Decent 3d camera control

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Decent 3d camera control

col (Posted 2005) [#1]

Hi all. I've nearly finished my new demo. The only thing left to do is the camera control. I've started to use b-splines and knots etc to get the angles correct as you travel the spline. Problem is I haven't got much time to devote to the camera control mechanism, so If someone knows of any decent camera control code? maybe someone has also made an editor to allow me to create some flightpaths and they are willing to share some of it, it would be greatly appreciated. This is the only area stopping me release the demo and its source, and, as I have a business to run ( I program blitz / c++ as a hobby ) I haven't much time on my hands to spare to finish making an editor for b-splines etc. I didn't want to spend weeks on an editor solely for a demo that has taken 4 hours to program. All help is appreciated and full credits given. Regards

big10p (Posted 2005) [#2]

This depends on what kind of demo you're doing - specifically if it's interactive or not. One trick some people use for flying cameras is to simply create a chain of waypoint pivots and move the camera from point-to-point, using PointEntity to focus the camera on the entity you want to view, as you go.

col (Posted 2005) [#3]

I've done this but I want the camera to tilt and bankas it turns. The demo is not interactive. Splines give a very smooth and fluid motion which is why i am looking at those. I just thought that there were other coders here that had already made some kind of editor. If not then I'll have to do it myself, which is a shame because the demo is already finished apart from the camera and this could take a while as I haven't much spare time lately.

Robin Hossain (Posted 2005) [#4]

There's a smooth pointentity version out there somewhere that turns the camera towards an entity smooothly at a settable rate. If you combine that with waypoints and forward motion, you may get what ou described. I've used that technique before, but I'm travelling right now and don't have the code on me right now.

col (Posted 2005) [#5]

Thamks Robin. I'll look into that.