History Main / FirstPersonGhost

* ''VideoGame/IronStorm'' and ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' (both made in 2002) let you see your legs, feet and hands while in first-person view, with third-person view being their default mode.

** ''Mirror's Edge'' provides a good example of why this trope exists in the first place: designing animations that will look convincing from a first-person perspective is a very different task from animating a character in third-person, and the character animations in the game that look impressive in the game's intended gameplay mode look [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcz-3paQ26k&src_vid=t3VnWYt9flM&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_922217 rather stiff and awkward]] when the game is hacked to play in third-person.
** The use of Nvidia Ansel in ''Catalyst'' shows that not only is there a full model, it's rendered in an extremely high level of detail.

* In the obscure game named ''Videogame/{{Breakdown}}'', not only you can see your character's reflection in the mirrors, but even his lower body when you look down.
* ''Videogame/DeadIsland'' allows to see the lower body's character when looking down.

* Videogame/DyingLight also lets you see protagonist Kyle Crane body from the neck down. Much like ''Mirror's Edge'' example above, this is fitting considering that the game involves a lot of platforming and parkour movements across rooftops. Not only that, but every single interactions in the game will have Crane reaching out to do it such as opening doors (the game will also have two different animations that depends whether the door is locked or not), searching objects for materials (which also differs based on the object being searched), sliding, climbing ladders, etc.

In many [[FirstPersonShooter First-Person Shooters]] you might notice that something odd about your character: you don't seem to have much in the way of a [[IntangibleMan bodily presence]]. Instead of feeling like [[ThisIsReality you're actually there, in the game]], you almost feel instead like you're simply controlling a flying RC helicopter with a camera attached to it, or [[WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph driving a robot on tank treads that has a two-way TV screen for a face]].

* The protagonist of ''Videogame/WelcomeToTheGame'' doesn't have a body or cast any shadows, even when you get up to turn the light-switch on and off. In fact, they don't even scream or react to the presence of a person coming to kidnap them.

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** Ditto ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' and its sequels. Outside of the introductory cutscene, presented as a video recorded at least in part by someone else, the game [[UnbrokenFirstPersonPerspective never leaves first-person mode]]; not even during cutscenes, which all play from Jason's perspective. Additionally, nearly every interaction with the environment is animated, including opening doors, climbing ledges, looting bodies, skinning animals, entering vehicles, and so on.

*** ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'' can have this subverted by player made addons and gamemodes by rendering the legs andtorso (and arms/hands if using a swep that makes you unarmed), although there can be the occasional artifact depending on the player model.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' you can see the protagonist's body in certain times like kicking an enemy in the face.

In many FirstPersonShooter[=s=] you might notice that something odd about your character: you don't seem to have much in the way of a [[IntangibleMan bodily presence]]. Instead of feeling like [[ThisIsReality you're actually there, in the game]], you almost feel instead like you're simply controlling a flying RC helicopter with a camera attached to it, or [[WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph driving a robot on tank treads that has a two-way TV screen for a face]].

* ''{{VideoGame/Vanish}}'': The only part of your character you can see is their hand when they hold up a glowstick.

In early games, this was considered an AcceptableBreaksFromReality, as rendering something that wasn't in view the majority of the time would be a waste of limited hardware resources. Also, many older raycasting engines had to purposefully limit vertical camera rotation to well under ±45° in order to minimize perspective distortion artifacts. However, as hardware has become more powerful and software more sophisticated, this trope can become particularly jarring. Often, even games that have the option of first-person and third-person views, like the 3D ''VideoGame/TheElderScrolls'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, will render the player character model in third-person but have it disappear in first-person.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' you cannot see anything but your arms in first-person. Additionally, you cast a shadow in third-person view but not in first-person. This gets even more strange when the horse you are riding always casts a shadow so if you look at the ground while riding your horse in first-person you will see the shadow of a horse with no rider.
** For PC users, the TFC console command gives you a ufo-camera option, using this in first-person will auto-set the camera into third-person pan without actually zooming out, leaving two arms floating in midair.
** More egregiously, you don't see your arms moving when swimming in first-person. Also, there are actually differences in the animations between first and third-person, noticeable with where the character holds their weapons between the two modes (as with pretty much ''every'' complaint about ''Oblivion'', there's a DLC that addresses this).
** There are [[GameMod mods]] for ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' however that avert this, by simply having your third-person model rendered while in first-person as well, except for the head (and arms when equipping weapons).
* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' both inherited many of the above problems in ''Oblivion''. ''Fallout 3'' had an additional weird instance when ever you used zoom with a non-scoped weapon. In third-person the character would use the weapons sights like they should, but in first-person the camera just zooms and the players arms don't move at all. ''New Vegas'' fixed this issue, but added a lot more of the "differing first-person to third-person animation thing" with its melee weapons.
** ''New Vegas'' also made this a bit worse with its card minigames. Even though they're presented in-universe as your character playing on the in-game table, you still never see your hands- the cards just appear to float whenever you play one or shuffle the deck.
* Interesting example in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': when in third-person perspective the player-character's shadow will be rendered, but as soon as you switch to first-person perspective, the shadow disappears.

In early games, this was considered an AcceptableBreaksFromReality, as rendering something that wasn't in view the majority of the time would be a waste of limited hardware resources. Also, many older raycasting engines had to purposefully limit vertical camera rotation to well under ±45° in order to minimize perspective distortion artifacts. However, as hardware has become more powerful and software more sophisticated, this trope can become particularly jarring. Often, even games that have the option of first-person and third-person views, like the 3D ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, will render the player character model in third-person but have it disappear in first-person.

Another reason is that most [=GPUs=] and graphics [=APIs=] tend to clip geometry that's closer to the edge of the screen, hence the reason why in most cases using the same third-person model for a first-person camera would [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sclE51FomWw result in visual artifacts]]. Modders who write first-person camera hacks for third-person games such as ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' would disable the head model to keep it from displaying stray polygons or getting in the way of the camera.

* Most VR first person games either render your character as a floating pair of hands or sometimes a pair of arms. [[https://youtu.be/IofC7yxsT0o?t=513 Spoofed in this]] WebVideo/AngryJoe review of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Paladins}}'' has separate models for First Person and Third Person views, the former used by players, the latter used when viewing players on the battlefield. The game also used to have a third person view toggle via a keybind (which, mercifully, was disabled in Ranked), added back in Open Beta 64 (around October 2017). This was removed in Update 2.09 (released in January 2020) because WordOfGod admitted that barely anyone used the feature to begin with.

** In the prequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', the player doesn't ever see Adam Jensen's reflection in mirrors or shiny surfaces. Adam's body is modeled in-game, since the camera very frequently switches between first and third person. Yet when you're ''in'' first-person perspective, you never see your legs and your hands are just drawn on-screen, but you can see them moving back and forth when you sprint without anything in your hands.

* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' does away with seeing your legs and feet in first person, no matter what your settings are. WordOfGod says that the removal of legs was needed in order to allow more zombies in the game world and cutting out legs in first person would allow this goal, since rendering legs can get taxing on the Source engine. Notable because the first game is in the exceptions list below.

** Renzo, The General, and Ghost all have brown gloves in first person even though Ghost and The General wear black fingerless gloves and Renzo ''doesn't wear gloves at all''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' and ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' do not render the first person player model (notably, there's a point in ''Last Light'' where you can look in a mirror, but not see yourself), even though scripted events sometimes have Artyom's arms or even his legs. Oddly though, he and his weapon's ''shadow'' are rendered with a decent degree of detail.

* Not just FPS games suffer from this. The ''Videogame/{{Myst}}'' games are a series of first-person puzzle games that had a First Person Ghost whose only visible appendage was a floating hand cursor. Justified in ''Myst'' and ''Riven'' due to movement limitations, but by the time ''Myst III: Exile'' rolled around, the player could not only look down and see that they had no feet, but also wind up standing ''on thin air just off of the edge of a cliff.'' It's worse in ''Myst IV: Revelation'' when [[UncannyValley the hand cursor gained a more realistic look.]] You could even inexplicably tint the hand strange, unearthly colors other than 'skin tone' or 'heavily pigmented skin tone'. The developers thankfully fixed this in ''Myst V: End of Ages''. All of this was done in the name of maintaining a FeaturelessProtagonist.

** While most of ''VideoGame/TheLostCrown'' isn't first person, there are a few such scenes in which objects must be handled and Nigel's arms are nowhere to be seen. This was probably deliberate, as it makes a story about ghosts just a little creepier ''not'' to avert this trope.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' you cannot see anything but your arms in first person. Additionally, you cast a shadow in third person view but not in first person. This gets even more strange when the horse you are riding always casts a shadow so if you look at the ground while riding your horse in first person you will see the shadow of a horse with no rider.
** For PC users, the TFC console command gives you a ufo-camera option, using this in first person will auto-set the camera into third person pan without actually zooming out, leaving two arms floating in midair.
** More egregiously, you don't see your arms moving when swimming in first-person. Also, there are actually differences in the animations between first and third person, noticeable with where the character holds their weapons between the two modes (as with pretty much ''every'' complaint about ''Oblivion'', there's a DLC that addresses this).

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' both inherited many of the above problems in ''Oblivion''. ''Fallout 3'' had an additional weird instance when ever you used zoom with a non-scoped weapon. In third person the character would use the weapons sights like they should, but in first person the camera just zooms and the players arms don't move at all. ''New Vegas'' fixed this issue, but added a lot more of the "differing first-person to third-person animation thing" with its melee weapons.

* Interesting example in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'': when in third-person perspective the player-character's shadow will be rendered, but as soon as you switch to first-person perspective, the shadow disappears.

* ''Videogame/EuroTruckSimulator'' and ''Videogame/AmericanTruckSimulator'', while using the external view cameras, has your in-game character being a male with an [[RidiculouslyAverageGuy average profile]]. However, your hands are never seen in the first person view, as the developer intended so the player can see the dashboard details.

* The 2008 ''{{VideoGame/Turok}}'' relaunch has visible legs.
* ''VideoGame/OperationFlashpoint'' is one of the earliest games that does an honest attempt at not doing this trope. Of course, it'd invoke some really obvious FridgeLogic if you couldn't, since it also allowed you to use a third person view. Its SpiritualSuccessor, the VideoGame/{{ARMA}} series, go a step further and enable you to rotate your character's head independently of where their weapon is facing. In ''ARMA III'', your character has impressive control over his movements - from leaning, three levels of standing, crouching, and laying down based on what cover you're shooting from, to being able to choose whether your character keeps the weapon up at the low ready, the high ready, or simply slung across his torso, it can be a challenge at first to remember all the controls to manipulate you character's rendered body.

* The ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games, in their multiplayer matches, feature an interesting example: the players bodies are rendered separately, so that the third person version you see of another player isn't the exact same thing that ''they'' see in the first person. While most the time the two match up more-or-less seamlessly, some interesting things can happen when they don't match up; for example, most modern [=CoD=] games will "smooth out" the player's third-person movement to look more fluid and natural, rather than the herky-jerky movement that would result if you showed their actual first-person movement.
** Because of lag, what one character shows in third person might be delayed from what they're doing in first person. This can lead to situations where you get shot by someone who appears to not even be facing you; their bullets will seem to [[BizarreAndImprobableBallistics exit the barrel at an angle]] to hit you. This is especially common when using riot shields to keep an attacker at bay, with the killcam frequently showing you failing to track a hostile moving around behind the shield to shoot you, when from your perspective you clearly kept it pointed at him the whole time and he apparently responded by just cheating and shooting through it anyway.
** If you are hit with a flashbang grenade, your character will appear to cover their eyes and shake their head, with their gun pointed at the ground and off to the side. However, from the first person perspective, your gun is still up, meaning that you can still shoot and kill the person who flashbanged you.

* Completely [[AvertedTrope averted]] in ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever''. The game has no first-person model, and all you see of Duke's body in first person is the third-person model that is actually present in the game. Mirrors reflect Duke's body, whose position is always exactly the same as what you see in first person, whatever you're doing (walking, shooting, reloading, or even just standing in place letting an IdleAnimation run). Of course, you can see your feet, although, for obvious reasons, the lower part of your body is blocked out of view when Duke is pissing.
* This can almost be completely averted in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' with a console command designed for use when playing with VR. Entering "cl_first_person_uses_world_model 1" in the console sets the first person view into a mode in which, as the command would suggest, the view model is replaced with an eye-level view of the player's world model, allowing the player to see their entire body and their own shadow, along with any of the many fashion items the player may have decked on their character. While not perfect (parts often disappear or prove excessively obstructive), it works surprisingly well.

* In ''Videogame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' you can see the protagonist's body in certain times like kicking an enemy in the face.

** When you go into third person view via Morph Ball or Screw Attack, Samus clearly has a model and it moves fluidly. However, her model vanishes the minute you go back to first person view. You can also aim her arm cannon straight down, but you'll never see her feet.

* In ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows'' you can see yourself in first person.
* Though both are already older games (made in 2002), ''VideoGame/IronStorm'' and ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' let you see your legs, feet and hands while in FPS view (third person view being their default mode).

* First person SurvivalHorror game ''{{VideoGame/Outlast}}'' makes the protagonist's chest, arms, legs and feet visible when looking down. Additionally, he frequently interacts with the environment physically; you can see his hands turning valves, pushing buttons, etc. The game adds several other features to avoid this trope, such as Miles visibly putting his hand on a wall when close to one, and leaving bloody footprints if he walks through a puddle of gore. Also, Mile's shadow is synchronised to his body movements, meaning that if he holds the camera his shadow also does.

** Ditto ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' and its sequels. Outside of the introductory cutscene, presented as a video recorded at least in part by someone else, the game never leaves first-person mode; not even during cutscenes, which all play from Jason's perspective. Additionally, nearly every interaction with the environment is animated, including opening doors, climbing ledges, looting bodies, skinning animals, entering vehicles, and so on.

In many FirstPersonShooter[=s=] you might notice that something odd about your character: you don't seem to have much in the way of a [[IntangibleMan bodily presence]]. Instead of feeling like [[ThisIsReality you're actually there, in the game]], you almost feel instead like you're simply controlling a flying RC helicopter with a camera attached to it, or [[Disney/WreckItRalph driving a robot on tank treads that has a two-way TV screen for a face]].

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': While you can see JC Denton in mirrors and other reflections, you can't see his feet when you actually look down (though you would see a “blob shadow” under him.) The same holds true for just about any game based on the early builds of the [[GameEngine Unreal Engine]]: ''VideoGame/{{Unreal|I}}'', ''VideoGame/CliveBarkersUndying'', etc. Particularly odd in the case of well-polished floors, where you could see the soles of JC's boots reflected back at you.

* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' lampshades this trope: the player-character of ''Hero's Duty'' (the first-person shooter) is a robot with a pair of arms mounted on caterpillar tracks [[ScreensAreCameras and a TV screen for a head.]] The player only sees the arms.

* Both ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' allow you to see the entirety of your character's body from the neck down. Examining both games with a third-person camera mod reveals that, even though you can still see it in their shadow, the player's actual character model has no head; convenient for showing the effects when an enemy [[OffWithHisHead tears or cuts it off]].

* In ''Videogame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' you can see the protagonist's body in certain times like kicking in the face an enemy.

* ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}} 3'' allows you to see your legs in real time when you look down.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' and ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' do not render the first person player model, even though scripted events sometimes have Artyom's arms or even his legs. Oddly though, he and his weapon's ''shadow'' are rendered with a decent degree of detail.