Documentation: Add-On - Dynamic Combat Camera

Explore

Dynamic Combat Camera

Combat Modifier

Aurora Devs

⁠

DCC_ScreenEdge_Edge-ezgif.com-optimize.gif

⁠

Trying to keep enemies visible on screen

⁠

⁠

Dynamic Camera Arm Length

Combat Modifier

One of the more basic requirement of a dynamic camera, especially in a game where the player fights multiple enemies, is the combat camera. This very important feature allows various the camera’s Arm Length to change based on the enemies around the player.

This modifier uses both multiplier methods, which multiply the value of the Arm Length, and additive methods, which add to the arm length. Th Arm Length value is calculated using the simple following formula:

⁠

where:

⁠

: Final Arm Length.

⁠

: Initial Arm Length.

⁠

: Multiplier by which the Arm Length should be multiplied.

⁠

: Additive distance to add to arm length.

General Settings

In your DCC Camera Data Asset, you’ll find the settings to fully customize your combat camera.

⁠

Enabled: Whether the Combat Modifier is enabled or not.

TargetDistanceMax: Whether the Combat Modifier is enabled or not.

AdditiveMethodSettings: The settings of the methods used to additively modify the Arm Length in the Combat Modifier. You need to set which methods are used in the AdditiveMethods set.

MultiplierMethodSettings: Settings for each camera multiplier method. Each mode works differently but they all multiply the arm length.

EnemiesGetterMethod: Method which you can use to provide us with all the enemies which are currently in combat with the player.

Arm Length Multipliers

General Multiplier Settings

MultiplierMethod: Enum defining the method with which the Arm Length of the camera changes in combat. Each mode works differently but they all multiply the arm length.

UpdateSpeed: The speed with which the Arm Length multiplier is updated in the selected mode.

BlendOutSpeed: The speed at which the Arm Length Multiplier blends out to 1 when the DCC Modifier is disabled.

Static

This mode makes multiplies the arm length of the camera with a static value which never changes.

StaticArmLengthMultiplier: Value by which the current Arm Length should be multiplied when using Static multiplier mode. This value is constant.

⁠

⁠

Spheres

This mode uses multiple spheres, each one bigger than the last. Each sphere defines by how much the camera arm length should be multiplied. We only use the biggest sphere that has an enemy inside.

SphereSettings: List of sphere settings. The radii HAVE to be in ASCENDING order! In runtime, we find which is the biggest sphere with enemies inside and use its settings. Each sphere has the following settings:

ArmLengthMultiplier: Arm Length Multiplier to use when this is the biggest occupied sphere.

UpdateSpeed: Update speed of the Arm Length Multiplier when this is the biggest occupied sphere.

Radius: Radius of this sphere. This HAS to be bigger than the previous sphere!!

⁠

⁠

Continuous

This mode maps the distance to the furthest enemy to define the value the Arm Length Multiplier; i.e., you can make it so that the further you are from enemies, the further/closer the camera gets to the player.

On top of that, this can be mapped onto a curve to define how much the multiplier accelerates/decelerates.

MinArmLengthMultiplier: By how much we should multiplie the Arm Length distance when the furthest enemy is really close. This isn't constant and changes depending on the distance to the enemies. When the distance to the furthest target is close to 0, the arm length is at its minimum value.

MaxArmLengthMultiplier: By how much we should multiplie the Arm Length distance when the furthest enemy is at MaxTargetDistance . When the distance to the furthest target is equal to MaxTargetDistance , the arm length is at its maximum value.

ArmLengthAccelerationCurve: Float curve which defines how the Arm Length multiplier accelerates depending on the furthest enemy. This curve should be normalized between 0 and 1.

⁠

The acceleration curve values have to be normalized (between 0 and 1). The X axis signifies how far is the furthest enemy compared to the MaxTargetDistance , i.e., when X equal to 1, the enemy is MaxTargetDistance away, when it’s 0.5 then their 50% of MaxTargetDistance away; etc.

The Y axis signifies how much percentage of the [MinArmLengthMultiplier , MaxArmLengthMultiplier ] we should use.

Example

We’ll use the following data:

MinArmLengthMultiplier : 1.

MaxArmLengthMultiplier : 2.

MaxTargetDistance : 5m.

And we’re using the following curve

⁠

If the furthest enemy is 5m away, i.e., they’re the furthest they can be (X is 1), then the value of the multiplier is the biggest it can be (Y is 1), which is 2.

If the furthest enemy is 2.5m away, i.e., they’re the furthest they can be (X is 0.5), then the value of the multiplier is at the halfway point of the range [MinArmLengthMultiplier , MaxArmLengthMultiplier ], which means it is equal to 1.5 (Y is 0.5).

Tip: If you flip the previous curve, you can invert the camera’s behaviour so that it gets closer when you’re far and zooms out when you’re close.

⁠

DCC_Continuous_Inverted-ezgif.com-optimize.gif

⁠

Dynamic

This mode will decrease the camera Arm Length when all of the enemies are visible and slightly increase it when they get behind the player's back.

MaxArmLengthMultiplier: The maximum value by which we can multiply the arm length when trying to keep enemies at the edge of the screen visible.

Additive Arm Length

General Additive Settings

Inside the Additive Methods Settings, you can customizer how the additive value is interpolated and which methods can be used.

UpdateSmoothing: Smoothing of the interpolation of the Additive Arm Length value (uses Exponential Smoothing). The lower the value, the more aggressively the Additive Arm Length changes.

BlendOutSpeed: The speed at which the Additive Arm Length blends out to 0 when DCC Modifier is disabled.

AdditiveMethods: The methods used to additively modify the Arm Length in the Combat Modifier. Multiple methods can be selected.

Tag Mappings

This mode defines how much we add to the Arm Length when one of the setups tags are present on one of the enemies. This can be used to increase the arm length when facing big enemies.

GameplayTagToArmLengthMapping: Arm length distance to add for enemies that have this gameplay tag. Only the biggest found value is used.

TagToArmLengthMapping: Same as GameplayTagToArmLengthMapping but uses normal tags.

⁠