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[IbizaPocholo]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/true-3rd-person-view-has-been-hidden-in-a-single-metal-gear-solid-2-variable-for-15-years-now-were-finally-getting-it/

Fan projects like MGSHDFix—which smooths out remaining bugs and sprinkles a little extra visual pixie dust on the game—continue to operate. And thank god they do, because MGSHDFix's current maintainer has uncovered a neat little secret in his latest adventure in Metal Gear Solid 2's guts: a proper third-person camera mode that's been hidden by a single variable for the past 15 years, and yes, it's coming to the mod.

"Accidentally found third-person view in [Metal Gear Solid 2, Master Collection version], guess that'll go into MGSHDFix too," wrote Afevis Solmunko on X, alongside a video of Raiden strolling around the Big Shell with a very manipulable camera. "It locks the camera to [the] overhead view when in super-tight corridors so you don't clip through walls, but otherwise... yeah, it's been there for 15 years. Will do some small fixes to it lol.

"There was just a single variable that needed to be changed in the game's code to enable it; it could very easily be made into a patch for emulators I'd assume, probably jail broken consoles too."

Metal Gear Solid 2, across its many releases, has had a fixed-perspective camera, usually giving the player a roughly top-down view of the (tactical espionage) action. It was only in the re-release of Metal Gear Solid 3—Subsistence—that players got used to a more traditional, third-person perspective on Snake's sneaking.

Spare a thought for the one modder who, a few years, took the time to patch the same camera into MGS2's original 2003 PC release. It wasn't completely redundant work, at least: that was a pre-Bluepoint version of the game and, as such, didn't have any of this code in it.

But as noted in Solmunko's replies, Bluepoint did discuss experiments it had made in adding a true third-person camera to MGS2 for its HD Collection release back in 2011. The studio ended up not putting it in the final version, but the code was left in there for Solmunko to find in 2026: "Everything related to it is labeled BP/Bluepoint," says of the relevant code.

Of course, since it was eventually shelved by Bluepoint, the camera is a little glitchy in this new (well, kind of new) mode, though it sounds like our hero won't have to expend too much elbow grease to mitigate the bugs. "It'll be part of MGSHDFix once I've fixed up a few glitches I noticed. Hopefully out by the weekend if nothing comes up."

Will it work like MGS3's camera—freely switchable between the old and new perspective at will mid-game—when it hits? Could be. "Since it's driven by a [variable], if it does play nicely with being changed in realtime, I'll set it to work off R3 and a user-set keyboard shortcut just like MGSHDFix's other settings—MGS3 style," says Solmunko.

 

[Gambit2483]

It's like MGS3s 3rd person camera but not quite as good

 

[IbizaPocholo]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/i-just-learnt-ive-been-playing-metal-gear-solid-3-with-a-broken-camera-for-15-years/

Afevis Solmunko, head honcho of the Master Collection graphics fixpack MGSHDFix, recently announced a big tweak coming to MGS3's Master Collection version in the mod's upcoming 3.1.0 version: a fix for Bluepoint's misaligned cutscene camera that's has been in the game ever since its initial 2011 release, and which no one has since fixed.
"In both 2011 [HD Collection] & 2023 [Master Collection], the camera in ALL of MGS3's cutscenes is ~10% higher than PS2's framing, cutting off the bottom of screen," wrote Solmunko. "Now fully corrected/properly centered by MGSHDFix."

Solmunko's been on a tear recently. Just last week I wrote about him uncovering true third-person mode in MGS2, obscured by just a single variable in the game's code.

10% might not sound like much, but in example images compiled by Metal Gear augur Heitais, the difference is very noticeable. The camera being angled just that touch higher in the game's Bluepoint version cuts off a chunk of every scene's bottom part. Is it fatal? Well, clearly not, since I didn't even notice for the previous decade and a half, but it certainly isn't desirable in a game as deliberately concerned with its framing and general cinema-ness.

The issue is also present in MGS2, though Solmunko seems to still be toying with the idea of fixing it there. In a post on the Metal Gear Network Discord, he wrote that he "Mightttt recenter MGS2 as well—they aligned the bottom edge of the frame and added more headroom, which results in you being able to see things like Ocelot teleporting / characters loading in." Sounds good to me. Though this is Metal Gear: maybe it's not a bug and Ocelot can actually just teleport.