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The Most Complicated Camera Code

Pretty self explanatory.
Yosi
Lv. 46
· 7 min read · 1977 views
Introduction

It's not very fun to have to build the same camera code over and over each time you make a new project. So I decided to make some camera code that does most things a project would need. It's basically a modified version of Pixelated Pope's simple camera tutorial. It supports smooth camera movement, resizing, rotating, offsets, and screen shake.


Setup
  1. Make sure you have the approach script:
    ///@func approach
    ///@args current,goal,amount
    return argument0 - clamp(argument0 - argument1, -argument2, argument2);
  2. Make a new object that will control the camera, and paste in all of the following code in the correct events.

The Code
  • In the Create Event:
    enum CAM_TYPE {
    linear,
    smooth,
    }
    cam = view_camera[0];
    cam_min_x = 0;
    cam_min_y = 0;
    cam_max_x = room_width;
    cam_max_y = room_height;
    cam_x = 0;
    cam_y = 0;
    cam_goal_x = 0;
    cam_goal_y = 0;
    cam_move_speed = .1;
    cam_move_type = CAM_TYPE.smooth;
    cam_offset_x = 0;
    cam_offset_y = 0;
    cam_goal_offset_x = 0;
    cam_goal_offset_y = 0;
    cam_offset_speed = .5;
    cam_offset_type = CAM_TYPE.smooth;
    cam_offset_uses_rotation = true;
    cam_w = 320;
    cam_h = 240;
    cam_goal_w = 320;
    cam_goal_h = 240;
    cam_resize_speed = .1;
    cam_resize_type = CAM_TYPE.smooth;
    cam_angle = 0;
    cam_goal_angle = 0;
    cam_rotate_speed = .1;
    cam_rotate_type = CAM_TYPE.smooth;
    cam_shake_x = 0;
    cam_shake_y = 0;
    cam_shake_range = false;
    cam_shake_ignore_limits = true;
    cam_stabilize_speed = 0.1;
    cam_stabilize_type = CAM_TYPE.smooth;
    cam_round_position = true;
    var _window_scale = 2;
    window_set_size(cam_w * _window_scale, cam_h * _window_scale);
    alarm[0] = 1;
    surface_resize(application_surface, cam_w * _window_scale, cam_h * _window_scale);
  • In the End Step event:
    //Resizing
    if (cam_w != cam_goal_w || cam_h != cam_goal_h) {
    if (cam_resize_type == CAM_TYPE.linear) {
        var _ratio = (cam_goal_h / cam_goal_w);
        cam_w = approach(cam_w, cam_goal_w, cam_resize_speed);
        cam_h = approach(cam_h, cam_goal_h, cam_resize_speed * _ratio);
    } else if (cam_resize_type == CAM_TYPE.smooth) {
        cam_w = lerp(cam_w, cam_goal_w, cam_resize_speed);
        cam_h = lerp(cam_h, cam_goal_h, cam_resize_speed);
    }
    }
    //Update Size
    camera_set_view_size(cam, cam_w, cam_h);
    //Rotating
    if (cam_angle != cam_goal_angle) {
    if (cam_rotate_type == CAM_TYPE.linear) {
        cam_angle -= clamp(angle_difference(cam_angle, cam_goal_angle), -cam_rotate_speed, cam_rotate_speed);
    } else if (cam_rotate_type == CAM_TYPE.smooth) {
        cam_angle -= (angle_difference(cam_angle, cam_goal_angle) * cam_rotate_speed);
    }
    }
    //Update Angle
    camera_set_view_angle(cam, cam_angle);
    //Movement
    if (cam_x != cam_goal_x || cam_y != cam_goal_y) {
    if (cam_move_type == CAM_TYPE.linear) {
        cam_x = approach(cam_x, cam_goal_x, cam_move_speed);
        cam_y = approach(cam_y, cam_goal_y, cam_move_speed);
    } else if (cam_move_type == CAM_TYPE.smooth) {
        cam_x = lerp(cam_x, cam_goal_x, cam_move_speed);
        cam_y = lerp(cam_y, cam_goal_y, cam_move_speed);
    }
    }
    //Offset
    if (cam_offset_x != cam_goal_offset_x || cam_offset_y != cam_goal_offset_y) {
    if (cam_offset_type == CAM_TYPE.linear) {
        cam_offset_x = approach(cam_offset_x, cam_goal_offset_x, cam_offset_speed);
        cam_offset_y = approach(cam_offset_y, cam_goal_offset_y, cam_offset_speed);
    } else if (cam_offset_type == CAM_TYPE.smooth) {
        cam_offset_x = lerp(cam_offset_x, cam_goal_offset_x, cam_offset_speed);
        cam_offset_y = lerp(cam_offset_y, cam_goal_offset_y, cam_offset_speed);
    }
    }
    //Final Calculations
    var _off_x = cam_offset_x;
    var _off_y = cam_offset_y;
    if (cam_offset_uses_rotation) {
    var _len = point_distance(0, 0, _off_x, _off_y);
    var _dir = point_direction(0, 0, _off_x, _off_y);
    _off_x = lengthdir_x(_len, _dir - cam_angle);
    _off_y = lengthdir_y(_len, _dir - cam_angle);
    }
    var _final_x = cam_x - (cam_w / 2) + _off_x;
    var _final_y = cam_y - (cam_h / 2) + _off_y;
    _final_x = clamp(_final_x, cam_min_x, cam_max_x - cam_w);
    _final_y = clamp(_final_y, cam_min_y, cam_max_y - cam_h);
    //Camera Shake
    if (cam_shake_range) {
    _final_x += irandom_range(-cam_shake_x, cam_shake_x);
    _final_y += irandom_range(-cam_shake_y, cam_shake_y);
    } else {
    _final_x += choose(-cam_shake_x, cam_shake_x);
    _final_y += choose(-cam_shake_y, cam_shake_y);
    }
    if (!cam_shake_ignore_limits) {
    _final_x = clamp(_final_x, cam_min_x, cam_max_x - cam_w);
    _final_y = clamp(_final_y, cam_min_y, cam_max_y - cam_h);
    }
    if (cam_shake_x != 0 || cam_shake_y != 0) {
    if (cam_stabilize_type == CAM_TYPE.linear) {
        cam_shake_x = approach(cam_shake_x, 0, cam_stabilize_speed);
        cam_shake_y = approach(cam_shake_y, 0, cam_stabilize_speed);
    } else if (cam_stabilize_type == CAM_TYPE.smooth) {
        cam_shake_x = lerp(cam_shake_x, 0, cam_stabilize_speed);
        cam_shake_y = lerp(cam_shake_y, 0, cam_stabilize_speed);
    }
    }
    //Update Position
    if (cam_round_position) {
    _final_x = round(_final_x);
    _final_y = round(_final_y);
    }
    camera_set_view_pos(cam, _final_x, _final_y);
  • In the Alarm 0 event:
    window_center();
  • In the Room Start event:
    view_enabled = true;
    view_visible[0] = true;

How to Use

Goal variables

  • Set the goal variables to the camera properties you want the camera to end up with eventually.
  • The speed variables determine how fast the camera properties approach the goal values.
  • The type variable determines if the camera approaches the goal linearly or in percentages.

Moving the camera around

  • Set cam_goal_x and cam_goal_y to where you want the camera to look at.
  • Set cam_round_position if you want the camera position to be pixel perfect.
  • You can set the camera borders with cam_min_x, cam_min_y, cam_max_x, and cam_max_y. These are the Top Left and Bottom Right coordinates. The example code has the camera restricted to the room borders.

Camera offset

  • The camera offset is added to the camera coordinates during calculations.
  • Set cam_offset_x and cam_offset_y to the desired offset.
  • Setting cam_offset_uses_rotation to true will cause the camera offset to automatically change with the camera angle.

Camera size and window size

  • Set cam_goal_w and cam_goal_h to the size you want the camera to be.
  • Try to avoid changing the ratio, as that will mess up how the camera resizes.
  • Change the value of _window_scale in the Create event to change the size of the window in relation to the cam_w and cam_h.

Rotation

  • Set cam_goal_angle to the angle you want the view to rotate to.
  • If you want the camera to immediately rotate, you need to also set cam_angle.
  • Rotating the camera will allow it to show areas outside the camera borders (cam_min_x etc.), so be careful!

Screen shake

  • Set cam_shake_x and cam_shake_y to cause the screen to shake.
  • The amount of screen shake will go back to 0 over time. The cam_stabilize_speed controls how fast this happens.
  • Setting cam_shake_range to false causes the camera to only move to -cam_shake_x/y or +cam_shake_x/y while shaking. Setting it to true allows the camera to move anywhere in the range of -cam_shake_x/y to +cam_shake_x/y. This setting may be hard to notice.
  • If you want the camera to be able to go out of bounds while screen shaking, set cam_shake_ignore_limits to true.

That's pretty much all you need to know to use the camera code. Hopefully this helps out some people ;)