Motion Path combined with camera rotation

Troubleshooting graphics
1

Hi!

In my project, I’m trying to make a cinematic which includes a camera travel (this is working fine) and a camera rotation. What is the easiest way to make the camera look at a certain point in space during the whole cinematic travel?

Thank you,

Xavier

2

There is a cam.lookAt(Vector3f) you can do every frame

edit:

lookAt(Vector3f pos, Vector3f worldUpVector)

I think you can use Vector3f.UNIT_Y as the second argument

3

Ok, do I put that in simpleUpdate() for it to trigger every frame?

Thanks for the info!

4

Yes that would work, I have mine in a seperate update method for my “cinematic” which is represented as a class, but ultimately even that is called from the simpleUpdate, so yeah.

6

Ok, so I’ve done all of this, but the camera still isn’t moving. Here are the important methods:
[/java]
private void initCameraMouvements() {
//mouvement 1

    //vecteurs de début/fin
    Vector3f debut1 = new Vector3f(0f, 30f, 400f);
    Vector3f fin1 = new Vector3f(0f, 30f, -400f);

    //place la caméra au début
    cam.setLocation(debut1);
    cam.lookAt(fin1, Vector3f.UNIT_Y);

    //créé le mouvement
    MotionPath path1 = new MotionPath();
    path1.addWayPoint(debut1);
    path1.addWayPoint(fin1);
    path1.enableDebugShape(assetManager, rootNode);

    //créé la cinematic
    cinematic1 = new Cinematic(rootNode, travelTime);
    stateManager.attach(cinematic1);
    CameraNode camNode = cinematic1.bindCamera("cam1", cam);
    camNode.setControlDir(ControlDirection.SpatialToCamera);
    cinematic1.activateCamera(0, "cam1");

    //ajoute le mouvement à la cinematic
    MotionEvent cinematic1MotionControl = new MotionEvent(camNode, path1);
    cinematic1MotionControl.setDirectionType(MotionEvent.Direction.Path);
    cinematic1MotionControl.setSpeed(1f);
    cinematic1MotionControl.setInitialDuration(travelTime);

    //ajoute le mouvement à cinematic1
    cinematic1.addCinematicEvent(0, cinematic1MotionControl);

    //mouvement 2


}

private void cameraRotation(boolean rotate){
    if (rotate){
        cam.lookAt(new Vector3f(0,0,0), Vector3f.UNIT_Y);
    }
}
@Override
public void simpleUpdate(float tpf) {
    cameraRotation(rotate);
    
}

[java/]
And here’s the action listeners for my cinematic.
[/java]
private void initActionListeners() {
cinematic1.addListener(new CinematicEventListener() {
public void onPlay(CinematicEvent cinematic) {
System.out.println(“Mouvement 1 en cours”);
rotate=true;
}

        public void onPause(CinematicEvent cinematic) {
        }

        public void onStop(CinematicEvent cinematic) {
            rotate=false;
        }
    });

}
[java/]
Sorry for some of the French in my code.

Any idea of the problem?

7

I’ve found the solution, for anyone who might have the same problem.
You just have to change the DirectionType of your cinematicMotionControl to Motion.Direction.LookAt and add this line right before:
cinematic1MotionControl.setLookAt((What you want to be looking at), Vector3f.UNIT_Y);

8

In the past I have setup 2 paths, one for the camera to follow, and another containing an empty spatial to target the camera to, works nicely

9

I guess you could even use something like spatial.getLocalTranslation() and then it will always look to the spatials Position, without you needing to update it.

Then you’d put a motion path on that spatial to control the lookat aswell