Flythrough example using Bezier's and waypoints

Hi all,

I've been playing around with creating a flythrough for the title screen of my game and thought I would share it. I'm sure there are other examples out there but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I did it myself. Maybe this will be helpful to someone.

The flythrough consists of a empty game objects, one of which has the FlythroughController script attached and all the others (waypoints) have the FlythroughWaypoint script attached.

Using Bezier curve things the result is a nice smooth path through the waypoints. Using Gizmos the waypoints and resultant path are visible in the Scene view and can be modified visually.

The math is done in MyBezier.cs. I originally didn't realise what I needed and implemented a N-point Bezier system, but it only uses four points at a time.

The FlythroughController is the object that moves, so for the example project here I just added the SmoothFollow script to the camera and make the flythrough controller the target.

For extra bling, try running the Game with Gizmos on. Looks like a rollercoaster

 

Would you mind checking the file please, I tried to d/l it, but it came up all cryptic.

Thanks

-Raiden

 

looks very usefull

Thank you for contributing

 

This is very cool. Thanks for sharing!

@Raiden -- it appears to be showing the unity package (binary) as a text file. If you save it, and then import the package into Unity, it works just fine.

 

Very Useful Package.
Thanks.

 

I needed this. Thank you.

 

Cheers, hope you can get some use out of it.

One thing that needs fixing is that if you add another waypoint it is added to the end of the list of waypoints (in the hierarchy). That order is the order that the script pulls them out using GetComponentsInChildren().

I've tried to drag and drop the waypoints into different positions in the Hierarchy but it seems to do nothing. Is there a way to reorder items in the hierarchy?

 

Thanks for sharing! I have not tried it yet, but it might be exactly what I was going to need next week .

About your hierarchy: I think the documentation says not to rely on that order, because it might not be always correctly retrieved using any of the enumeration options. Or possibly I am confused with the actual Start() function being called.

Anyway, what about using an public array variable which you have to fill with the objects you want to use? And array order is the fly order then. Just a random thought..

 

Re: Almar

Yeah that would probably work well.

It would still have the problem of wanting to insert a waypoint in the middle of the others, because you would have to manually shift all the others down wouldn't you? But I think that is a problem common to all publicly (inspector) editable arrays. It would be nice if you could click on an element of the array and choose insert or something.

 

Hi thanks for a great script. All is working fine, except for when I enable the controller script after startup, the controller
starts at random positions along the curve.If I enable everything at startup,everything is fine. Any ideas on what is causing this?

 

If you look at the script, in the Update() method there is this

Code (csharp):

1. float currentTime = Time.time % SecondsForFullLoop;

Time.time is the time since the game started.

If you make a member called ElapsedTime or something and initialise it to zero, then put in update...

Code (csharp):

1. ElapsedTime += time.deltaTime;
2. float currentTime = ElapsedTime % SecondsForFullLoop;

it should then only start running when it's enabled (ie when Update is called).

 

Awsome!!Thanks very much,it solved the problem! :idea:

 

This is extremely useful for so many applications.

thanks!

 

Hi Sam,

Do you know a way of easierly allowing for variable speed.

The bezier path is calculated at initialization based on the SecondsForFullLoop value.

I want to be able to control the speed of my camera at any point as it moves around the full path.

Any help greatly appreciated, and thanks again for a great bit of code!

 

Do you know a way of easierly allowing for variable speed.

I've been working on this spline code, here's my second attempt at cleaning it up.

dt in SplineController determines where on the curve your next position will be (0.0 start and 1.0 the next-to-last-point).

 

Wow, thanks Troy!

I have downloaded and had a play with it.

I added the following code, after the dt += Time.deltaTime; line.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.         if (Input.GetAxis("Mouse ScrollWheel") > 0){
3.             path_time = path_time - 1.0f;
4.             if (path_time < 0.0f ) {
5.                 path_time = 0.0f;
6.             }
7.     }
8.        
9.         if (Input.GetAxis("Mouse ScrollWheel") < 0){
10.             path_time = path_time + 1.0f;
11.             if (path_time > 20.0f) {
12.                 path_time = 20.0f;
13.             }
14.         }
15.  
16.  

And it enables me to change the speed of the camera as it moves around the waypoints, but it is very jerky.

Any ideas how to make it nice and smooth?

Thanks again!

 

Greg,

Don't use a set value like 1. You don't know how often this script is being called so 1, will be added at different times - thus the jitter.

Instead of:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. path_time = path_time + 1.0f;
3.  

try:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. path_time += Time.deltaTime;
3.  

if this is not enough (Scroll speed is too slow) then add a multiplier (value becomes larger but still dependent on time elapsed since last time script was called.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. path_time += Time.deltaTime * 10;
3.  

 

Thank you very much ,this is what I am looking for.

But when I use the code in Unity For iPhone 1.5.1 ,it seems that there are some error like this :

 

I have modified my code as follows:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. path_time = path_time + Time.deltaTime * 20;
3.  

And it almost works as desired, the jerkiness is much less, but it still exists, and when I scroll the mouse wheel the camera jerks back slightly, before adjusting its speed around the waypoints.

What I am trying to do is have a camera or game object follow a preset waypoint path smoothly, with the ability to adjust the speed of the camera or object.

If anyone can help me get this working, I would be so grateful!

 

Greg,

What I used (and it worked quite nice if I remember - don't need it anymore however) is some code I found where a group of people were trying to emulate the controls from WoW.

Link is here:

http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=18073&highlight=wow+camera

might be a valuable read.

Remember to post a solution if you find one. I will take a look at my code if I can find it and post it here as I think my scroll code worked fine (but it was based on the WoW code so read that too).

 

Thanks for the info on this thread, the WoW camera script is awesome.

However I don't understand how it will help with my problem?

Could you explain, sorry if I am being thick...

 

How would I adjust the script to only use waypoint 0 and finish the path at waypoint x without returning back to 0?

 

Nice job. Many people find it useful.

 

I'll be looking into your code for this pathing system for a fresh look.
On a side note, I've been working on a likewise system, but the emphasis first on creating a user/developer friendly way of adding/inserting points in the path.
For this I've used an editor script overlaying my usual inspector. Here adding a button, which allows me to add a new waypoint. All the array management is done internally, so you dont have to gimmick with it.

It is still a work in progress though. I'm planning on re-writing everything from scratch, since my understanding of Unity is now slightly better. And with that also implementing a bezier spline, rather than straight point-to-point spline.

I will post again when significant progress is made.

 

I really appreciate your work - keep it up. Just wanted to tell you: I'm following your progress and am shivering in exitement for some really cool code to come.

 

Hey guys, just wanted to chime in and say that so far this is most useful bezier script I have found! cheers!

So now my question: I'm trying to get a particle emitter moving on this path. Right now, it's taking the same amount of time to go between waypoints, independant of their distance. This makes for some irregular particle emissions, as parts of the curve with less waypoints cause the emitter to travel faster. Since I am trying to make a dotted line, is there any way to set constant speed to the object traveling down the spline no matter the distance of the waypoints?

Please say yes!

- Chowder

 

Sam just wanted to say a big thanks for sharing this, it works really well for my game, adding a nice level of polish. Cheers.
Pete.

 

HI great scripts

I have a problem with the scripts, overall they work very well untill i disable them in inspector and use another script to re-enable the waypoints.

i pass the gameobject to my scripts like so.

public GameObject ProcessRoute;

then i enable them like so...

ProcessRoute.active = true;
ProcessRoute.SetActiveRecursively(true);

now the problem is it thows the following error and does not move the camera along the predefined path

ArgumentOutofRangeException: Index is less than 0 or more than or equal to list count.

basicly i need to create fly waypoints that are initaly disabled from inspector and have them enabled in script so that the fly waypoints begin when i enable them.

any ideas anyone?

 

Very nice, thank you!

 

I know this thread is very old, but is there a chance that this package could be fixed to work with Unity 3.5? I get a bunch of errors and the camera doesn`t move. There is a script missing.

 

It seems to be useful, thank you. Can you upload this one in the UnityWiki?

 

hi all
very thanks for your script.

my problem with it is:
when i assign 100 for secondsloop then it have very jumps.
how can smooth it?

thankful.

 

hi all
how can apply dynamic speed?(dynamically increase and decrease speed)?
thankful.

 

Hello
Firstly your script is what I'm looking for months.
Then I do not know how the script
In my work I make models of traffic.
I need a script to move cars along a path.
In Maya, I make a spline made ​​of regularly spaced objects (spheres).
an object 10 meters, 10 km. So 1000 objects.
I then exported to FBX.
In your script, you put your pins manually.
I would do it automatically with my spheres
By public variables in the script, I would:
1 give the path
2 give the speed in km per hour
3 tell the car how it begins its journey landmark
(Example with 2 cars, the first begins at 1° sphere and the second car starts at 5°)
Once at the last point, the car reappeared in his room immediately start marker
thank you for your help if you do it

 

Hi, can anyone help me figure out how to draw path same like with OnGizmos, but ingame, with primitives for example.
I've done instatiation

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. spline = new Spline(GameObject.Find("Path"));
3.        
4.         for (float t = 0; t < 1.0F; t += 0.025f)
5. Instantiate(SpherePrefab, spline.GetPosition(t), Quaternion.identity));
6.  

but cant make it to update positions when the waypoint position has been change, like in Gizmos