Camera and Background – I’ve started doing devlogs!

Decided to start doing devlogs for those interested in keeping up with the project

To ensure they remain at least somewhat useful, they’ll be paired with tutorials. In this case, the camera which took a over a day of messing around and figuring stuff out (I know, I’m slow) but ended in a state that I’m quite happy with.
As per usual, the full script (Creative Commons 4.0) can be found below.

Devlog

Code

To save time I just annotated the code heavily. I hope it’s clear but if not, feel free to message me (mostly active on Reddit as a mod of /r/ArmanDoesStuff).

//This is the Coroutine that does the magic. ALL the camera operations end up here
    //This script is on an empty object at point 0,0,0 (it never moves, only rotates), and the camera is a child of this object.
    IEnumerator FocusCamCroute(Transform point, float distance, float delay, float shiftAmount)
    {        
        transform.parent = null; //Start fresh
        
        yield return new WaitForSeconds(delay); //Simple delay
     
        float startDist = cam.transform.position.magnitude; //distance from the center to the camera so we know where to lerp the cam hight from
        Quaternion originStart = transform.rotation; //original rotation so we know where to lerp the rotation from

        //This checks if there is a point to focus on, or if it should just look at the centre. The latter is quite simple, just the regular focus but with default values. Skip to "else" for a more detailed look
        if (point == null)
        {
            float t = 0;
            while (t < 1)
            {
                transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(originStart, Quaternion.LookRotation(-Vector3.forward), t);
                cam.transform.position = transform.forward * (Mathf.Lerp(startDist, distance, t));
                cam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(cam.transform.rotation, Quaternion.LookRotation(Vector3.forward, Vector3.up), t);
        
                t += Time.deltaTime;
                yield return new WaitForFixedUpdate();
            }
        }
        else
        {
            float t = 0;
            float endDist = Vector3.Distance(Vector3.zero, point.position); //The distance from the center doesn't change so we may as well calculate the final distance now, as opposed to in the loop
            Vector3 direction = point.up + (point.right * 0.75f); //offset the point slightly so we can orbit at an angle. This point moves over the course of the focus but it's negligible.
            while (t < 1)
            {
                //Works by having the camera on a "stick" so we lerp towards where the stick should look (the point's position)
                transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(originStart, Quaternion.LookRotation(point.position), t);
                //We then lerp how far up (transform.forward) on the "stick" the camera should be
                cam.transform.position = (transform.forward * Mathf.Lerp(startDist, endDist, t)) + (direction * Mathf.Lerp(0, distance, t));
                //Finally we lerp the rotation from the start rotation to the end rotation (the point's position minus the cam's), also have to make sure the up angle is oriented to the point's up
                cam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(cam.transform.rotation, Quaternion.LookRotation(point.position - cam.transform.position, point.up), Time.deltaTime * 5);
                t += Time.deltaTime; //takes one second total
                yield return new WaitForFixedUpdate();
            }

            //we then parent the object (and camera since it's a child of this) to the point, moving with it
            transform.parent = point;

            while(true) //keep going until a new camera call occurs and StopAllCoroutines(); is called - IMPORTANT
            {
                //orbit around the point for a cool effect
                transform.RotateAround(transform.parent.position, transform.parent.up, -10 * Time.deltaTime);
                //don't forget to update the rotation so it's always looking at it
                cam.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(cam.transform.rotation, Quaternion.LookRotation(point.position - cam.transform.position, point.up), Time.deltaTime * 7);
                yield return new WaitForFixedUpdate();
            }
        }        
    }

 

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