The Y-Axis

Blair Inglis 80 Comments

The Y-axis. No, it’s not a new sister site devoted to giving you the latest news, opinion and reviews on all things to do with the twenty fifth letter of the alphabet and its presence in gaming. It is, however, an option that you can choose to invert, available in the menus of most games that will change the way you play the game. Okay, I lied, it doesn’t do much for the game you are playing, but it does make sense.

People say ‘Up is up and down is down.’, but in these terms, is it really? There’s no disputing the fact that the relative direction of up, is in fact, up or that if you climb down a rope, you are actually going down, but you have to think of it in terms of a controller. You hold the controller flat and you press forward with the stick to look up and pull back on the stick to look down. Does that still make sense? No, it doesn’t. Unless the gun is stuck to your forehead.

I’m going to do something that will make you look like complete fools, but it’s in the nature of science, so just do as I say. Ready? Grab the top of your head and push forward, as you would with a stick on a controller. Where are you looking? Well, it’s certainly not anywhere near this, so how are you still reading? If that went well, you should have been looking down. Do the same again, but pull back. Where are you looking now? That’s right: the ceiling. You seriously must have some awesome kind of monitor (a head projector?) to still be reading this.

Now that’s over, grab a controller. A PS3 or 360 controller, preferably, and move the stick forward. That’s the same as the top of your head in the game. Surely, your character should be looking down right about now, considering he is moving his head, shoulders, arms and gun rather than just his eyes? Well, why does the little guy on your TV screen look up? That’s because you’ve not inverted the Y-axis. It’s a feature that many people ignore, but one that has saved lives – lives of the enemy as you try and get used to pushing the stick in the other direction. Still not got it? How about a visual example?

Here is a stick character, representing the main character in the game you are playing. Let’s call him Nathan; that’s what they are all called, right? Nathan isn’t just any stick character, the top of his head is at the origin of a graph and he’s stuck to the Y-axis, with a stick on his head (with a stick!). Poor Nathan. Nathan is voiced by Nolan North, if that helps make the scene for you.

You may notice that the Y-axis is facing forwards, as it should be when your controller is flat in your hands (if you hold the controller at a different angle, tilt your head accordingly). Now, all that Nathan wants to do is shoot this pesky bird, which also happens to be on the Y-axis. He looks up with his eyes; but, alas his gun does not follow and he is defeated by the bird. Luckily, someone pulls back on the stick on his head, and he is now facing the bird directly, ready to shoot. Godspeed, Nathan.

It’s up to you in the end to choose your controls, but I hope Nathan and my examples have helped demonstrate that inverted Y-axis does make sense and up isn’t always forward which isn’t always up. The mythical inverted X-axis is a whole different story, just grab your right hand and push your head to the left. There, you’re looking left. Sorted. Thankfully, the other stick works normally, push forward and you’ll actually walk forward, pull back and you’ll do something crazy and walk the other way!

I won’t keep you any longer, go and play your favourite game and test out the inverted Y-axis, if you haven’t already. If you have, I made you look like fools for no good reason, hooray!

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80 Comments

  1. I always use invert-Y-Axis.

    • same. no idea why it just feels right

    • me too

      • Yup, me too :) Also in 3rd person games, I use the inverted cam most of the time.

        Brilliant article btw! And quite funny :D

    • I love inverted, But all i get is really wierd looks, as if to say your not real xD

    • Inverted is the way to play.

  2. I invert Y-axis when airborne, anything else is weird as hell… but not as weird as imagining a stick on your head

    what have you guys been smoking?

    • Yeah. It’s not really something to debate though as it’s just what feels natural when you are playing. The first time you pick up a controller, if it has the wrong inversion(?) then it feels completely wrong and makes the game unplayable. I don’t think anyone actually thinks about what you are actually controlling with the controller.

      I see it as being left or right-handed. Inverted or non-inverted.

      • Then I’m ambidextrous. I can use both, but I choose the one that makes sense :)

      • I have always said that. For FPS in particular, you tilt your head back to look up, so invert for the win!

    • Ditto.

    • Same here, in a plane it feels right as you control it the same way you would a real plane – pull up to rise, push down to fall. Sometimes I have it inverted in an FPS’s too depending on the game and if it feels right, because as you say you push your head forward to look down.

      However I never have it inverted in third person games like Red Dead Redemption as it just feels odd. In these games you are controlling the pan of the camera rather than the head of the person, so in the heat of the moment when you want the camera to ‘pan up’ my natural instinct is to press up, not push down…

      • Is is the camera _and_ the head, mostly.

    • @cc_star – That’s my method too.
      And yes, I know this was yesterday’s news, just never had a chance to catch up with it!

  3. I knew this allready. I think it’s each ones own choise to use whatever they want, like left handed and right handed people

    • eh? I didn’t really think you had a choice whether you were right or left handed!
      Oh, sorry my bad, I just found the switch on the back of my hand to turn on left handed controls.

    • Which hand you use isn’t really a choice. I can’t write with my right hand.

  4. we no speak americano

    • You made me put the song on :p

      I never invert when walking about but in the air I switch, I can’t fly planes inverted but can fly helicopters :/

      Battlefield bad company I fly inverted , but battlefield 1942/3? (can’t remember) I don’t fly with it inverted, I have no clue why i just can’t do it.

    • PLease dont mention a song, its just an update of a Candy Girls track from th 90s that Paul sodding Masterson decided to rejig. Its not big or clever.

  5. I always invert the Y axis. However I spent a good while when I started Peace Walker wondering whether I played better with the X-axis normal or inverted, which was odd. It’s normal now.

  6. Can i have a diagram to explain the sixth axis please?

    • Please correct me if I’m wrong,and I probably am, but if you rotate something in space six times, if each time that thing is facing a difrent direction (you must rotate it in way the the object always face the same direction), the sixth time you rotate it, you’ll be rotating it by a sixth axis. Although I think in space you only need 3 axis to mark a point.

      • There are really only three axis (x,y,z) but each axis can be rotated in two directions.

    • Yes – OPM3, Issue 1

  7. I always invert the Y-axis.

    Having to push forward on the Y-axis to look up in a game is SO CONFUSING.

    • Doesn’t work like that if you hold the controller vertically, though. It is literally up and down that way.

      • Indeed. You’re controlling the character’s view relative to their face (where the eyes are :)), not the top of their head.

  8. Inverted y-axis is the correct way. It’s the right way. It’s the superior way.

    It should actually be called correct y-axis.

    • Seconded, does that make it law now or something.

      • thirded, i invert just about everything, TPS, FPS, planes, tanks. i think it started around the air combat-ps1 days

    • You’re wrong.

      • seconded – and invert should be renamed to “airplane headmode”

        On an interesting(?) note I always struggle with Japanese games where it’s the x axis that needs inverting as they seem to think of the camera as a seperate entity to be manipulated in space rather than it being the characters view that you are adjusting.

  9. I don’t invert, I push up to look up & down to look down ………. however on flying games I switch it up. Too late to change now.

  10. Inverted controls have always felt more natural to me.

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