Free look

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Free look (also known as mouselook) describes the ability to move the mouse to rotate the player character's view in computer and video games. It is almost always used for 3D game engines, and has been included on role-playing games, real-time strategy games, third-person shooters, first-person shooters, racing games, and flight simulators. Free look is nearly universal in modern games, but it was one of the significant technical breakthroughs of mid-1990s first-person perspective games. For instance, in the seminal game Doom, it was not possible for the player to angle his view up or down, though he had full control over looking left and right. Thus the mouse was used for both changing the player view and for player motion. 3D games for console systems often have an analog stick dedicated to free look functionality.

Raven Software's November 1994 release CyClones featured a rather primitive implementation of mouselook; main movement was via keyboard (with turning and strafing via key combinations), but the on-screen weapon aim point was moved independently via the mouse. Moving the aim point against the edge of the screen would cause the viewpoint to shift up (only temporarily) or to the side (again, haltingly). Unfortunately, this system proved cumbersome and Raven Software did not develop this particular system further.

The first major commercial game to incorporate true 3D free look using the mouse and keyboard control scheme was Marathon by Bungie, released in December 1994 for the Apple Macintosh (with an earlier demo release in July 1994). The first major game for Intel-based PCs to use it was Terminator: Future Shock (published by Bethesda Softworks in 1996). However, Terminator: Future Shock did not become very popular and the original Marathon was not available on the PC platform. Quake (1996) is widely considered to have been the turning point in making free look the standard, in part due to its Internet multiplayer feature, which allowed large numbers of mouse and keyboard players to face each other head-to-head.