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!
Sir_Oddington
I call it the y-axis of evil.
However, perhaps I am wrong about this. Maybe my misconceptions are steering me along the wrong path. I shall try your ‘y-axis’ for science!
C_S15
Hasn’t this been covered on about 5 different lunchtime discussions? =P
Also, I don’t hold my controller flat, so I guess I have a wonky head.
cc_star
No one holds their controller flat, except for the freaky people who imagine their head is the left stick or something
C_S15
Precisely. Weird people with their head sticks.
DRCD1
I belive you mean right stick, as in most games, the camera is turned with the right analog stick.
smokeybeef
You’re making the assumption that the joystick represents the TO of someone’s head, what if it is actually their face?
E.g. As another experiment put the palm of your hand on your face, if you push up you look up, if you push down you face down. This means the x-axis works too, you push left – look left.
The x-axis doesn’t make sense in yoru expirement, because if you were treating the top of your head as a joystick, pushing left would make your head tilt left not TURN left.
smokeybeef
TO = TOP, yoru = your. Typed too fast, sorry!
mynameisblair
I’ve never seen anyone hold a controller with the stick facing the same way as their face :P
And for the X-axis… I don’t even want to get into that one.
smokeybeef
I’m saying, it makes more sense if you think of the top of the joystick being your face, in terms of relation to the x and y axes.
matty
i hold the controller basically upwards so when i push up im pushing towards the roof.. and so does my cross hair in game
DRCD1
Smokeybeef, holding your head by the face is, in my opinion, a much more valid analogy because it explains the Y-axis AND x-axis (rotation by the x-axis and z-axis (respectively) to say the truth, as rotating by the Y-axis (if the Y-axis is as represented in the drawing) would tilt your head). However, if you grab the back of your head (or your hair) and pull it to the right, you’ll be facing left (and probably lose some hairs, if pull your head with much strenght). Both theorys are valid, I guess. Although I belive that inverted Y-axis (and X-axis) are more apropriate if you think the stick is the camera. But if you think you’re manipulating the crosshair in a 2d plane (such as moving your mouse in your computers desktop), you press left to move the crosshair in that direction, and so on.
DRCD1
However, in 2d, vertical is Y and X is horizontal,I think that most game developers, when they say (in the options menu) Y-axis and X-axis, they’re refering to the 2d movement of the cursor, as rotating by the Y axis in programs like Maya, 3dsMax and Endorphin (but not Blender3d) would mean to turn the head to the left and side, and not up and down, as that would be rotating by the X axis.
DJ Judas
I’ve always inverted on a controller but never with a mouse and I’ve been using both for as long as I can remember….literally, the farthest back I can remember is getting an Amiga.
Anyhoo, the same theory could be applied to a mouse and yet I use opposing methods, I’ll be mulling why I don’t with a mouse for a long time :/
Porcupine_I
i noticed the inverted setting is usually the standard in the Japanese version of games and Demos (Yakuza, Bayonetta…)
Winkle
i just wish all developers would give us the choice to map the buttons how we would like them in this day and age. can it be so difficult? they let us do it with the sticks.
DRCD1
Yeah I’m with you. If games like Pitfall: The Lost Expedition and The Orange box did it, why cant games like Uncharted and Killzone do it?
btime
entertaining read, just what was needed after a long boring day at work :)
kivi95
inverted here,i never thought so many use inverted because all my friends use normal.
eirekun
Can’t play without inverted Y – I think it comes from being an older gamer where inverted Y was the default on a lot of games (yes, I played Elite).
bunimomike
On your diagram, I think the Y and Z axis are around the wrong way (or am I being daft?). Y axis is your vertical and Z is your depth (in and out of the screen, for example).
Either way, I often invert Y for some games but can get equally accustomed to leaving it alone. I’m weird like that.
Most of my Y-inversion desire comes from flight sims of old. Namely F-18 Interceptor on the Amiga. Until that moment, I’d never, EVER seen graphics like that on a home computer. T’was amazing!
mynameisblair
As far as I understand it, Y is forwards or ‘up’ in a two dimentional graph and Z is the real ‘up’ in 3 dimensions. It’s all very confusing, but I read up on it to make sure Nathan wasn’t trapped in the wrong graph ;)
bunimomike
Ah, that’s strange. I wonder if it’s changed as in flight sims it’s Y Axis for Pitch (eg. looking up and down) which is most certainly is with FPS too (or camera control in 3rd person). I’m so confused! :-)
When I used to do 3D Modelling in 3DSMax, Z was depth (into the screen) too. I think.
BryOnRye
I’m with bunimomike on this one, in a 2D graph the x-axis goes from left to right and the y-axis is up and down. The third dimensional z-axis is forward and backward.
BryOnRye
Ok just had a quick check on wikipedia (familiar looking diagram!) and apparently that diagram is right. It’s wrong in my head and I’m too old to try and shuffle dimensions round in my head so ner.