DayOfWar Six Degrees Of Freedom Camera System
by Bill Vee · 05/31/2008 (12:01 am) · 9 comments
This is a video of the new six degrees of freedom camera system I created for the game.
One of the main concepts of DayOfWar is changing the way we think about up and down.
Because of this the standard camera would not do for my game.
This new six degrees of freedom camera system , or 6DOF for short, meets many needs for my game that the original could not.
In the video the structures as well as the player are near the equator and are basically on there sides.
Placement of in game objects are difficult with the standard camera in these situations.
With the new 6DOF system any angle is possible.
At the press of a button the camera can auto "level" itself to the strongest gravity source.
The camera can pan , tilt , roll and move forward , back , left , right , up and down relative it's current orientation.
The 6DOF camera is added to the game exactly the same way as the standard camera.
While in game just press "alt + V" to toggle between player and 6DOF camera.
The 6DOF camera doesn't suffer from gimbal lock like the standard camera would if you simple removed the pitch restrictions.
One of the main concepts of DayOfWar is changing the way we think about up and down.
Because of this the standard camera would not do for my game.
This new six degrees of freedom camera system , or 6DOF for short, meets many needs for my game that the original could not.
In the video the structures as well as the player are near the equator and are basically on there sides.
Placement of in game objects are difficult with the standard camera in these situations.
With the new 6DOF system any angle is possible.
At the press of a button the camera can auto "level" itself to the strongest gravity source.
The camera can pan , tilt , roll and move forward , back , left , right , up and down relative it's current orientation.
The 6DOF camera is added to the game exactly the same way as the standard camera.
While in game just press "alt + V" to toggle between player and 6DOF camera.
The 6DOF camera doesn't suffer from gimbal lock like the standard camera would if you simple removed the pitch restrictions.
About the author
#2
05/31/2008 (2:19 am)
@Ryan - The auto level function takes the gravity of the planet ,which in in the form of a Point3F variable ,normalizes it then adds a force to its x and y axis to realign itself to be perpendicular to the normal. 
#3
05/31/2008 (2:34 am)
Just like how my gravitational realignment works :p I'm having a few problems watching the video...In IE I just get strange text and in Firefox I'm just getting the quicktime logo. Still loading or something? I'm still working on those collisions for the new player class you talked about, hope eventually I'll be half as progressed as this :p 
#4
I had the exact same problems. I got it to work by going to the parent directory (in IE), and loading the movie from there.
Very cool, but I think I like the water orbs better ;-)
05/31/2008 (2:54 am)
@MurrockI had the exact same problems. I got it to work by going to the parent directory (in IE), and loading the movie from there.
Very cool, but I think I like the water orbs better ;-)
#5
I am looking into it.
05/31/2008 (2:56 am)
@ Morrock - The download problem may be a mime type problem with my website.I am looking into it.
#7
05/31/2008 (6:33 pm)
Ahh, just saw the video now. So now you can actually have a useable spectator camera, eh? Looking very nice. 
#8
06/01/2008 (7:34 pm)
Really nice camera Billy. I can see countless uses for it based on the players mount state. And as always, your transparent development model is inspiring. I can think of at least one v.2 game engine that could learn from your example ;p 
#9
06/02/2008 (7:22 am)
I got pretty disoriented and dizzy at around 2:30 when you started rolling far above the ground. Good work!
Ryan Jaeger
Brings me back to my days with descent...
Q: Does the auto level take into account the terrain beneath you to factor how to level out? If so that's very cool!