As for how VATS works, my theory is that it would target an enemies biometrics or mechanical weak points and send an electric shock or something to have your nerves react and fire at the right spot.
same I figured it was like an aimbot that hijacks your arms for a brief moment to do precise shots. and that the ap recharge mechanic functions as a cool down to avoid damaging your nerves
In the fallout 3 operation Anchorage DLC, There is some implication that it might have been or becoming a military asset as well, The brotherhood need a functioning pip boy in order to operate the operation anchorage simulator, And in fact, abducted and killed a Gary clone in their attempt to get one.
My theory for how the Pip-Boy works is rather simple: It's a clunky version of today's common smartwatch, with a few added bells & whistles. We all know that the Fallout universe is leaps & bounds more technologically advanced than our own, that goes without saying. So who's to say that RobCo didn't invent a souped-up vitals detector for the Pip-Boy? They certainly have the means to do it. What I have a hard time believing is that within that little box is a vacuum-tube computer. Vacuum tubes get incredibly hot; That's partly why computers back in the 50's took up so much space. Not only because vacuum tubes were so large, but they were basically just fancy incandescent lightbulbs, which needed a lot of cooling to function properly. I bet you could cook an egg on a Pip-Boy, if it actually existed.
I could see them advancing vacuum tubes to be much smaller and cooler out of necessity in the way we've made transistors smaller and cooler. Maybe what used to be the size of a regular bulb became the size of an LED. It's still probably very hot and heavy though.
As for the Biometrics. Fallout 3 DLC Operation Anchorage makes a very vague suggestion that, at least on the 3000 model, the pipboy is fully locked into the user, possibly suggesting some form of hypodermic needle constantly in the users arm
@@oneblacksun canonicity of what? FNV and FO3 and all of their DLCs are canon. If you mean how Doc Mitchell took his off to Give to the player, he's a Doctor. A Doctor in a Vault would know how to remove the Pipboy.
@TheNinjaSandwichOG And the Brotherhood of Steel can't do the same? It being biometrically locked to the user is such a half-baked idea that goes nowhere. Imagine how filthy the area around the Pip-Boy gets if it's permanently stuck to your arm.
@@oneblacksun it's implied the USER or other VAULT TEC personnel can remove them.eanimg theirs probably some override code or something similar that is only known by the user and authorised personnel, after conversing with Doc Mitchell, you can learn he was indeed the doctor for Vault 21 before it opened, then his wife died and he left the Vault. If anyone's gonna know the override code or whatever, it's him. You're not making the very easy leaps in logic that makes the Pipboy a viable piece of in universe technology, with quirks that make sense. Do you leave your phone or pc unlocked with no password? Probably not, because other people could go on it or steal it. Same principle with the Pipboy.
I agree and I think the different models are a good explanation of how some can be taken off easier and how vats in 4 doesnt freeze time just slow it or in 76 how it only targets stuff. Because they use a less invasive method to connect with the user so they do t have as strong a connection
Those are just rumors and there's no way to prove them, since the fate of Mr. House is unknown. But you were asked by the Securitrons in a non-lethal way to cease and desist, but the rumors persist. Please turn yourself in and report all future plans for further violence against Robco Industries immediately and if you feel what the Liberacé Securitron did was a little bit uncalled for, rough, and beyond extremely embarrassing, feel free to submit an urgent leniency request form to your Overseer while you are still qualified in the next 5 minutes. Remember, the guidelines stated on that urgent leniency request form submission clearly state that to officially process the urgent leniency request submission form, you will also have to submit a full report with full color picture album inserts along with the nominal fee of 1000 caps and the second urgent leniency request form no more than FIVE MINUTES AFTER the first urgent leniency request form submission. If you fail, you must start the process over. Thank You for choosing Robco!
Somebody posted the theory about the vaults were provided the newest pip-boy models depending of the time each vault was build. The presence of pip-boy 3000 models represent the latest vaults that were built and the pip-boy 2000 for the earliest vaults.
Here's a few ideas about how the pipboy could be working. As far as quest marking goes, i think the PC is doing that themselves. Essentially they're just word docs that your char makes as you progress, its just for gameplay reasons we don't actually see it in real time. It'd be too boring so we can just suspend disbelief and assume the PC is doing it manually, possibly helped by a recorder and/or a Text-to-Speech device. For vitals some things are easy to explain while others aren't. Rads is easy enough, the pipboy has a geiger counter. It could probably tell you with some certainty how irradiated you are passively and display that information in a simple to understand format. The info is generalized so a layperson could interpret it. The higher the counter is, the closer you are to death. Exact readings aren't necessary. I'd imagine with other built in sensors it could tell how healthy you were in general by tracking stuff like your heartbeat and blood oxygen levels. If you're heavily damaged, those readings would probably reflect that so it has a handy to read output that essentially amounts to, "You're dying, seek medical help." Now limb damage is a bit trickier, but I think I have a plausible explanation. A gyroscope. Suppose there's a built in gyroscope that is there to measure several things, but one thing it tracks is your gait. How you tend to move your body. Since the pipboy is worn on the left arm, it would over time develop a pattern that corresponds to your normal gait, how you walk and swing your arms, etc. This would establish a baseline reading that it keeps in its memory. Now, when your injured, your gait would change to compensate for the injury and the gyroscope would detect that. Finely tuned enough and it could probably even pinpoint which limb is the one thats damaged. Localized maps are fairly easy. It could be pinging your surrondings passively and creating a readout on the fly. It could then store that readout for you to reference later. While I dont think there are any GPS satellites that are still usable, if indeed there ever were, the pipboy certainly has a built in compass. That, coupled with the assumed pinging to create the map, plus the gyroscope I theorized about earlier, and I bet it could reasonably keep track of where you are in relation to the map. VATS is basically magic though. I could imagine that the pipboy might be able to identify targets using the aforementioned ping, but with some corresponding eyegear to display it for you in combat it doesn't make sense. I could imagine the pipboy could interface with power armor and display it on your helmets HUD, but the PC can use it all the time, so that isn't a good enough explanation. There's my 2 cents about the matter. Love your vids! Keep up the good work!
I always figured VATS worked off a combination of gyrometric data and some smart predictive code to give you an estimate/adjustment of where to aim. 1. It's worn on the left wrist, which the majority of right handed people will use to hold the barrel of a gun, giving the machine a good estimate of the barrel's position. 2. Use some smart code with this data to estimate the degree of the angle towards an average sized humanoid target 3. Display that data to the user as percentages, allowing them to adjust their aim accordingly. Obviously some glaring inconsistencies with this theory. But if you wanted to make a REAL working VATS system, perfectly feasible with current technology.
@@geebung026 I mean. Yeah. Some Advanced Warship AA in US, The CIWS system for short, use the AEGIS system. Which is a data link system to determine speed, bearing and size(By radar lock) and can fire on their relative position with ease. automatically. And manually if the user wanted . But the implications of such system on such a small device is video game magic but.. Its a game right it doesnt need to be realistic
As with many others, as well as with many other ITEMS, I kind of take the application of the Pip-Boy's INV and MAP functions as unspoken character input; I'm keeping track of where I'm going via advanced mapping data of the area and manual input, I'm keeping track of what I've kept nearby and on me in certain wide open spaces (INV) and so on, and so forth. Seeing the PIP-1.0 in the intro was very cool, but again, that boy was HUGE! I remember riffing on that when we first cracked the game open at the apartment, "Vault TEC scientists labor around the clock to develop the FUTURE in *arm-removal technolog!"* and my friend Apple didn't miss a beat, he was like, "Oh, that's how VATS got started~!" Good times, and good times here on Ghostcharm and the Itempedia, I look forward to this with great anticipation to the next piece of work in your inventory. If I had to say there was a broadform content deep dive to make I'd PREFER, even though it's likely already been requested, Samus Aran's Chozo Power Suit, from the Metroid series. It's extremely durable, mysterious, possibly ancient tech, but also adaptable, modular, and host to a variety of offensive and defensive capabilities, onboard CPU systems, energy motivators and storage units, as well as being a HEV suit of sorts, keeping its occupant alive, and closely monitored of its outside influence. Thanks for the tops work as usual, by the way! ✨🪙
I've always thought of it as like a PDA or a Blackberry but with the extra weight of early "cell phones". Some of it could be like the smart watch where it can read your pulse. I also like to imagine some location names get "renamed" by the player depending on where we are.
This is my headcanon for how Pip-Boy works: The inventory and quest menues are just the player character’s journal. They create a list of what they have on them and what they need to do. The vitals are linked to your pulse. The Pip-Boy is able to read your blood pressure and pulse in a similar way to the cuffs we can wrap around our arms in real life. I know this doesn’t fully explain it, but it’s the best I’ve got. VATS is a mode on the Pip-Boy that, once activated, acts similar to a scope. It is able to detect movement in front of it and create a real-time digital copy of the target. The noises we hear during VATS are actually just notifications from the Pip-Boy telling you when to shoot, based on where you are aiming. The slowing time thing is just a gameplay element and does not actually happen (to be fair, it doesn’t happen in 76, so there is precedent for that). Basically, it’s a real life aim assist. None of this is canon, but this is the only way I’ve been able to rationalize how it works in-universe.
You are consistently one of the greatest video game essay ceators in the field right now. I love to see how far you've come with editing, structure, creativity, and humor. Keep up the good work, man! And don't you dare stop making stuff you love!
When you look at the PIP-boy in context with the rest of Fallout's technology, how it works is actually pretty obvious. The PIP-boy has a biometric link to the user: it links directly into the nerves and scans the body directly. This allows it to detect specific damage to the body. It can also control the user's body in short bursts, dependent upon the fitness of the user's body (high agility = better VATS), and even project UI elements directly into the user's vision. The PIP-boy also has a built-in millimeter radar that continually scans the area. Said radar can also directly scan enemies for biometric and targeting data: eg, shooting a mutated ant's antennae.
For how the pip boy works? It’s probably mostly a inventory manager, player character marking when they add or remove an item, and the health stuff it probably detects blood flow or smthn As for vats, it probably tells you whether to adjust your aim to hit a part more accurately, similar to what we see in 76, it’s just easier to have it freeze for a player ingame in the other games Then also for rad detection, for mk VI 2000 onward it probably detects how screwed with the cells are by radiation, or it’s a Geiger counter and players have it used differently for gameplay, idk
This is actually something I have thought about a lot. The most believable, lore friendly explanation I can come up with to explain VATS is that it doesn't really affect the player character all that much. Considering we've seen characters more or less throw this thing on with no extra steps required, some sort of ocular implant or cerebral interface tomfoolery wouldn't make sense. Instead, I think it might be projecting that overlay onto targets physically. It can emit fairly bright light, after all. It highlights different bodyparts, helping the player character single them out and using all data available (distance to and size of target, the weapon used - which it would know since the player logged it as equippped, and the player character's vitals and entered history to calculate how likely said targeted limb is going to be hit under present conditions. It does nothing to actually improve those odds. It's called "Assisted Targeting", not "Assisted Firing", after all. As for the time stop/slow? It's honestly just a gameplay convenience, 76 showed as much, but if I had to bs together some sort of explanation, I'd say it does something to provoke a brief, extreme adrenal response. We've already seen chems do something similar, so it isn't that much of a stretch to assume the same prewar science nonsense that gave us stimpacks and the G.E.C.K. might have found a way to jolt a some nerve in the arm a certain way to get the body to release "Fight-for-your-life" amounts of adrenaline or otherwise cause an altered perception of time. I know this isn't quite right, since using it would DEFINITELY break stealth immediately for obvious reasons and the screen (assuming there's no other emitter of light, would at least need to be pointed in the right direction (which it rarely is). Add to that that this method would have extremely poor visibility and very limited range in broad daylight and the theory is full of holes already, but it beats sci-fi concepts like augmentations or BCI in my eyes.
I think it like a lot of objects probably functions wildly differently in universe from what we see. most games and even movies have to play up certain aspects of objects or devices that could be far different in lore just for the story/game to be more exciting or unique
The Pip-Boy is by far the most brilliant piece of diegetic menu design I've ever seen. It's about the only diegetic menu I've ever seen that people actively think could be in real life. Hell I hate diegetic menus and I still love this thing.
So, I actually have an idea for how vats work. Instead of slowing down time, what is seen in Fallout 76 seems to be more likely, everything moving in real time, while your accuracy depends on your stats and range. As for how it can suddenly make you an aim God, I have an idea, and it sounds a bit absurd. You know how modern tech like phones vibrate when you get a notification or get a call? Well, I believe that the Pip-boy vibrates or beeps or something when you are in vats. When your aim gets closer to the specified target, it vibrates more, and when it gets further, it vibrates less, allowing the wearer to more or less predict with some bit of accuracy where to shoot.
As someone who loves vacuum tubes and old electronics in general I was always fascinated how the pipboy might work. Since in our world they can be pretty limited computing wise and power hungry as well I always wondered how they got around it in the fallout universe. I imagine since tube tech lasted much much longer in their world that it likely got refined and optimized and perhaps integrated with what transistor technology they had. I'm sure it's impossible for tubes to do everything the pip boy does but I like to imagine they found ways to optimize tubes to a degree that we never did, fitting as many elements as they could into a single tube like what happened with compactron tubes in our world and perhaps some advanced materials we don't have were used to make them more efficient.
I always interpreted it as a digital log. Your character just writes down what they have, and when you consume/equip an item, that's just your character removing or changing the designation of the item. As for how it knows, it's obviously got biometric scanners similar to turrets or robots and can tell when you're damaged or irradiated. And finally, VATS, I think is an extrapolation of the biometric scanner, allowing you to align your shot/strike with the Pipboy to ensure Max damage. The bleep when you select a target is the Pipboy reacting to your aiming. But also since it is a biometric scanner, it has a limited field, and that's why the percentages get lower the further away a target is.
Considering the tv show will be coming out soon, I wonder if they will explain the mechanics of how the Pip-Boy works and how its functions work in a non-game sense. Will be interesting to see for sure! On my theory on how it works, it has to have some biometric link or sensor. Considering in Fallout 3 that Pip-Boy model had a life long biometric, it must have some serious tech to it, considering its given to you more or less when you're still a teenager. Being so integrated with the wearer, it can likely get some very accurate health readings for injuries and rads. How it seemingly logs every piece of junk you pick up...no idea unless the wearer is just imputing the data and the device does all the math to piece it together. But yah, its just a piece of impossible tech that is a perfect means for gameplay and story integration.
My theory for how VATS works is that for the same reason the Pipboy can read your vital signs, it can read the vitals of those around you. So VATS essentially gives the player a little summary of which body part they can target that, according to the Pipboys onboard targetting system, is most likely to be hit at the given distance of the target and how much damage it should cause. As for the time freezing, I think its just a game mechanic to look cool, as the player character is already aware of what the Pipboy is telling them, the quick time event sort of functions as a way of showing that to the player in a cool way.
Diegetic mechanics is peak game design. If there's an in-game reason for why there's a hud or menus open, it's probably gonna be in my top faves. I think the way v.a.t.s works, is that it is not litteral. You're not actually seeing weak points floating in the air, you're frantically looking back and forth between your opponent and a spread sheet about target weaknesses. If you really want to make it literal you're either a synth, or the pip-boy is pumping you with drugs to slow perception and you're estimating in your head.
What if the PIP boy jacks directly into your nervous system? That would let it scan your body and potentially give you a visual interface in real time.
@@Kazuma11290 How is it 'a little advanced for the tech?' Fallout already has cybernetics, nano machine armor, micro-scale fusion engines, robots with sentient AI, and so on.
@@Idazmi7 Just look at the pip-boy. It doesn't jack into your brain or puncture flesh at all, it just slaps onto your wrist with a latch. It only plays 8-bit games dude. And you're trying to convince me that it has Neural Integration, but only uses it for targeting... sometimes? Be reasonable man.
@@Kazuma11290 Just look at the pip-boy. It reads your vitals, measures the radiation in food and drink, measures the positive and negative effects of drugs before you take them, automatically makes maps of everything you pass by, tracks your global position, and can track an enemy's individual body parts through walls.
I have one thing to say, and it’s the V.A.T.S we already have this. We’re doing it on our modern rifles today and the way it works is it takes a digital image of what’s going on in front of you and then it calculates the likelihood of hitting your shot and we know the pit boy can you take pictures because many other hollow tapes and different items show that when people left things for you to read and find as you say in game that there’s pictures on it there’s tons of them in fallout 3 not so much a new Vegas. I love everything else in the video much support and appreciation. This is amazing just that is a thing and it’s actually easily explainable and that’s why I even if you are the best shot in the world it always put 95%.
I've always perceived the Pip-Boy as not controlling nor assisting your aim, but instead using the special stats that were attributed to the individual pip-boy to calculate probability of the user hitting individual limbs or a given target. Its a probability calculator, plain and simple. It being on your shooting hand could explain how and why it would be calculating, maybe using data the dweller inputs regarding their firearm to take into account the caliber and model of the firearm; also maybe using a kind of distance scan to see how far the given target is. That's kind of why I perceive the "Assisted" part of the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System to simply mean assisting you in the targeting of your given threat through showing you the likelihood of being capable of hitting the target.
It is crazy to think that nowadays we have machines tenfoldly more advance than pip boys in our pockets, and a lot of modern watchs does mesure you hearth beating rate, distance you travel, calories you have burned. It isn't far fetched to believe we can have a real life pip boy in the near future with all of its in game functionalities. (Besides vats, that is just way over)
Hey, if items are being covered now I feel like there should be some coverage of the Rebellion or Yamato swords from DMC, Mjolnir armor from Halo, and maybe even the Super Shotgun from Doom.
9:03 I like to think VATS uses a gyroscope system to adjust your aim automatically Kinda like those balancing cube robots Though I find the suspension of disbelief answer much more satisfying 😅
Considering the tech in universe I always sort of assumed the Pipboy had a means to augment the users reality and enable the VATS. As for time slowing down, I figured it was also an effort as it helped your brian process information at the rate a computer could process data. Considering how incredible it is and how rare they are, it tracked as the latest in cutting edge tech.
If I could have a Pip Boy irl I'd chose the Fallout76 Vertion with the Fallout 4 version a close 2nd. Also fun fact about the 3 and NV models, is that there Biometrically sealed to the owners arm. Meaning unless the wielder wills it you ain't getting that thing off not even sawing the arm off will work as seen with Gary 23.
If you want an explanation for how so many cool things are crammed in the Pip-Boy, you can totally headcanon that they had a *pinch* of alien tech added during development, which is a thing in Fallout.
I've never actually thought about how VATS would work in real life, but i would assume since the PipBoy knows about your travels and how adept you are with certain weapons, it gives you a "chance to connect" with the certain body parts of the enemy based on given variables (calibur, type of weapon, weather conditions, distance, enemy movement, ect). I like to think it doesn't take the shot or slow time, it just tells you the probability of your shot. I feel like it tracks, considering I've missed in game when the VATS says 99%. You still gotta take the shot.
In Fallout 4, when you pick up the Pip-Boy it needs to boot up. The system is otherwise pretty simple, so part of the boot-up time could be getting a total readout of the wearer (which is supported given that there are biometric scanners in game, often tied to turrets with IFF capability). That could mean something simple like pulse rate, but considering it has a full readout of your SPECIAL stats, that means it's getting muscle density and flexibility, response time, perception, and so on. Based on all of this, it can get a read on how likely you are to hit with a given weapon. Possibly, though, built into the gauntlet part are small muscle stimulators or compressors that could force a slight pinch to the muscles to push or pull your aim in one direction or another. That's a little too advanced for what they can likely fit into the Pip-Boy, though, given its size.
I always imagined that VATS works though the pip boy injecting adrenaline into the player making it feel like time is slowing down for only the player and not reality as a whole. The percentages and targeting is just visualizing a real time thought process
Funny enough it actually makes sense why in FO4 you have the plug and why your pipboy gets notified when vault tec personnel are needed(aka dlc and mods) your pipboy is straight off off the skeletal arm of a vault tec scientist Plus yes i think that its nuclear powered(they mastered safe nuclear power), the way it reads your biometrics is easy enough, its got some kind of reader or scanner built it. The Vats system could be explained as the device is triggering your adrenaline response hence allowing you to respond faster(i personally use the bullet time mod for FO4 and NV, it fits better in my idea)
It was somewhat explained how vats works In game from in world idea It doesnt slow time or anything but it is assisting with aiming and stuff, this was explored more on fo 76 (despite it sucking on launch and even to this day missing some key features that were promised) it basically showed us players how vats actuslly works It assists on aiming by providing something that resembles autoaim but its not For player seen things slow motion is just gimick what only players sees in single player and our player character dont actually see it also It also explains why player character is also in slowmotion because slowmo is giving illusion of empowerment so you feel you are making more impact Which is cool in its own way
Yeah my guess on the Vats is that it works kind of like how they say AI works in halo: it detects your reaction time and gives you a stimulus of some sort whatever percentage ahead of time that you would physically need in order to pull off the shot, basically more like "enhanced intuition" that allows you to essentially aim faster than you can process by offloading the calculations, then feeding you back adjustments through some kind of physical sensation. Could even be an audio queue considering the sound that plays every time you target an enemy in vats.
In the Broken Steel DLC of Fallout 3, the Lone Wanderer comes across a Ghoul selling dirty water and pretending that it's pure water. If you get a sample off of him, your character says something like "Pip-boy analysis of this water indicates that it is radioactive". The thing has a spectrometer or something insane in it as well. All this without the use of microchips since they were never invented in this world! Fallout was never really made to be believable, but it's just a really cool setting.
The targeting system probably works based on a camera of sorts on the side of it towards your hand. You do need to raise it to aim after all. It uses the visual data and depth to deduce where weak points are.
I think one of the special stat videos for fallout 4 says that the way VATS works is the pipboy adjusts your muscles in your arm and hand to adjust your aim.
Very late to the party but I believe that how VATS would work is some sort of AI for the limb targeting which advanced AI already does in fallout and a mix of the Biometrics system somehow not only knowing where you are damaged but also access your optics to use as its own and then the processing chip aiding in accelerated thinking (time slow/pause) and then a CBI (Computer to Brain Interface) in order to show the user a holographic HUD of sorts and then the same CBI controls you thus allowing your body to target and function in VATS (which is also why VATS can be affected by "Stats")
The pip boy always reminds me of the devil summoning device (I forget it's name) from shin megami tensei 1 2 and 4, its also a wrist mounted computer used by a lone wanderer in a post apocalypse, it also works as your menu for quest and item and status management though it also facilitates summoning demons (which serve as your party members after you recruit or fuse them) Smt1 and 2 came out some time before Fallout, I'm curious if there's some other thing that inspired them both that came even farther before
My theory on how the Pip Boy works is it has prongs that puncture your skin that, once you boot up the device pierce your skin and connect to you like a usb into a computer. VATS is probably like some sort of range finger system and uses data from weapons you are carrying that are logged in your inventory to give bare estimates of hit chances.
My in universe idea of VATS would just be a sort of range finder, calculating range, wind , speed and weather conditions and it being up to the user to use the information accordingly, which is why it’s tied to your perception skill. It can also explain why steady affects VATS, as if it is somehow the pipboy controlling you, how would taking drugs help that?
I'd make a headcannon that V.A.T.S could be a small electric shock that's similar to Jet since It's similar and you can't use it all the time as it makes you react quick, and it's maybe transmitting weak points as a thought? Sounds hard to believe but it's a start
I think Vats has something to do with Jet which obviously slows down time increasing reaction time. I think perhaps theres some form of Jet being made on the go using whatever dictates the players AP(stamina) as it depletes it and time clearly slows down for everything including the player hence why this can’t just be an increase in the players speed. Also the way Vats works throughout all the games varied from game to game and this is likely due to the different models improving more and more. Now we just need to know how jet works :/ Edit: Typos
Personally I've always imagined vats was just that you were holding the gun in a way that you could see the screen and use real time percentage to aim for the best place to shoot. And the time stop is just an ingame mechanic
I would love to see one of these on the omni-tool from Mass Effect. (if there even is something more to talk about outside the codex the game gives us.) That or a Villianpedia on Saren and or the Illusive Man, basically anything Mass Effect related. Amazing video btw.
The respawn beacons on borderlands were really weird. A few storys in game about them but the funtionality of it was the most interesting part. Id love to see a vid on that
Yeah its pretty convenient and amazing that it gives you so much access to information, but uh it was made and distributed by vault tech... you aren't the only one getting all of this information
If I were a writer I'd have the Pip-Boy be based on a supernatural artifact found by the Dunwich Company in a dig sponsored by Rob-Co that had the capacity to do, well can tell what a Pip-Boy can tell give (at least to me) a really cool origin and explanation for the Pip-Boy.
V.A.T.S. Specifically here’s my theory: AP is a charge of energy sent from the Pip-Boy to your body and your mind giving you momentary “assisted targeting” probably seen most accurately in Fallout 4 and 76 where you don’t freeze time, but slow it. The Pip-Boy is giving you data at higher speeds and assisting Hand/Eye. The mind and unit can only do so much which is why AP runs out and recharges. A combination of Pip-Boy battery and mental endurance.
Fallout as a video game and as a franchise was honestly so ahead of its time. The Pip-Boy, S.P.E.C.I.A.L., and V.A.T.S. are absolutely genius RPG elements.
I always found it weird so many people think the Pipboy in the 2D games is a handheld despite the fact the manual calls it wristmounted Also Pip-Boy 2000 Mrk. VI is the best Pip-Boy model
When I saw this I was like: "itempedia?" And then I was like: "Hell yeah!" You should definitely do the PDA from Doom it made several changes from its many games.
I would say the pip boys also responsible for your perks it " unlocks the full potential of your brain", also does it actually digitize your items but not their Mass so you can still be weighed down by them
I, like quite a few others. Want to see stuff on the Master Sword. It's pretty iconic and you could even compare it to some of the older Swords in Zelda that aren't just the basic ones. Of course, if you want to explore a different Zelda weapon. I'd understand that. I mean, there is a lot to go with.
See I always kinda assumed that the VATS system took over your nervous system when you choose to shoot and that’s why you can see percentages for likelihood of success when you’re looking at targets, not at the pip boy, and maybe that’s why you need to wait for it to recharge, because repeated voluntary highjackings would be too taxing on your body So it literally aims the gun and shoots it for you when you use it, I’m guessing by highjacking your bodies electrical pulses that fire nerves
This makes me wish I could play any of the fallout games (I am one with the misfortune of having access to none) so I could really experience all of these wonderful things myself. This video was awesome to watch though!
VATS can be just some sort of stimulator which makes you basically a super soldier but dose so small it only lasts so little it become harmless for user himself. Also I heard explanation it just gives you a shock whenever you aim at the enemy so your hand pull the trigger on itself.
It's a smartphone you wear on your forearm. It just has some really good hi-tech apps. I do agree the Pip boy is probably the most Fallout thing. I would not play Fallout without V.A.T.S. I'd have to play on easy as I am old enough to have played since Fallout came out.
The inner fitting of the pip boy and the fact that half of them can't be easily removed to me suggests an exaggerated heart monitor system. You know, the kind that fills up with air and squeezes your arm like they'd put on you at the hospital. Only now it can detect your limb condition and other nuanced effects because technology
god i missed these videos, every upload is like a gateway to this feeling of immersion and love for gaming. this whole channel is purely brilliant and so well crafted. and your voice overs are really well done, and damn well written. thanks for this channel man.
I feel like a lot of the little icons and perks being different between games can be explained by the users making those icons themselves and adding the notes about those perks and other things themselves too
The only device that allows you to eat anything without having to actually put any of the food in your hands 😌 (ignore prehistoric fallout. Aka elder scrolls) Also I think it would be pretty futuristic if it somehow connected to our nervous system (kind of reverse of how the master was able to connect to the computers. So maybe it injects a tiny bit of magic metal into your arm, also a reason why you can't take it off) and then allowed us to do a sort of accelerated thinking through the extra processing power of the pip-boy's targeting system (also kind of makes the random long pauses in-between queued tasks make a bit more sense. It's old as shit tech that probably wasn't endurance tested. So it gets random memory issues)
Idk why but as a kid I thought the pip boy attached itself with needles into your arm to monitor your vitals. There was no indication of this, but I think the games “scary” feeling influenced that
Hey Ghost, I doubt you’ll see this comment, but if you were looking to dive into a potential Villainpedia or Heropedia episode, I’d love to see how you’d format an observation of either Talion or Celebrimbor from the Middle Earth: Shadow of War/Mordor series. I think in the video-essay format that you tend to do for these videos, a Celebrimbor or Talion vid would bring a certain (ghost)charm to these characters. Thanks for the amazing content man, enjoy your day
If you think about it, we basically do have pipboys in the modern age. Those fitness/utility watches that sync up to your phone are already capable of replicating many of the more realistic functions of a pipboy.
The Pip-Boy always seemed like a weirdly magical object in the Fallout Universe. Like, I know it doesn't really hold everything in our inventory and that it just journals it, but it still feels whimsical.
We have watches that accurately measure heart beat, sleep patterns, and even sugar levels. I’m certain it’s possible to implement them into a pip boy especially since their technology was vastly superior to ours. However, I don’t know where the sensors would be since some of the pip boys literally have a leather cuff that goes over your arm. Would negate the sensors. Fruit for thought though.
As for how VATS works, my theory is that it would target an enemies biometrics or mechanical weak points and send an electric shock or something to have your nerves react and fire at the right spot.
No HTML5 3D hardware detected
same I figured it was like an aimbot that hijacks your arms for a brief moment to do precise shots. and that the ap recharge mechanic functions as a cool down to avoid damaging your nerves
That would explain why you cant remove it, since it would tear apart those connections with the nerves
drugs
@@elmecaniconaranja1126you can remove the pip boy in the fallout show so this theory was good until it came out
It also adds amazing atmosphere when that creepy mono green is your only light source in an abandoned subway tunnel.
I always like changing it to a dull yellow. Makes the flashlight and pipboy text looked aged.
"Abandoned" ie ghoul and mine filled
I like the mining helmets. It makes sense sorta
In the fallout 3 operation Anchorage DLC, There is some implication that it might have been or becoming a military asset as well, The brotherhood need a functioning pip boy in order to operate the operation anchorage simulator, And in fact, abducted and killed a Gary clone in their attempt to get one.
My theory for how the Pip-Boy works is rather simple: It's a clunky version of today's common smartwatch, with a few added bells & whistles. We all know that the Fallout universe is leaps & bounds more technologically advanced than our own, that goes without saying. So who's to say that RobCo didn't invent a souped-up vitals detector for the Pip-Boy? They certainly have the means to do it. What I have a hard time believing is that within that little box is a vacuum-tube computer. Vacuum tubes get incredibly hot; That's partly why computers back in the 50's took up so much space. Not only because vacuum tubes were so large, but they were basically just fancy incandescent lightbulbs, which needed a lot of cooling to function properly. I bet you could cook an egg on a Pip-Boy, if it actually existed.
Probably needles in your arm like a modern glucose monitor but somehow can track your limbs and vitals.
I could see them advancing vacuum tubes to be much smaller and cooler out of necessity in the way we've made transistors smaller and cooler. Maybe what used to be the size of a regular bulb became the size of an LED. It's still probably very hot and heavy though.
@@mrchiefbsprobably gets into the nerves so it can notice when a bone gets fucked
Elon musk has already created something with a different design but has the same functionality.
Elon musk has never invented a damn thing
As for the Biometrics. Fallout 3 DLC Operation Anchorage makes a very vague suggestion that, at least on the 3000 model, the pipboy is fully locked into the user, possibly suggesting some form of hypodermic needle constantly in the users arm
Yet it gets completely ignored in New Vegas, so its canonicity is up for debate.
@@oneblacksun canonicity of what? FNV and FO3 and all of their DLCs are canon. If you mean how Doc Mitchell took his off to Give to the player, he's a Doctor. A Doctor in a Vault would know how to remove the Pipboy.
@TheNinjaSandwichOG And the Brotherhood of Steel can't do the same? It being biometrically locked to the user is such a half-baked idea that goes nowhere. Imagine how filthy the area around the Pip-Boy gets if it's permanently stuck to your arm.
@@oneblacksun it's implied the USER or other VAULT TEC personnel can remove them.eanimg theirs probably some override code or something similar that is only known by the user and authorised personnel, after conversing with Doc Mitchell, you can learn he was indeed the doctor for Vault 21 before it opened, then his wife died and he left the Vault. If anyone's gonna know the override code or whatever, it's him. You're not making the very easy leaps in logic that makes the Pipboy a viable piece of in universe technology, with quirks that make sense.
Do you leave your phone or pc unlocked with no password? Probably not, because other people could go on it or steal it. Same principle with the Pipboy.
I agree and I think the different models are a good explanation of how some can be taken off easier and how vats in 4 doesnt freeze time just slow it or in 76 how it only targets stuff. Because they use a less invasive method to connect with the user so they do t have as strong a connection
When you get into it, Robert House is responsible for most of Fallouts recognizable items and characters. He really is John Fallout.
that's John MOSES Fallout to you, chap
Naw
Those are just rumors and there's no way to prove them, since the fate of Mr. House is unknown. But you were asked by the Securitrons in a non-lethal way to cease and desist, but the rumors persist. Please turn yourself in and report all future plans for further violence against Robco Industries immediately and if you feel what the Liberacé Securitron did was a little bit uncalled for, rough, and beyond extremely embarrassing, feel free to submit an urgent leniency request form to your Overseer while you are still qualified in the next 5 minutes. Remember, the guidelines stated on that urgent leniency request form submission clearly state that to officially process the urgent leniency request submission form, you will also have to submit a full report with full color picture album inserts along with the nominal fee of 1000 caps and the second urgent leniency request form no more than FIVE MINUTES AFTER the first urgent leniency request form submission. If you fail, you must start the process over. Thank You for choosing Robco!
i know and really i draw all the cards because no matter what the house always wins
Somebody posted the theory about the vaults were provided the newest pip-boy models depending of the time each vault was build. The presence of pip-boy 3000 models represent the latest vaults that were built and the pip-boy 2000 for the earliest vaults.
I think something that has to be done at one point is the Legendary Master Sword
i concur
i concur
I concur
I concur
Thought the same thing before I even saw this comment!
Even TF2 had a little Fallout crossover with Engie's PDA becoming a Pip-Boy, and man, I never take that thing off lol
Here's a few ideas about how the pipboy could be working.
As far as quest marking goes, i think the PC is doing that themselves. Essentially they're just word docs that your char makes as you progress, its just for gameplay reasons we don't actually see it in real time. It'd be too boring so we can just suspend disbelief and assume the PC is doing it manually, possibly helped by a recorder and/or a Text-to-Speech device.
For vitals some things are easy to explain while others aren't. Rads is easy enough, the pipboy has a geiger counter. It could probably tell you with some certainty how irradiated you are passively and display that information in a simple to understand format. The info is generalized so a layperson could interpret it. The higher the counter is, the closer you are to death. Exact readings aren't necessary. I'd imagine with other built in sensors it could tell how healthy you were in general by tracking stuff like your heartbeat and blood oxygen levels. If you're heavily damaged, those readings would probably reflect that so it has a handy to read output that essentially amounts to, "You're dying, seek medical help."
Now limb damage is a bit trickier, but I think I have a plausible explanation. A gyroscope. Suppose there's a built in gyroscope that is there to measure several things, but one thing it tracks is your gait. How you tend to move your body. Since the pipboy is worn on the left arm, it would over time develop a pattern that corresponds to your normal gait, how you walk and swing your arms, etc. This would establish a baseline reading that it keeps in its memory. Now, when your injured, your gait would change to compensate for the injury and the gyroscope would detect that. Finely tuned enough and it could probably even pinpoint which limb is the one thats damaged.
Localized maps are fairly easy. It could be pinging your surrondings passively and creating a readout on the fly. It could then store that readout for you to reference later. While I dont think there are any GPS satellites that are still usable, if indeed there ever were, the pipboy certainly has a built in compass. That, coupled with the assumed pinging to create the map, plus the gyroscope I theorized about earlier, and I bet it could reasonably keep track of where you are in relation to the map.
VATS is basically magic though. I could imagine that the pipboy might be able to identify targets using the aforementioned ping, but with some corresponding eyegear to display it for you in combat it doesn't make sense. I could imagine the pipboy could interface with power armor and display it on your helmets HUD, but the PC can use it all the time, so that isn't a good enough explanation.
There's my 2 cents about the matter. Love your vids! Keep up the good work!
I always figured VATS worked off a combination of gyrometric data and some smart predictive code to give you an estimate/adjustment of where to aim.
1. It's worn on the left wrist, which the majority of right handed people will use to hold the barrel of a gun, giving the machine a good estimate of the barrel's position.
2. Use some smart code with this data to estimate the degree of the angle towards an average sized humanoid target
3. Display that data to the user as percentages, allowing them to adjust their aim accordingly.
Obviously some glaring inconsistencies with this theory. But if you wanted to make a REAL working VATS system, perfectly feasible with current technology.
@@geebung026 I mean. Yeah. Some Advanced Warship AA in US, The CIWS system for short, use the AEGIS system. Which is a data link system to determine speed, bearing and size(By radar lock) and can fire on their relative position with ease. automatically. And manually if the user wanted .
But the implications of such system on such a small device is video game magic but.. Its a game right it doesnt need to be realistic
As with many others, as well as with many other ITEMS, I kind of take the application of the Pip-Boy's INV and MAP functions as unspoken character input; I'm keeping track of where I'm going via advanced mapping data of the area and manual input, I'm keeping track of what I've kept nearby and on me in certain wide open spaces (INV) and so on, and so forth. Seeing the PIP-1.0 in the intro was very cool, but again, that boy was HUGE! I remember riffing on that when we first cracked the game open at the apartment, "Vault TEC scientists labor around the clock to develop the FUTURE in *arm-removal technolog!"* and my friend Apple didn't miss a beat, he was like, "Oh, that's how VATS got started~!"
Good times, and good times here on Ghostcharm and the Itempedia, I look forward to this with great anticipation to the next piece of work in your inventory. If I had to say there was a broadform content deep dive to make I'd PREFER, even though it's likely already been requested, Samus Aran's Chozo Power Suit, from the Metroid series. It's extremely durable, mysterious, possibly ancient tech, but also adaptable, modular, and host to a variety of offensive and defensive capabilities, onboard CPU systems, energy motivators and storage units, as well as being a HEV suit of sorts, keeping its occupant alive, and closely monitored of its outside influence.
Thanks for the tops work as usual, by the way! ✨🪙
Suggestions: Amulet of Kings - Oblivion, Plasmids - Bioshock, The Spartan Armor - Halo, The Witcher Amulets, The Portal Gun - Portal, Moonlight Greatsword - Dark Souls
I've always thought of it as like a PDA or a Blackberry but with the extra weight of early "cell phones". Some of it could be like the smart watch where it can read your pulse. I also like to imagine some location names get "renamed" by the player depending on where we are.
This is my headcanon for how Pip-Boy works:
The inventory and quest menues are just the player character’s journal. They create a list of what they have on them and what they need to do.
The vitals are linked to your pulse. The Pip-Boy is able to read your blood pressure and pulse in a similar way to the cuffs we can wrap around our arms in real life. I know this doesn’t fully explain it, but it’s the best I’ve got.
VATS is a mode on the Pip-Boy that, once activated, acts similar to a scope. It is able to detect movement in front of it and create a real-time digital copy of the target. The noises we hear during VATS are actually just notifications from the Pip-Boy telling you when to shoot, based on where you are aiming. The slowing time thing is just a gameplay element and does not actually happen (to be fair, it doesn’t happen in 76, so there is precedent for that). Basically, it’s a real life aim assist.
None of this is canon, but this is the only way I’ve been able to rationalize how it works in-universe.
Imagining TES having an in game analog to the Pip Boy, but it's a bunch of scrolls tied to your wrist
I could see it
I’m sure the Dwemer could have done something like that given the tech they’ve invented.
i hated how un-themed the menus in skyrim were like they didnt even have a journal background in the journal screen
a diary or journal would be cool and an actual map
I think it’d be cool If in the next elder scrolls if they added “message in a bottle “ “voice ina bottle “ to act as holotapes
You are consistently one of the greatest video game essay ceators in the field right now. I love to see how far you've come with editing, structure, creativity, and humor. Keep up the good work, man! And don't you dare stop making stuff you love!
We are so back gentlemen
Indeed!
we are so black gentlemen
We were never gone.
@@Cocklord911we are so wack gentlemen
been waiting for a new Ghostcharm!
When you look at the PIP-boy in context with the rest of Fallout's technology, how it works is actually pretty obvious.
The PIP-boy has a biometric link to the user: it links directly into the nerves and scans the body directly. This allows it to detect specific damage to the body. It can also control the user's body in short bursts, dependent upon the fitness of the user's body (high agility = better VATS), and even project UI elements directly into the user's vision.
The PIP-boy also has a built-in millimeter radar that continually scans the area. Said radar can also directly scan enemies for biometric and targeting data: eg, shooting a mutated ant's antennae.
For how the pip boy works?
It’s probably mostly a inventory manager, player character marking when they add or remove an item, and the health stuff it probably detects blood flow or smthn
As for vats, it probably tells you whether to adjust your aim to hit a part more accurately, similar to what we see in 76, it’s just easier to have it freeze for a player ingame in the other games
Then also for rad detection, for mk VI 2000 onward it probably detects how screwed with the cells are by radiation, or it’s a Geiger counter and players have it used differently for gameplay, idk
This is actually something I have thought about a lot. The most believable, lore friendly explanation I can come up with to explain VATS is that it doesn't really affect the player character all that much. Considering we've seen characters more or less throw this thing on with no extra steps required, some sort of ocular implant or cerebral interface tomfoolery wouldn't make sense.
Instead, I think it might be projecting that overlay onto targets physically. It can emit fairly bright light, after all. It highlights different bodyparts, helping the player character single them out and using all data available (distance to and size of target, the weapon used - which it would know since the player logged it as equippped, and the player character's vitals and entered history to calculate how likely said targeted limb is going to be hit under present conditions. It does nothing to actually improve those odds. It's called "Assisted Targeting", not "Assisted Firing", after all.
As for the time stop/slow? It's honestly just a gameplay convenience, 76 showed as much, but if I had to bs together some sort of explanation, I'd say it does something to provoke a brief, extreme adrenal response. We've already seen chems do something similar, so it isn't that much of a stretch to assume the same prewar science nonsense that gave us stimpacks and the G.E.C.K. might have found a way to jolt a some nerve in the arm a certain way to get the body to release "Fight-for-your-life" amounts of adrenaline or otherwise cause an altered perception of time.
I know this isn't quite right, since using it would DEFINITELY break stealth immediately for obvious reasons and the screen (assuming there's no other emitter of light, would at least need to be pointed in the right direction (which it rarely is). Add to that that this method would have extremely poor visibility and very limited range in broad daylight and the theory is full of holes already, but it beats sci-fi concepts like augmentations or BCI in my eyes.
I think it like a lot of objects probably functions wildly differently in universe from what we see.
most games and even movies have to play up certain aspects of objects or devices that could be far different in lore just for the story/game to be more exciting or unique
The Pip-Boy is by far the most brilliant piece of diegetic menu design I've ever seen. It's about the only diegetic menu I've ever seen that people actively think could be in real life. Hell I hate diegetic menus and I still love this thing.
So, I actually have an idea for how vats work. Instead of slowing down time, what is seen in Fallout 76 seems to be more likely, everything moving in real time, while your accuracy depends on your stats and range. As for how it can suddenly make you an aim God, I have an idea, and it sounds a bit absurd. You know how modern tech like phones vibrate when you get a notification or get a call? Well, I believe that the Pip-boy vibrates or beeps or something when you are in vats. When your aim gets closer to the specified target, it vibrates more, and when it gets further, it vibrates less, allowing the wearer to more or less predict with some bit of accuracy where to shoot.
As someone who loves vacuum tubes and old electronics in general I was always fascinated how the pipboy might work. Since in our world they can be pretty limited computing wise and power hungry as well I always wondered how they got around it in the fallout universe. I imagine since tube tech lasted much much longer in their world that it likely got refined and optimized and perhaps integrated with what transistor technology they had. I'm sure it's impossible for tubes to do everything the pip boy does but I like to imagine they found ways to optimize tubes to a degree that we never did, fitting as many elements as they could into a single tube like what happened with compactron tubes in our world and perhaps some advanced materials we don't have were used to make them more efficient.
Any upload is always highly anticipated but any time you cover fallout im especially hyped.
Frrrr, i love watching his fallout content
17:30
GOAT
Generalized
Occupational
Aptitude
Test
I always interpreted it as a digital log. Your character just writes down what they have, and when you consume/equip an item, that's just your character removing or changing the designation of the item.
As for how it knows, it's obviously got biometric scanners similar to turrets or robots and can tell when you're damaged or irradiated.
And finally, VATS, I think is an extrapolation of the biometric scanner, allowing you to align your shot/strike with the Pipboy to ensure Max damage. The bleep when you select a target is the Pipboy reacting to your aiming. But also since it is a biometric scanner, it has a limited field, and that's why the percentages get lower the further away a target is.
Considering the tv show will be coming out soon, I wonder if they will explain the mechanics of how the Pip-Boy works and how its functions work in a non-game sense. Will be interesting to see for sure!
On my theory on how it works, it has to have some biometric link or sensor. Considering in Fallout 3 that Pip-Boy model had a life long biometric, it must have some serious tech to it, considering its given to you more or less when you're still a teenager. Being so integrated with the wearer, it can likely get some very accurate health readings for injuries and rads. How it seemingly logs every piece of junk you pick up...no idea unless the wearer is just imputing the data and the device does all the math to piece it together. But yah, its just a piece of impossible tech that is a perfect means for gameplay and story integration.
My theory for how VATS works is that for the same reason the Pipboy can read your vital signs, it can read the vitals of those around you. So VATS essentially gives the player a little summary of which body part they can target that, according to the Pipboys onboard targetting system, is most likely to be hit at the given distance of the target and how much damage it should cause. As for the time freezing, I think its just a game mechanic to look cool, as the player character is already aware of what the Pipboy is telling them, the quick time event sort of functions as a way of showing that to the player in a cool way.
Diegetic mechanics is peak game design. If there's an in-game reason for why there's a hud or menus open, it's probably gonna be in my top faves.
I think the way v.a.t.s works, is that it is not litteral. You're not actually seeing weak points floating in the air, you're frantically looking back and forth between your opponent and a spread sheet about target weaknesses. If you really want to make it literal you're either a synth, or the pip-boy is pumping you with drugs to slow perception and you're estimating in your head.
What if the PIP boy jacks directly into your nervous system? That would let it scan your body and potentially give you a visual interface in real time.
@@Idazmi7 Seems a little advanced for the tech, but whatever helps you shoot better at targets.
@@Kazuma11290
How is it 'a little advanced for the tech?' Fallout already has cybernetics, nano machine armor, micro-scale fusion engines, robots with sentient AI, and so on.
@@Idazmi7 Just look at the pip-boy. It doesn't jack into your brain or puncture flesh at all, it just slaps onto your wrist with a latch. It only plays 8-bit games dude. And you're trying to convince me that it has Neural Integration, but only uses it for targeting... sometimes? Be reasonable man.
@@Kazuma11290
Just look at the pip-boy. It reads your vitals, measures the radiation in food and drink, measures the positive and negative effects of drugs before you take them, automatically makes maps of everything you pass by, tracks your global position, and can track an enemy's individual body parts through walls.
I have one thing to say, and it’s the V.A.T.S we already have this. We’re doing it on our modern rifles today and the way it works is it takes a digital image of what’s going on in front of you and then it calculates the likelihood of hitting your shot and we know the pit boy can you take pictures because many other hollow tapes and different items show that when people left things for you to read and find as you say in game that there’s pictures on it there’s tons of them in fallout 3 not so much a new Vegas. I love everything else in the video much support and appreciation. This is amazing just that is a thing and it’s actually easily explainable and that’s why I even if you are the best shot in the world it always put 95%.
I've always perceived the Pip-Boy as not controlling nor assisting your aim, but instead using the special stats that were attributed to the individual pip-boy to calculate probability of the user hitting individual limbs or a given target.
Its a probability calculator, plain and simple.
It being on your shooting hand could explain how and why it would be calculating, maybe using data the dweller inputs regarding their firearm to take into account the caliber and model of the firearm; also maybe using a kind of distance scan to see how far the given target is.
That's kind of why I perceive the "Assisted" part of the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System to simply mean assisting you in the targeting of your given threat through showing you the likelihood of being capable of hitting the target.
It is crazy to think that nowadays we have machines tenfoldly more advance than pip boys in our pockets, and a lot of modern watchs does mesure you hearth beating rate, distance you travel, calories you have burned. It isn't far fetched to believe we can have a real life pip boy in the near future with all of its in game functionalities. (Besides vats, that is just way over)
Hey, if items are being covered now I feel like there should be some coverage of the Rebellion or Yamato swords from DMC, Mjolnir armor from Halo, and maybe even the Super Shotgun from Doom.
Iconic items?
Did someone say [Thunderfury, blessed blade of the windseeker]?
My favorite part of the day is when I'm get a Ghostcharm ping.
Also... Sarah Kerrigan please.
STOP SIMPING!
I second Kerrigan.
9:03 I like to think VATS uses a gyroscope system to adjust your aim automatically
Kinda like those balancing cube robots
Though I find the suspension of disbelief answer much more satisfying 😅
I don’t even love Fallout anymore but it always make for some of the highest tier lore videos. Love it and good job
Considering the tech in universe I always sort of assumed the Pipboy had a means to augment the users reality and enable the VATS. As for time slowing down, I figured it was also an effort as it helped your brian process information at the rate a computer could process data. Considering how incredible it is and how rare they are, it tracked as the latest in cutting edge tech.
If I could have a Pip Boy irl I'd chose the Fallout76 Vertion with the Fallout 4 version a close 2nd.
Also fun fact about the 3 and NV models, is that there Biometrically sealed to the owners arm. Meaning unless the wielder wills it you ain't getting that thing off not even sawing the arm off will work as seen with Gary 23.
If you want an explanation for how so many cool things are crammed in the Pip-Boy, you can totally headcanon that they had a *pinch* of alien tech added during development, which is a thing in Fallout.
I've never actually thought about how VATS would work in real life, but i would assume since the PipBoy knows about your travels and how adept you are with certain weapons, it gives you a "chance to connect" with the certain body parts of the enemy based on given variables (calibur, type of weapon, weather conditions, distance, enemy movement, ect). I like to think it doesn't take the shot or slow time, it just tells you the probability of your shot. I feel like it tracks, considering I've missed in game when the VATS says 99%. You still gotta take the shot.
In Fallout 4, when you pick up the Pip-Boy it needs to boot up. The system is otherwise pretty simple, so part of the boot-up time could be getting a total readout of the wearer (which is supported given that there are biometric scanners in game, often tied to turrets with IFF capability). That could mean something simple like pulse rate, but considering it has a full readout of your SPECIAL stats, that means it's getting muscle density and flexibility, response time, perception, and so on. Based on all of this, it can get a read on how likely you are to hit with a given weapon. Possibly, though, built into the gauntlet part are small muscle stimulators or compressors that could force a slight pinch to the muscles to push or pull your aim in one direction or another. That's a little too advanced for what they can likely fit into the Pip-Boy, though, given its size.
I always imagined that VATS works though the pip boy injecting adrenaline into the player making it feel like time is slowing down for only the player and not reality as a whole. The percentages and targeting is just visualizing a real time thought process
Considering Vault-Tec and all the pre-war context... Pip Boys run on Alien hardware
Funny enough it actually makes sense why in FO4 you have the plug and why your pipboy gets notified when vault tec personnel are needed(aka dlc and mods) your pipboy is straight off off the skeletal arm of a vault tec scientist
Plus yes i think that its nuclear powered(they mastered safe nuclear power), the way it reads your biometrics is easy enough, its got some kind of reader or scanner built it. The Vats system could be explained as the device is triggering your adrenaline response hence allowing you to respond faster(i personally use the bullet time mod for FO4 and NV, it fits better in my idea)
It was somewhat explained how vats works
In game from in world idea
It doesnt slow time or anything but it is assisting with aiming and stuff, this was explored more on fo 76 (despite it sucking on launch and even to this day missing some key features that were promised) it basically showed us players how vats actuslly works
It assists on aiming by providing something that resembles autoaim but its not
For player seen things slow motion is just gimick what only players sees in single player and our player character dont actually see it also
It also explains why player character is also in slowmotion because slowmo is giving illusion of empowerment so you feel you are making more impact
Which is cool in its own way
The music box in the Fable series. Such a wonderous item.
Yeah my guess on the Vats is that it works kind of like how they say AI works in halo: it detects your reaction time and gives you a stimulus of some sort whatever percentage ahead of time that you would physically need in order to pull off the shot, basically more like "enhanced intuition" that allows you to essentially aim faster than you can process by offloading the calculations, then feeding you back adjustments through some kind of physical sensation. Could even be an audio queue considering the sound that plays every time you target an enemy in vats.
In the Broken Steel DLC of Fallout 3, the Lone Wanderer comes across a Ghoul selling dirty water and pretending that it's pure water. If you get a sample off of him, your character says something like "Pip-boy analysis of this water indicates that it is radioactive". The thing has a spectrometer or something insane in it as well.
All this without the use of microchips since they were never invented in this world! Fallout was never really made to be believable, but it's just a really cool setting.
The targeting system probably works based on a camera of sorts on the side of it towards your hand. You do need to raise it to aim after all.
It uses the visual data and depth to deduce where weak points are.
I think one of the special stat videos for fallout 4 says that the way VATS works is the pipboy adjusts your muscles in your arm and hand to adjust your aim.
Very late to the party but I believe that how VATS would work is some sort of AI for the limb targeting which advanced AI already does in fallout and a mix of the Biometrics system somehow not only knowing where you are damaged but also access your optics to use as its own and then the processing chip aiding in accelerated thinking (time slow/pause) and then a CBI (Computer to Brain Interface) in order to show the user a holographic HUD of sorts and then the same CBI controls you thus allowing your body to target and function in VATS (which is also why VATS can be affected by "Stats")
the first thing I did on Fallout 4 was turn the colour of the pip-boy interface to that beloved New Vegas amber XD.
The pip boy always reminds me of the devil summoning device (I forget it's name) from shin megami tensei 1 2 and 4, its also a wrist mounted computer used by a lone wanderer in a post apocalypse, it also works as your menu for quest and item and status management though it also facilitates summoning demons (which serve as your party members after you recruit or fuse them)
Smt1 and 2 came out some time before Fallout, I'm curious if there's some other thing that inspired them both that came even farther before
My theory on how the Pip Boy works is it has prongs that puncture your skin that, once you boot up the device pierce your skin and connect to you like a usb into a computer. VATS is probably like some sort of range finger system and uses data from weapons you are carrying that are logged in your inventory to give bare estimates of hit chances.
My in universe idea of VATS would just be a sort of range finder, calculating range, wind , speed and weather conditions and it being up to the user to use the information accordingly, which is why it’s tied to your perception skill. It can also explain why steady affects VATS, as if it is somehow the pipboy controlling you, how would taking drugs help that?
Samus' Armor would be interesting to know more about it.
I'd make a headcannon that V.A.T.S could be a small electric shock that's similar to Jet since It's similar and you can't use it all the time as it makes you react quick, and it's maybe transmitting weak points as a thought? Sounds hard to believe but it's a start
I think Vats has something to do with Jet which obviously slows down time increasing reaction time. I think perhaps theres some form of Jet being made on the go using whatever dictates the players AP(stamina) as it depletes it and time clearly slows down for everything including the player hence why this can’t just be an increase in the players speed. Also the way Vats works throughout all the games varied from game to game and this is likely due to the different models improving more and more. Now we just need to know how jet works :/
Edit: Typos
From someone who’s never played Fallout. This Pip-Boy & your detailed explanation on its features made me want to play. Thank you.
Personally I've always imagined vats was just that you were holding the gun in a way that you could see the screen and use real time percentage to aim for the best place to shoot. And the time stop is just an ingame mechanic
I would love to see one of these on the omni-tool from Mass Effect. (if there even is something more to talk about outside the codex the game gives us.) That or a Villianpedia on Saren and or the Illusive Man, basically anything Mass Effect related. Amazing video btw.
When i worked at Bethesda we had a iPhone like commercial on describing the aesthetic of the pipboy 3000
The respawn beacons on borderlands were really weird. A few storys in game about them but the funtionality of it was the most interesting part. Id love to see a vid on that
Yeah its pretty convenient and amazing that it gives you so much access to information, but uh it was made and distributed by vault tech... you aren't the only one getting all of this information
I can imagine the Pip-boy having a laser designator for the supporting hand when shooting, directing the user how to stay on target
If I were a writer I'd have the Pip-Boy be based on a supernatural artifact found by the Dunwich Company in a dig sponsored by Rob-Co that had the capacity to do, well can tell what a Pip-Boy can tell give (at least to me) a really cool origin and explanation for the Pip-Boy.
Similar functionality to Pip-Boy was Dead Space's RIGs, AKA How to get everything you need as an Engineer on a single suit of armor!
V.A.T.S. Specifically here’s my theory: AP is a charge of energy sent from the Pip-Boy to your body and your mind giving you momentary “assisted targeting” probably seen most accurately in Fallout 4 and 76 where you don’t freeze time, but slow it. The Pip-Boy is giving you data at higher speeds and assisting Hand/Eye. The mind and unit can only do so much which is why AP runs out and recharges. A combination of Pip-Boy battery and mental endurance.
Fallout as a video game and as a franchise was honestly so ahead of its time. The Pip-Boy, S.P.E.C.I.A.L., and V.A.T.S. are absolutely genius RPG elements.
thank god, new ghostcharm fallout video. i’ve rewatched the master and frank horrigan over 10x while working and listening to it.
I always found it weird so many people think the Pipboy in the 2D games is a handheld despite the fact the manual calls it wristmounted
Also Pip-Boy 2000 Mrk. VI is the best Pip-Boy model
i know it's only kind of an "item" but I'd love to see a video on the Elden Ring!
When I saw this I was like: "itempedia?" And then I was like: "Hell yeah!" You should definitely do the PDA from Doom it made several changes from its many games.
I would say the pip boys also responsible for your perks it " unlocks the full potential of your brain", also does it actually digitize your items but not their Mass so you can still be weighed down by them
I, like quite a few others. Want to see stuff on the Master Sword. It's pretty iconic and you could even compare it to some of the older Swords in Zelda that aren't just the basic ones.
Of course, if you want to explore a different Zelda weapon. I'd understand that. I mean, there is a lot to go with.
See I always kinda assumed that the VATS system took over your nervous system when you choose to shoot and that’s why you can see percentages for likelihood of success when you’re looking at targets, not at the pip boy, and maybe that’s why you need to wait for it to recharge, because repeated voluntary highjackings would be too taxing on your body
So it literally aims the gun and shoots it for you when you use it, I’m guessing by highjacking your bodies electrical pulses that fire nerves
This makes me wish I could play any of the fallout games (I am one with the misfortune of having access to none) so I could really experience all of these wonderful things myself. This video was awesome to watch though!
VATS can be just some sort of stimulator which makes you basically a super soldier but dose so small it only lasts so little it become harmless for user himself. Also I heard explanation it just gives you a shock whenever you aim at the enemy so your hand pull the trigger on itself.
Oh man i love the pip boy! As for next item honestly i gotta go for Final Fantasy's ribbons especially the one that make you immune to status effects!
It's a smartphone you wear on your forearm. It just has some really good hi-tech apps. I do agree the Pip boy is probably the most Fallout thing. I would not play Fallout without V.A.T.S. I'd have to play on easy as I am old enough to have played since Fallout came out.
Maybe the Silt Strider? Or the herbs in Resident Evil? Cars in GTA? Crowbar or Gravity Gun in Half-life?
The inner fitting of the pip boy and the fact that half of them can't be easily removed to me suggests an exaggerated heart monitor system. You know, the kind that fills up with air and squeezes your arm like they'd put on you at the hospital. Only now it can detect your limb condition and other nuanced effects because technology
god i missed these videos, every upload is like a gateway to this feeling of immersion and love for gaming. this whole channel is purely brilliant and so well crafted. and your voice overs are really well done, and damn well written. thanks for this channel man.
I feel like a lot of the little icons and perks being different between games can be explained by the users making those icons themselves and adding the notes about those perks and other things themselves too
NOT JUST A NEW VID BUT IT'S A WHOLE NEW PEDIA
The only device that allows you to eat anything without having to actually put any of the food in your hands 😌 (ignore prehistoric fallout. Aka elder scrolls)
Also I think it would be pretty futuristic if it somehow connected to our nervous system (kind of reverse of how the master was able to connect to the computers. So maybe it injects a tiny bit of magic metal into your arm, also a reason why you can't take it off) and then allowed us to do a sort of accelerated thinking through the extra processing power of the pip-boy's targeting system (also kind of makes the random long pauses in-between queued tasks make a bit more sense. It's old as shit tech that probably wasn't endurance tested. So it gets random memory issues)
Idk why but as a kid I thought the pip boy attached itself with needles into your arm to monitor your vitals. There was no indication of this, but I think the games “scary” feeling influenced that
Hey Ghost, I doubt you’ll see this comment, but if you were looking to dive into a potential Villainpedia or Heropedia episode, I’d love to see how you’d format an observation of either Talion or Celebrimbor from the Middle Earth: Shadow of War/Mordor series. I think in the video-essay format that you tend to do for these videos, a Celebrimbor or Talion vid would bring a certain (ghost)charm to these characters. Thanks for the amazing content man, enjoy your day
Just finished session zero of a Fallout reskinned Edge of the Empire game yesterday and this drops.
The fallout crossover with mtg is a lot funnier remembering the old "tragic: the garnering" references in fallout 2
8:53 all combat in the old games was done entirely through VATS. Thats the excuse for why its turn based based combat. (My exuse for it anyway)
If you think about it, we basically do have pipboys in the modern age. Those fitness/utility watches that sync up to your phone are already capable of replicating many of the more realistic functions of a pipboy.
The Pip-Boy always seemed like a weirdly magical object in the Fallout Universe. Like, I know it doesn't really hold everything in our inventory and that it just journals it, but it still feels whimsical.
Perfecto 👌
We have watches that accurately measure heart beat, sleep patterns, and even sugar levels. I’m certain it’s possible to implement them into a pip boy especially since their technology was vastly superior to ours.
However, I don’t know where the sensors would be since some of the pip boys literally have a leather cuff that goes over your arm. Would negate the sensors. Fruit for thought though.
I think an Itempedia for the Resident Evil Viruses or Herbs would be cool
Considering how big the occasion of getting a Pip Boy in the vault for your 10th birthday is, we should call it the Vault Mitzvah
Keeping with the fallout vibe, you should make a villainpedia on House or Caesar from New Vegas