   Realistic/alternative first person carrying of objects
I'm working on a prototype for a first person puzzle platformer, and one of the game mechanics is being able to carry stuff around. Most games do this by just attaching the carried object in front of the camera without any additional effects (portal, hl2, etc). I think this makes objects feel a little like cardboard. You get no sense of the mass of the object, or its current velocity. I'm wondering if anyone have any alternative methods for doing this. Or examples of games that does it differently. A few ideas of the top of my head:Make the mouse less sensitive in the up direction, and more sensitive in the down direction relative to the mass of the carried object. This makes it easy to put down heavy object but makes them hard to lift.Make the carried object follow a target that's moved by the mouse by applying forces to the object using the physics engine of the game. Maybe using a critically/over-damped system. Clamp the maximum force so heavy objects are slower to lift. Maybe make the object drag the camera with it it goes past the target. What do you guys think?
why don't just use a body for the player and attach the object to the hand? I would like to see at least one game that does this. even skyrim uses a different body for first person that only has the arms.;Have you already implemented an interaction model?I ask because - usually you get the effects of your ideas by unwanted accident, while developing :)It is harder to create a responsive and stiff interaction than a laggy one.If your model is responsive, it is easy to make it more smooth, laggy, or feeling heavy as you want.I like the ideas, i saw most of them done very well in the game 'Penumra' for the first time.It's more physics related than Amnesia and you should toke a look, if you don't know it already.HL2, Dead Space... are not very good examples. They use Gravity Guns and other magic forces to operate on objects.I think this is not a question of game design, it's done to hide the physics engines weakness (Push an object against a wall,and it starts jittering... but you don't recognize - you think it's because the 'magic force')If you're free to choose physics engine - take a look an Newton!And if you wanna be really innovative - think most about how to handle the rotation of the objects :)