Clamp camera orbit rotation using RotateAround
I am actually working on a game where the player will be able to control an airship with keyboard and camera, but not like in FPS where we control a human, where a big mouse drag can lead to an immediate 360° movement. I want the player to follow slowly the camera direction, depending of the vehicle. The best example I can give for this type of movement is vehicle movements in Borderlands 2.
//Code was here, see updated version below
EDIT : I managed to clamp the height rotation using this post, adapting it with my needs. It now do what I want for height rotation, but it is messing with the side rotation.. For unknown reason, I can't go past 90° left or right. I didn't modify the transform.RotateAround for the side rotation, so it's something else in this that is causing the problem, but I can't figure it out.
public Transform player;
float heightRotation;
float sideRotation;
public float sensitivity;
Vector3 initialVector;
void Start () {
sensitivity = 3;
initialVector = transform.position - player.position;
initialVector.x = 0;
}
// Update is called once per frame
void Update () {
//getting mouse inputs
sideRotation = Input.GetAxis ("Mouse X");
heightRotation = Input.GetAxis ("Mouse Y");
//applying method seen on the post linked above, though I don't understand what ".x > 0 ? 1 : -1" is doing..
Vector3 currentVector = transform.position - player.position;
currentVector.x = 0;
float angleBetween = Vector3.Angle(initialVector, currentVector) * (Vector3.Cross(initialVector, currentVector).x > 0 ? 1 : -1);
float upAngle = Mathf.Clamp(angleBetween + (heightRotation * sensitivity * Time.deltaTime), -75, 75);
upAngle = upAngle - angleBetween;
float sideAngle = sideRotation * sensitivity * Time.deltaTime;
//applying calculated angles to the camera
transform.RotateAround(player.position, Vector3.right, upAngle);
transform.RotateAround(player.position, Vector3.up, sideAngle);
transform.LookAt(player);
}
Any clues about what is causing the side rotation unwanted clamping ? Also, it isn't clamping roughly like it does for the height rotation. As the height angle values are capped, if I try to go above it, nothing happens, the camera isn't moving at all. For the side rotation, it's like two forces opposing together, if I move my mouse rapidly, it will go above 90°, but go back when I stop moving my mouse. And last thing, no matter the angle I chose for the clamp, the side rotation will stop at 90°, tried different values from 15 to 120°, working perfectly for height rotation.. Thanks in advance !
Answer by LessThanEpic · Aug 26, 2015 at 02:55 PM
This might have a couple of bugs in it (the camera might "pop" in a couple of locations), but I think it should get you close.
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
public class CameraScript : MonoBehaviour
{
public Transform player;
public float sensitivityX = 5;
public float sensitivityY = 5;
void Start()
{
transform.LookAt(player.position);
}
void Update()
{
var sideRotation = Input.GetAxis("Mouse X") * sensitivityX * Time.deltaTime;
var heightRotation = Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * sensitivityY * Time.deltaTime;
var distance = (transform.position - player.position).magnitude;
transform.position = player.position;
var oldHeightRotation = transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x;
transform.Rotate(-oldHeightRotation, 0, 0);
transform.Rotate(0, sideRotation, 0);
var max = 50f;
var min = 320f;
if (heightRotation > 0 && oldHeightRotation <= max + 1)
{
heightRotation = Mathf.Min(oldHeightRotation + heightRotation, max);
}
else if (heightRotation < 0 && oldHeightRotation >= min - 1)
{
heightRotation = Mathf.Max(oldHeightRotation + heightRotation, min);
}
else
{
heightRotation = oldHeightRotation + heightRotation;
}
transform.Rotate(heightRotation, 0, 0);
transform.Translate(transform.InverseTransformVector(transform.forward) * -distance, Space.Self);
}
}
Wow. I was sceptical with this at first, as I was absolutely trying to use the RotateAround function, which appears to be the core of the problem, as it's interacting with multiple variables at once, so it's hard to cap one of these values without messing with others.
Also, not using $$anonymous$$athf.Clamp solved another problem, as angles aren't going -1 but 359°, which was the problem in one of my tries. Using $$anonymous$$in and $$anonymous$$ax while checking the direction of the mouse was brilliant here, sir.
About the camera shaking in certain angles, it's because of the transform.LookAt(player) needs to be done after every move to keep the camera in the perfect angle at every frame. $$anonymous$$oved the function from Start to the end of the Update function, and all is perfectly smooth and doing what I want ! Thanks a lot sir, you just ended hours of pain, I can now keep moving (until the next problem, in a few $$anonymous$$utes probably) !
I couldn't figure out why but this approach resulted in the camera gradually "falling" towards the ground plane.
Answer by steeltomato · Oct 15, 2017 at 05:28 PM
Here's an alternative approach that is fairly simple and works as long as you have sensible bounds. I'm using it for an free-look RTS-style camera. This isn't suitable for a free-space camera but maybe it will help others.
// worldPosition is the location of the object you're rotating around
private void UpdateRotationAndTilt(bool tiltButtonStatus, Vector3 worldPosition)
{
// Rotate and tilt
if (!isTilting && tiltButtonStatus)
{
isTilting = true;
}
else if (isTilting && !tiltButtonStatus)
{
isTilting = false;
}
if (isTilting)
{
float currentTiltAngle = playerCamera.transform.eulerAngles.x;
float sideRotation = Input.GetAxis("Mouse X") * rotateSensitivity * Time.deltaTime;
float tiltRotation = Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * tiltSensitivity * Time.deltaTime;
// When the mouse moves on the Y axis, tilt the camera in an arc around the point on the ground
if ((tiltRotation > 0 && currentTiltAngle < tiltMaxAngle) ||
(tiltRotation < 0 && currentTiltAngle > tiltMinAngle))
{
float angle = Mathf.Clamp(tiltRotation, tiltMinAngle - currentTiltAngle, tiltMaxAngle - currentTiltAngle);
playerCamera.transform.RotateAround(worldPosition, playerCamera.transform.right, angle);
}
// When the mouse moves on the X axis, rotate the camera in an arc around the point on the ground
if (sideRotation != 0)
{
playerCamera.transform.RotateAround(worldPosition, Vector3.up, sideRotation);
}
}
}
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