Smooth zooming with a camera?

#1 I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but I figured something out.

I attached this function to my camera class:

function Camera::zoom(%this, %perc) {
	sceneWindow2D.dismount();
	sceneWindow2D.setTargetCameraZoom (%perc);
	sceneWindow2D.startCameraMove();
	sceneWindow2D.completeCameraMove();
	sceneWindow2D.mount(%this.camera, "0 0", %force, true);
}

Now when I tell it to zoom, it automatically dismounts, sets the zoom, completes the zoom, then remounts.

Is this a decent way to go about it?

Also, I'd like to attach this to my mouse wheel event. I looked at the scene callbacks page, but it doesnt show a function for that. It only lists the left and right mouse button stuff. I'll keep poking around, but if anyone wants to give me a hint I wouldnt complain, hehe.

Thanks.

Edit -- Aha! It gets bound in an actionMap! =D

#2 Are you sure you have to dismount it?

#3 Yeah, you do actually have to dismount a camera before you zoom it unfortunately.

And yes, your best bet for controlled, step based zoom is exactly as you have it set up--have a target zoom point and interpolate between the current zoom and the target zoom in a series of small steps.

And as you appear to have discovered, you can bind the middle mouse button to a "cameraZoomIn/Out" type of function and give them direct control as well!

#4 It's actually not difficult to change it so that you can zoom, it's just that I opted for the easier to understand case of either mounted with an automatic position and fixed fov or unmounted with both a dynamic position and fov.

I've added it to our database as a feature tweak; "#0001836: Allow dynamic zooming when camera is mounted."

- Melv.

#5 @Melv - Please do... the dismount/mount trick doesn't work well if your using a springy camera mount.

#6 @Tom - This is just a suggestion, have you considered leaving the camera unmounted and manually controlling the springyness?

#7 Hey Melv,
Could you toss in camera rotation with that feature tweak...

~SG

#8 Mm... delicious camera rotation!