solved [solved] Direct Camera manipulation for rotation/direction

[ibGoge]

Hi,

I have an ECS engine and want to keep the camera, input, and entities separate.  In this case the GameCamera is a system that is assigned an entity to read it's position and direction from and update the BabylonJS camera with.  I already have a working Controller system that attaches to the scene's `onKeyboardObservable` and I am going to use the `onPointerObservable` for mouse movement.

However I don't see how to set the `Camera` view direction, only it's position.  Is there no simple way to either specify a normal vector3 for direction or a rotation radian and an up vector? I don't see anything in the documentation or in the source, what am I missing?

Thanks!

[GameMonetize]

Hello and welcome!

you can use camera.setTarget()

The target can be computed like this: camera.position + direction

 

Cheers!

[ibGoge]

Thank you! I'll give this a shot on the commute.  I knew I must have been missing something

[ibGoge]

Thanks for the help, the TargetCamera and setTarget did the trick but I am running into a new issue.

My Camera position is outside of a box, however when I turn the camera around, the camera cuts through the box and due to back culling everything disappears. I made a room by placing 1x1x1 cubes in a grid, 5x5 with the middle 2x2 open space. If I move the camera close to a box or into the corners of the room the camera cuts through the boxes.  But the position of the camera is still outside of the box space.

Here is a gif of the effect:
https://imgur.com/Meovl9F

How can I determine if the viewport? is going to cut into a box and keep myself from getting that close? Thanks!

[GameMonetize]

You can reduce the near plane distance by setting camera.minZ = 0.1 (or less depending on your unit)