MathF.SmoothDamp

hey thanks for the info Bunny!

Unfortunately, when I changed the line to;

transform.position = Vector3.SmoothDamp(camStartPosition, camEndPosition, camSpeed * Time.deltaTime);

I just recieved a different error;

Assets/Scripts/InGameGUI.js(471,48): BCE0023: No appropriate version of 'UnityEngine.Vector3.SmoothDamp' for the argument list '(UnityEngine.Vector3, UnityEngine.Vector3, float)' was found.

:(

Well, SmoothDamp needs at least 4 parameters and yours are actually quite wrong.

• The first parameter is your current position so you have to pass transform.position

• The second parameter is the target you want to reach. This should probably be your camEndPosition

• For the third parameter you have to pass a velocity vector which is modified by the function. It uses this variable to store the current velocity. You just have to pass a Vector3 variable

• The forth parameter is the smooth time. You shouldn't multiply this value by Time.deltaTime. It's the approximate time in seconds.

• The last two parameter doesn't have to be specified. maxSpeed could be used to avoid a velocity greater than this value. By default it's infinity, so if necessary the function could crank up the velocity up to "ludicrous speed". Finally there's deltaTime which by default is, well, Time.deltaTime ;)

So far about what you have to pass to the function. The next thing is the function has to be called each frame to work properly. It seems you call it just once.

Another thing is you have an int variable getCamSpeed but assign a float value to it. $$anonymous$$eep in $$anonymous$$d that you will loose the fraction when you do this.

There's way to much wrong in your code and it's hard to say what's the actual behaviour you're after.

It's quite late here (03:00), so i'm off ;)
Good luck

Thanks for checking back with me Bunny. I checked up on the API regarding Vector3.SmoothDamp. And made some alterations to the code as you suggested.

 private var camStart:            boolean = true;
 
 function Update
 {
       if (camStart)
            {
            CameraStart ();
            camStart = false;
            }    
 }
 function CameraStart ()
 {
     var camStartPosition     = Vector3 (11.5, 0, -5);
     var camEndPosition         = Vector3 (0, 0, -5);
     var velocity             = Vector3 (-5, 0, 0);
     
     transform.position         = camStartPosition;
     
     var getCamSpeed : int = 0;
     getCamSpeed = camSpeed;
     
     getClock.GetComponent(clock).playTimeEnabled = false;
 
     camSpeed = 5.5;
     
     yield WaitForSeconds (7);
     
     transform.position = Vector3.SmoothDamp(camStartPosition, camEndPosition, velocity, camSpeed ); 
     
     //moveCamCenter = true;
     yield WaitForSeconds (5.5);
     getClock.GetComponent(clock).playTimeEnabled = true;
     camSpeed = getCamSpeed;
     
 }
 
 

However the end result was the camera either stopped moving after 1 frame, or jittered....depending if I had the camStart boolean at the end of the function itself, or after the CameraStart call in function Update (). (I'm unsure why I would get different results depending , as it should equal the same thing in either place?)

The goal of this code was to simply have the camera start on camStartPosition, hold for several seconds, then pan smoothly over to the camEndPosition.

I was currently using Vector3.Lerp to move the camera from one position to the next, but I dislike the slow into the camEndPosition that seems to be the trademark of using a Lerp.

I will try to dig into this code and see if there isn't anything else fighting with it.

Thanks.

I don't know if you're still fiddling with this, but you are missing a time argument in your smoothDamp and you aren't feeding in the current position. You currently have:

Vector3.SmoothDamp(camStartPosition, camEndPosition, velocity, camSpeed );

The way you've written this asks the camera to move to a specific point in between camStartPosition and camEndPosition, rather than move between them. What you want is:

Vector3.SmoothDamp(transform.position, camEndPosition, velocity, Time.deltaTime * camSpeed );

Think of it this way: Vector3.SmoothDamp( whereAmI, whereAmIHeaded, how$$anonymous$$uchWasI$$anonymous$$ovingLastFrame, how$$anonymous$$uchShouldITryTo$$anonymous$$oveThisFrame * timeSinceLastFrame );

If you want to delay the start of the move, animate the value for camSpeed. If camSpeed = zero, the camera won't move at all. Then just ease into whatever speed you want.

Didn't I mention that in my comment that is 2 years old? Ryan just repeated some of my points but got the Time.deltaTime wrong again. His post is actually one year old....