I never played Oblivion or any other Elder Scroll before Skyrim. So I was wondering can you see your character from 3d person like in Skyrim while playing? I like to play more form 3rd person instead od 1st person. Been thinkin of buying Oblivion but I wanna know this.

Absolutely. If you're using a keyboard, hit R. With a mouse, use the middle button.

Also note that if you hit TAB, you'll not only get a full menu, but a paper doll of your character. I'm hoping somebody restores that to Skyrim, in the future.

Thank you for your answer.

Just note the player animations aren't on par with Skyrim and this will be very obvious in 3rd person.

The 3rd person animations are better than the 1st person animations, though. In 1st person, if you're holding a weapon, it's basically floating out in front of you, rather than moving correctly as you walk.

For some reason -- hard to put my finger on it, exactly -- I find first person superior in Oblivion (it's really the only way I play, actually), while in Skyrim I only use first person for archery and sifting through bags, third person for everything else.

However, as others pointed out already, third person is an option in Oblivion. If you play on a 360 just press in the right stick to toggle between first and third.

I'm the same way with the viewpoints. Skyrim's first person view is so low to the ground, have to look up at bretons as an altmer It's truely [censored] and something you'd think Beth could figure out by now. I'm not sure its any taller in OB but for whatever reason it just feels better.

I always prefer first person regardless of game. I would hate to see myself from behind while going to work or playing Oblivion

I tend to always play in 3rd person unless Niamh is actually "doing" something requires concentration.
(+ she has a cute butt)!

But if hold the 3rd person key down you can rotate the camera.
For added posey goodness and screenshots, use a free roaming camera mod )

I like 3rd person for all combat situations, and while walking down the road or outside, even for bow & arrow and thrown magics. The reason is that back in our tabletop days (DnD, TFT, etc.) we always used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_figure_%28gaming%29 on a hex board to simulate adventuring situations. Some people "play-acted" their game back in the day, we preferred figureines.

Anyways, those who play-acted could be considered 1st person gamers, while those of us who used figureines were in 3rd person. So it only makes sense taht I prefer 3rd person. Plus, since we can't smell, sense, or sometimes hear our enemies as we game on our TVs and computers, it helps to be in 3rd person to know if an attack is about to ensue.

I switch to 1st person sometimes if I'm in a dungeon and need to get a better look into a room or something, or if I'm trying to locate a dropped item or something...

Third person for everything except aiming a spell or firing a bow; my character wants to be in the fight as much as I do. Though if you practice, it's a pretty epic feeling capping someone in third person with a bow.

edit: first person required for decorating.

That's the thing! getting a shot in 3rd person does have a certain reward to it, especially if I'm having to dodge in the midst of a fight!

NPC: "Ohhhh what's the matter? Getting ARRGH!!"



Oh yea I forgot about decorating. Yea 1st is better for this by miles.

I supposed I should chime in on this with my oft repeated reply to such queries. I was a rabid first-person fanatic from day one. Whenever the option of playing in first person was offered I availed myself of it. My one exception...screen captures. I feel safe stating that had it not been for first-person I likely would not have gotten so heavily in to computerized RPGs. Those early top-downs, side-scrollers and isometrics held little interest for me. Oh, I certainly played a number of non first-person RPGs throughout the years. None of them overly impressed, not even the much vaunted Ultima series. Looking back, I can't think of any non first-person RPG that held my interest long enough to complete, with the exception of Sierra's old "Quest for Glory" games. Then again, those were more old-style adventures with role-play elements thrown in rather than pure RPGs. (I was a big fan of Sierra's King's Quest adventure games back in the day. I wonder how they've aged?)

Oblivion broke me of that. First it was discovering how much I prefer horse travel in third-person. Then it was using third-person to break myself of running in cities and other inappropriate areas...I could not have done so in first-person...and in the process discovering that foot travel too was preferable in third-person. Nowadays I almost never leave third-person, and begrudge it when I do.

Whether or not this new-found love affair with third-person translates to any other game I do not know.

-Decrepit-

The thing about third person is if the character is on a horse, he can suddenly reach down and pet it! I know Acadian even have a mod that increases the chance of Buffy doing that

There are actually a lot of actions that the character does in 3P in Oblivion...

Yeah probably. I only knew of the horse thingy. What else is there?

If you are wearing a sheathed long sword, your character will sometimes look down and fiddle with it.

I play exclusively in 3rd-person. When I roleplay I play as someone other than myself. I am not in the game, my character is the one in the game. Therefore it is handy for me to be able to see that character.

I am just a sidekick, a guide, a companion, traveling with my character. My character allows me to come along with her on her adventures. If I promise to keep my mouth shut and don't get in her way.

I can very well understand that approach and a part of me would like play that way. But even as I see Lothran as not being me I′d like to put myself in his shoes to really experience what he experiences. For instance, if a big heavy warhammer is making its way to his face, I want to share that image and fear along with him and it wouldn′t be the same if I saw it happen from behind his back.

I believe I understand what both of you mean, and I think both points of view are valid.

Personally, like mirocu, I prefer first person. I find it more immersive to see the world through the eyes of my character.

I see it′s like the game vs game thing we had going on; we each have our preference but we all have fun

Exactly. And in the case of these TES games, we have the chance to try it both ways, and decide what works best for us. It's nice to have the choice.

I favor the third person view. Like Renee, I came up through table-top gaming before PC (although my gang of friends was more likely to be interested in playing strategy games like Risk than D&D ), and got into CRPGs in the 80s. I imagined the blocky little sprites on the screen as being a lot better looking than they were, too!

I tend to agree with Pseron's outlook on this; I don't see the character as "I," but rather as "he" or "she." I feel privileged to go along as a witness and occasional adviser (not that my characters always follow my advice!) I only drop into first person viewpoint when the gameplay situation demands it. In addition to marksman (which I do manage to do in 3rd person), it's difficult to aim targeted spells while the character is in a crouched sneaking posture, and it's the only practical way to move anything around.

I wish that somebody could come up with a parallax-correcting over-the-shoulder camera/crosshair mod.

glargg, you're right about sneak mode & aiming in 3rd person, that's so true. It's difficult to aim in 3rd person while croucing in sneak mode, I've done it though. You have to aim "lower" (and slightly off-center) to make it work. It's possible, but I find it much easier to aim while not sneaking, too.