Plastic Gem #43: Death Orbit Cam

Download Code File






Death Orbit Cam

Difficulty: Easy


This gem is short and sweet. If you were to look at the definition of the camera object in camera.h you might notice an enumerator for the various modes the camera can be in

enum
   {
      StationaryMode  = 0,

      FreeRotateMode  = 1,
      FlyMode         = 2,
      OrbitObjectMode = 3,
      OrbitPointMode  = 4,

      CameraFirstMode = 0,
      CameraLastMode  = 4
   };

Specifically notice how there is a OrbitPointMode, you might also note that the internal method setOrbitMode() is designed to have the camera orbit around point if an object is not provided. However if you ever tried to use this feature you would find it does not work for some reason. The problem resides in the console method setOrbitMode() which in turn calls the internal setOrbitMode().
There is a check within the console method which will exit the function if an object is not provided

if(Sim::findObject(argv[2],orbitObject) == false)
   {
      Con::warnf("Cannot orbit non-existing object.");
      object->setFlyMode();
      return;
   }

The easiest fix is to comment out this check AND be sure that when you want to orbit around a point that you are ALWAYS providing a position in the camera's setOrbitMode() call from script.

Why would you want to do this? Maybe you want to have the camera orbit above an object like a flag at the end of the game

%flagXform = %Flag.getTransform();
 %flagXform = setWord(%flagXform, 2, getWord(%flagXform, 2) + 5 );
 %cam.setOrbitMode("", %flagXform,  2.5, 10.5, 7.5, false);

Or

Maybe you want to have the camera rotate above the enemy that killed you.

%playerXform = %player.getTransform();
  %playerXform = setWord(%playerXform, 2, getWord(%playerXform, 2) + 2 );
  %cam.setOrbitMode("", %playerXform,  0.5, 4.5, 3.5, false);

Regardless, this fix make the setOrbitMode() more flexible and allows you use that OribitPointMode feature which is already built in. You are not longer restricted to orbit an object's transform, but rather provide a transform you want the camera to orbit around.


The Next Gem
We will look at providing custom FOV for individual weapons.