Swimming without diving. Feedback required.

[ptmikheev]

I am experimenting with swimming and need feedback.

Swimming in third person mode currently has disadvantages:
a) If camera is above water (i.e. player wants to see where he goes) then it is pointed a bit down and character goes deeper and deeper when moving forward. The only way to swim on the surface is to keep the camera under water. It's quite inconvenient.
b) Body position doesn't depend on the direction: swim forward, going deeper, and coming up all look the same.

Illustration of the current state (GIF):

Spoiler: Show

Proposed changes:
1) Make player always (in 3rd person mode) swim a bit upward from the view direction. It doesn't obstruct diving when player wants it, but makes keeping head above water much simpler.
2) Turn body up or down according to the swim direction.

Illustration (GIF):

Spoiler: Show

If the mode "view over shoulder" is enabled (MR 219, not yet merged), then the problem (a) is even worse since camera is positioned a bit lower.
Solution: when player starts swimming, slowly move camera to the same position as in combat, above head.

Illustration (GIF):

Spoiler: Show

Also I've tried to implement partially dived camera - smooth transition from under-water to above-water view. I have not managed to do it well, the GIF under spoiler is just an illustration of the idea.

Spoiler: Show

The question is: does it look useful and does it make sense to try to implement it properly?

[CMAugust]

This looks good. I don't think later Bethesda games had special handling for this (will check later) but it wasn't great, and this seems like an improvement without fundamentally changing the swim mechanic. I'd need to try it for myself to be sure, of course...
The "water cut" feature can actually be seen in a MGXE shader, and I agree there ought to be a visual equivalent in OpenMW. It's a realistic effect and looks great when done right.

[ptmikheev]

This looks good. I don't think later Bethesda games had special handling for this (will check later) but it wasn't great, and this seems like an improvement without fundamentally changing the swim mechanic. I'd need to try it for myself to be sure, of course...
The "water cut" feature can actually be seen in a MGXE shader, and I agree there ought to be a visual equivalent in OpenMW. It's a realistic effect and looks great when done right.

MR 237 is ready for testing. It contains all the mentioned changes except the "water cut" feature.