History Main / NoArcInArchery

This trope is often used in video games due to technical and/or resource limitations, particularly [[FirstPersonShooter First-Person Shooters]]. Keeping track of proper physics for projectiles like arrows is CPU-intensive, which mostly forces games to use AcceptableBreaksFromReality such as {{hitscan}}. It's only since around [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames the Seventh Generation]] that consoles have gotten powerful enough to keep track of physics consistently without affecting gameplay (wasting all of the CPU power on physics and leaving none for the actual GAME wouldn't be a good thing). And even if the consoles are powerful enough, depending on the design of the game this sometimes isn't incorporated if it detracts from the enjoyment of the game -- in many cases (particularly with shooters with fantasy weapons), players would be shooting targets that are close enough that compensating for gravity would be an unnecessary waste of processing power. Games with larger maps and with a higher focus on realism, however, don't use hitscan weapons and do require the player to take both bullet travel time and bullet drop into account while firing at long range. In some cases, the technique of arcing is often used as a skill challenge and [[CatharsisFactor to make the player feel personally competent]]. See WreakingHavok for more on how video games can avert this.

* ''VideoGame/FableTheLostChapters'': Arrows fly on a flat path, then inexplicably plant themselves in the ground once they get out so far.

Just as other tropes have transferred from the archer to the ColdSniper, we find this can happen for firearms. For firearms, the sight is calibrated for a specific distance, 200 meters for an assault rifle, for instance. At distances up to this (ammunition-specific) limit, the deviation of the bullet's path from the straight scope-line-of-sight is less than about 5 cm/2 in., so it can be ignored. Going beyond this limit, however, will cause an increasingly rapid drop of the bullet's path. If the enemy is 400 meters away, one needs already to aim way above the head. Sniper scopes have a knob to adjust the distance (among other things). This is arguably their main feature as anyone can aim for a head at 400 meters through a good scope; estimating the distance, and hence the drop, is the tricky bit. Even then one must also take the difference in altitude into account, not to mention the wind. Grenades, including those fired from {{Grenade Launcher}}s, seem to be the one kind of projectile that near-universally avert this, even in video games that use {{hitscan}} for most firearms.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' uses this most of the time, occasionally with {{motion lines}} demonstrating a straight flight path. Though they are often at ranges where the arc would be negligible anyway.