Camera question

JKHeadley · 2 Jul 2009, 16:53

Hey guys! I just recently got into SP and I love it! I wish I had found it sooner, haha. Anyway my question is: how do you control the camera position and orientation? I've been searching the forums for a while and have found some interesting things but nothing that seems to work. I would like to have something that is similar to the cameras in Wacov's buggy game or the Ford Escape model from the wiki page. The closest thing I could come to was editing the description for a scene but I couldn't get the same result. Anyway great stuff guys and thanks in advance!

FredIIVX · 2 Jul 2009, 17:14

In the scene manager, under animations, you can put: camera follow [name of object in Entity Info] or camera track [name of object in Entity Info], you can also use these in conjunction with each other, by putting: Camera follow [object.Camera track [other object]], hope that helps.

JKHeadley · 2 Jul 2009, 18:25

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately I tried this and it did not give me the response I was looking for. Even if I tell it to follow and track the object the camera position changes but its orientation doesn't. Another interesting thing I noticed about this is that for Wacov's program and the Ford Escape program the description is set to "Camera Track track. Camera Follow follow." Can anyone explain this? Thanks!

Wacov · 2 Jul 2009, 18:37

That's because the follow object is called 'follow', and the track object is called 'track'. That's pretty normal practice for that camera technique... a few things you might be missing:

-Position the camera dead-center within the follow object, hide the object, then update the scene
-You may want to keep another 'edit' scene, with the camera objects visible for edditing.
-To get the camera to follow a vehicle, use joints. Attach the track object to the main body (using joints), and have the follow object positioned wherever you want the camera to be. You can then attach this using any joint... try a spring with a high-ish damp, this will smooth the ride without beng too bouncy. My rig uses a combination of joints; the actual follow object is attached to a controlled springy slider, which is attached to a controlled servo. This means the view can be changed during the sim!

JKHeadley · 6 Jul 2009, 13:12

Awesome! I thought it might be something like that but I somehow didn't find the track and follow objects. I see them now, haha. That's a great trick! Thanks!

JKHeadley · 6 Jul 2009, 13:59

One more question. One of the models I'm trying to apply this to is a rocket. However when I attach the follow object using a joint it makes the rocket completely unbalanced. I'm sure it has the same effect for other vehicles but it can probably be looked over for something like a car. Is there any way to make the follow object weightless or somehow leave the rocket unaffected all together? Thanks again!

Sgal · 6 Jul 2009, 15:06

Suggestions:

make the follow object as little as you can.
download the latest version of SP(27 june) wich support individual object density and set the object's to 0. DO that if you want only to try- you can't upload models made with this version.
create a line between the object's and the rocket's COGs. Then create another object identical to the 'follow' one (without the same name) and put it on the line. The COG of the new object must be at the same distance of the follow's, but at the other side in comparison to the rocket. Then link the new object to the same servo of the Follow. This should balance the model.