aircraft, i.e. "arrow up - nose down."

It would seem to be a completely logical explanation, they say, the legs grow from there. However, it is not exhaustive; some things do not fit into this picture. Firstly, there are people who have not played Avivasim and have no idea about controlling an airplane, who, nevertheless, prefer an inverted mouse. Secondly, it would be strange to think that several years after playing a fighter, I, by analogy, transferred controls from the keyboard arrows to the mouse. Moreover, the guy with the gun barely resembles an airplane. So phrases like " I don"t want to fly a plane while I shoot my gun" do not fully reflect the true state of affairs. It's not just about airplanes. The mystery remains enigmatic. We'll look into it further.

*In connection with aviation, it is worth noting a funny fact that a separate menu item “invert mouse in transport/airplane” can mean anything. That is, both an inversion relative to the standard and an inversion relative to the aircraft tradition.

Funny pictures

The most common explanation is that in the character’s head there is some kind of conventional camera with an axis of rotation in the middle and the mouse setting depends on the point of application of the force. At first glance it is simple and elegant, the pictures are again intuitive, but, alas, the explanation is incorrect. There is a sound grain in this, but there are also counterarguments.

Firstly, there is no logical motivation, without which the content of these pictures is not far from “up is down”. And this is already clear to everyone. It turns out that by some random chance half of the people are comfortable this way, and the other half are comfortable that way. It would be strange to try to take psychology seriously. But it is clear that there must be a significant difference between the one and the other.

Secondly, according to this logic, it is not clear why the X-axis is not inverted. If the point of application of force is behind, and the axis is in the center, it would be possible to change right-left at the same time. But no one does that.

Third, the player doesn't actually control the character's head. With what? I'll tell you now.

The right question is half the answer

For a correct understanding, you need to answer two simple questions. As an example, I will use one direction, and not make a reservation about two each time. Well, for simplicity, let’s take the game as a person as an example, let’s say it’s a conventional soldier with a rifle.

Question one. Where do we move the mouse?

Up. We move the mouse forward. The mouse itself has no “up” at all. It is clear that when working with the cursor, the correspondence “mouse forward - cursor up” quickly arises. But for games with direct control, and not with a cursor, such logic is applicable with a stretch. But in fact, the mouse crawls forward. Moreover, in the oldest shooters with mouse support, moving forward meant “forward.” There was no free view there, and you could walk with the mouse.

Question number two. What do we manage?

If you take your time and think, the answer is obvious. We do not control the character's gaze, not the character's weapon, and not even the aim of the sight, as some people think. And not with the head, as in the pictures. That is, of course, we influence all this one way or another, but indirectly. And if you answer the question of what specific game object the player controls, then this is, of course, the character’s carcass, and its upper part separately.

In all shooters where the mechanics of movement are fully implemented and you can look at it from the outside, this is clearly noticeable. Nowhere does the player control his hands, weapons or head separately. The entire upper part of the body moves entirely, and the axis of rotation is somewhere in the belly, and not in the head. However, it can usually be tilted. And in those games where this is not technically reflected, a similar mechanism is still implied. A good example is in the picture below. It’s just from the “Guide on the tactical use of the ability to bend.” IN Point Blank bending down is not only possible, but also necessary.

Now, attention, question: where the character in the picture is tilted and where his field of view has shifted?
I think you already understand my train of thought.

At standard control, the player controls the line of sight of the virtual camera. More precisely, it moves the point of its intersection with the environment up down. The character’s movement seems to be “pulled up” after him, albeit instantly.

And with inversion the player directly controls the character's body back and forth. That is, movement is the original, and review is the consequence. So when an ordinary player is perplexed, “it’s inconvenient when the mouse is down and the sight is up,” his opposite is also perplexed: “how can it be that the mouse is back and the body is forward.”

This illustration is the closest in meaning that I dug up on the Internet. And although the emphasis is again on the head, it is drawn clearly. It’s a pity that a larger version was not found and it is unclear what is written there.

Pro

This theory has many advantages compared to the above.

First, an interesting observation: in shooting gallery type games, where you need to control the weapon, I personally don’t experience any particular difficulties when playing with a traditional vertical. It takes some time to adapt, but within reason. Whereas in games with full movement, in such cases I fall into a stupor, and even if I play with a non-inverted mouse all day, I still won’t get used to it. I tried it. So the connection with spatial position is clearly visible. This is another argument in my favor.

Secondly, the issue of right and left has been resolved. The movement of the mouse on the table fully reflects the rotation of the body clockwise/counterclockwise, especially when viewed from above.

Thirdly, in three-dimensional games, the keys are also more often responsible for forward and backward movements. This is the “up” arrow in Word, and the “forward” arrow in shooters. So the mouse works on the same principle. Quite logical.

And finally, some meaning appeared. These two methods are not a random choice to do this or that, but two fundamentally different systems. What exactly determines the division into groups is not yet known to science.

Contra

Now scientific ethics tells me to argue with myself and come up with tricky questions.

Why is it that in old games, when viewing with Page Up, Page Down or Numpad, there is no desire to swap the keys? Don't know. This issue needs to be considered separately. The fact is that often this is actually perceived as normal. But it depends on the mechanics. Here's the last thing I played, in Urban Chaos- there is an inversion on the arrows when viewing.

How does this logic apply to a tank, for example? Just a habit. If there is an inversion in airplanes and infantry, then let it be in a tank too. Moreover, it is usually technically impossible to separate.

How does this relate to free review, since nothing needs to be controlled there? How is this not necessary? Here in Armagh, for example, with a free view, your head turns. But generally speaking, you can always imagine a virtual pilot whose head rotation is also implied. However, given that in a free view the camera and the rotation axis initially do not coincide at all, this is all a separate topic. For example, when controlled with keys in games like the same Urban Chaos or THUG2 the lateral direction of the buttons can adjust exactly the side of the camera's flight, opposite to the direction of view, and this is not annoying.

But in general, of course, it’s easier to explain this by the same habit. The system, which is logical when playing from the first person with greater immersion, is transferred to the third person, and to a free view to the heap. And the fact that identification is stronger when playing as a person in the first person is a fact. And convenience in this particular game will be decisive for the choice of controls in others.

Control everyone!

All these convoluted conclusions are beautiful because they are absolutely inapplicable in practice. Well, really, what conclusion can be drawn from this? What should we remember to insert a checkbox for inversion in games? Well, this is understandable, regardless of the deeper meaning. You can also troll someone, claiming that labor players with mouse inversion get used to and feel the character better, because they control him directly, and do not drag him at gunpoint, as in strategies. On the contrary, you can also, like, why bother and control the character, if you can immediately point pixel to pixel, just like on the desktop. But in fact, the effectiveness is the same, no matter who wants it. The question is why this is so, it is interesting. But let psychologists study the motives.

And so, the only consequence of the difference in views is inconvenience in hot seat play.

Players who prefer inverted controls are about 10%. This is not so much, but it is no longer considered someone’s isolated whim.

When turned on, mouse inversion will move the cursor across the screen from the computer screen's point of view, not from yours. That is, if you pulled the mouse towards you, for the screen it will be the other way around - away from you. And your character in FPS will look up, not down. Inversion can be carried out along the X and Y axes separately, or maybe along both at once. You can customize all this and suffer for your own pleasure.

There are several theories about where it came from and why people play with it. For me, as a follower of standard control, they will remain theories, but if at least one fan of inversion has reached this point in the text, write what motivates you. We are all really interested.

Theory #1

The first version recalls those very pre-mysh times when the first flight and space simulators began to appear. They had inversion control - you press the down arrow - the nose goes up, and vice versa. Aircraft controls are built on this principle. It is logical to assume that now such control is preferred by those who are accustomed to it in some F-15. It just remains unclear why the inversion, by analogy, was dragged onto the mouse, although it was always responsible for the review and only for it?

Theory #2

Another version is about the control point. About why you hold your Dovahkiin in order to twirl them. After all, if you imagine that when controlling your hand, your hand rests on the top of the head or back of the Dragonborn, the inversion along the Y axis will seem absolutely logical. In order for Dovahkiin to look down and pick up the plate on the table, you need to apply force forward with your hand.

Standard control of Dovahkiin assumes that you control his eyeballs or cervical vertebrae. And here it’s just a matter of taste and perception of 3D reality.

Total?

This is where we get to the heart of the matter. Mouse inversion is needed for those who are comfortable playing with mouse inversion. It's a matter of convenience and how the player thinks. It’s not for nothing that the developers of most games offer to invert the axes in the settings.

Well, or is this some kind of conspiracy that was created so that we, the standard ones, would puzzle over it. What do you think?

Everyone knows that there is an inversion in the settings of almost any game. When we pull the controller towards us and the camera view goes up. Why is it added to games? Many may consider this some kind of perversion, however, when it comes to “flyers”, the inversion seems quite logical to us. Why does this selectivity occur?

It's all about perception. When flying an airplane, we subconsciously know that by pulling the steering wheel we will take off. Because in the air: there is a clear difference between where is up and where is down. Therefore in GTA we control a machine and a person in the usual way, but as soon as we sit on some kind of “Dodo”, the perception changes automatically. In "cosmosims" many people often use inversion, but there it is not so necessary, because space is an infinite space where there is no atmosphere or earth. Therefore, whether to use it or not is a matter of personal habits.

But how to explain the phenomenon when axis inversion Y used in first and third person shooters? Oddly enough, joystick control habits from childhood, as well as the psychological factor of perception, come into play here. The picture below, which has been dragged all over the Internet, perfectly explains why the player is guided by this choice.

Anyone interested in inversion has probably seen this picture. I translated it into Russian to make it clearer, although everything is clear here)

That is, in this case, the player does not merge with the character, but becomes a kind of “puppeteer”. Try to turn on Y-axis inversion in some third-person game and you will feel discomfort from the fact that everything has changed (muscle memory is accustomed to the standards), but the brain will not give signals that this is bad/good for nothing, on the contrary, deep down, some particle will even say that this is quite logical.

What about first-person shooters? We look at everything through the eyes of the hero, get used to him, and we certainly will not be a “puppet”. What is the motive for the inversion here? Imagine a camera on a tripod. When we push it up, we pull it back, and vice versa. The same thing happens to our head, when we look up, the back of our head goes down. We look at our feet and lean forward. Someone can also implement these actions with a mouse. But there is a counter-argument to this.

And this is the view of a more “traditional” player.

In my opinion, comments are unnecessary. It turns out that inverting along the axis Y- mostly, the psychology of the player himself. And this story will certainly not give you any advantages.

There is also horizontal inversion, that is, along the axis X. In a sense, it also looks logical, because when we turn to the left, our viewing angle covers the right side and vice versa. In some third-person games, this may even be an imposed option. So I would like to ask my readers: do you use inversion in games (besides “flying games”) and what are you guided by?