Camera movement issue

[Monovertex]

I am trying to make a map in which the camera must follow the unit at all times. Panning it periodically results in some nasty movement, which is not pleasing at all (the period doesn't matter, it's doing that everytime, even with 0 waits).

As for the unit group following, my map requires units to gain speed and past a certain speed, the camera becomes too slow and it can't keep up with the unit. And I've yet to find a way to speed it up.

So, any thoughts on how to make the camera follow the unit in a smooth way?

 

[Ancanus]

Could you change the panning action, in such a way that the time it requires for the panning is an arithmetic formula between the current position of the camera and the position of the unit?

 

[Monovertex]

I am not sure what you mean there . I'm just panning the camera to the position of the unit, over 0 seconds =/.

 

[Ancanus]

Instead of panning over 0 seconds, pan it over...say... sqr(position of camera - position of unit) seconds. This way, if the unit is far from the camera, the camera will move faster towards it.

You are still going to use a period (0.5 seconds?) but the transition should be much smoother.

 

[Monovertex]

Got the idea, thanks for the input. However, after lots of different trial-and-error setups, it's still blocky. I guess the only viable solution would be the use some kind of model-fixed camera, although I am not sure how to achieve that.

 

[Ancanus]

See if this is what you were aiming for:

Increasing the fudgeFactor slows the camera if it's moving too fast for your unit. You can also make it a global variable and change it as your unit gains/loses speed.

 

[XxMayhemxX]

i dled a Labyrinthos clone ... the camera follows your unit it in that.. want the link?

 

[Monovertex]

See if this is what you were aiming for:

Increasing the fudgeFactor slows the camera if it's moving too fast for your unit. You can also make it a global variable and change it as your unit gains/loses speed.

A lot smoother than in my map. Problem is, the speed of my units go to something like 15 and at that point even in the map you provided the camera remains behind. However, the speed might be subject to change.

And there is another impediment. In my map, the movement is WASD. And it issues the unit an order each 0.03125 seconds. The idea you stated is good, but doesn't works with my map because it's just a way too small period and the smooth factor is screwed up.

In the end, I think I'll just slow down the unit a bit and use the unit following actions...

 

[Ancanus]

A lot smoother than in my map. Problem is, the speed of my units go to something like 15 and at that point even in the map you provided the camera remains behind. However, the speed might be subject to change.

And there is another impediment. In my map, the movement is WASD. And it issues the unit an order each 0.03125 seconds. The idea you stated is good, but doesn't works with my map because it's just a way too small period and the smooth factor is screwed up.

In the end, I think I'll just slow down the unit a bit and use the unit following actions...

A fudge factor of 0.015 is ideal for a movement speed of 15. If you could post a test map with your unit and it's movement system, I could try and adapt it. =)

 

[Dan]

smith... if you go to the data editor and go to the "camera" object... go to the default game camera... then edit the follow scroll limit... (it's set to 12) to something like 100.. or more... that might help your specific situation. =)

 

[Monovertex]

I already know about the default camera object and changed lots of values there to big numbers, just to test. There was not even a slight difference in the camera even if I especially set the camera through triggers to be the default one. Not sure why, though.

 

[wingdnosring]

How do you apply a camera from the data editor via triggers? Sorry to go a little off topic...

 

[Monovertex]

Well, I only applied the Default Camera... There doesn't seems to be any action to apply a custom data editor camera =/...

 

[sLsIDK]

Instead of moving the camera to the unit, I moved the camera to where the unit was going. This removed the camera falling behind for me, but I don't know it will fare with a speed of 15 (not sure how fast that is in Warcraft 3 units).

 

[Monovertex]

I think you mean Starcraft II units.

Yeah, also tried that, especially that I set the speed of the unit, order it to move and immediately move the camera. So, moving it to the unit's position was a bit awkward.

However, that gave me another idea .

 

[sLsIDK]

I was saying I'm more familiar with Warcraft 3 units and don't know what a lot of a little is in Startcraft 2 units. And I'm glad that gave you an idea.