How to config Cinemachine on a FPS

How should I configure the virtual camera on Cinemachine for a First Person?
If you have a better way to do this, just post it ! I'm sure that the Cinemachine team has his own and better way to do this, so please guys, share the how to.

This is how I did it...

I modified the Start of FirstPersonController.cs

Code (CSharp):

1.      
2. // Use this for initialization
3.         private void Start()
4.         {
5.             m_CharacterController = GetComponent<CharacterController>();
6.             m_Camera = GameObject.Find("POV");
7.             m_OriginalCameraPosition = m_Camera.transform.localPosition;
8.             //m_FovKick.Setup(m_Camera);
9.             //m_HeadBob.Setup(m_Camera, m_StepInterval);
10.             m_StepCycle = 0f;
11.             m_NextStep = m_StepCycle/2f;
12.             m_Jumping = false;
13.             m_AudioSource = GetComponent<AudioSource>();
14.             m_MouseLook.Init(transform , m_Camera.transform);
15.         }

 

Hi @churi24 It looks like you're off to a good start RE 1st person shooter. It's a big topic with a lot of questions, so I'll do a little brain dump on ideas and learnings I've had working in this area.

Don't make a giant ball of code camera which tries to do everything. Instead use a number of virutal cameras for each different scenario. One for the main 1st person shooter. One for when you sprint (maybe widen the FOV) one for when you go to a scope view (then you have blend controls between them) etc.

Is your gun shooting from the center of the camera's Z axis or from the weapon? That makes a difference as when you get to walls sometimes the gun and your eye 'see' different things

How are you planning to handle camera shakes on explosions / impacts? There's a few ways to do that. We want to simplify shakes with a new upcoming 'Impulse' module which we're currently developing (no ETA yet, I'm afraid)

Let us know how it goes and what kinds of goals and issues you're having so we can give specific help

 

I'm a little lost, that's why I had created this post.
The camera mechanic of our game is similar to Outlast, RE7, etc. All the interaction occurs from the center of the camera's Z axis.

1) The main problem I found here is how to integrate and set up the virtual camera in the head of the character without writing tones of code. We wanna do something similar to Outlast where the player can see his own body.


So the camera should be in the head of the player and controlled by Input.mouse, I think..

2) The problem when you are moving. This is a video of our game (without Cinemachine), I have been coding some stuffs for a basic camera, but with Cinemachine I want to delete all the scripts and replace them by Virtual Cameras.

In my example when you go from Idle to Walk and from Walk to Run, the camara don't smooth between animations, so you can notice how it change between states and that sucks.
If I integrate virtual cameras to this, the problem is that I don't know how to solve the walking, idle and running moves on the virtual camera without coding. The perlin noise is not realistic for a walk or run, or maybe it's because I don't know how to configure it.. I think it's better for earthquakes, or when you go inside a car, or something similar to that.

3) A problem to resolve with Virtual Cameras is the smooth of the movement.

Here in this video the player rotate looking at a tree all the time trying to mantain the tree centered on the camera and moving with W & D while he is running. You can see how the camera shake as if he has a problem with the fps. If I attach the virtual camera to the head of the player I will have this problem, so the virtual camera should follow the player in a smooth way

In conclusion I have this problems:
A) How should I integrate and set up the virtual camera,
B) How do I solve the problem of idle, walk and run moves.

 

3) Have you tried using different update modes? (Cinemachine Brain)

 

The last video was recorded using Smart Update. If I use Fixed Update or Late Update works much better, but the shaking still exist, it's really tiny but exist. I think I made something wrong with the config of the CM.

 

I made some changes.. Now I have the camera perfect without judder . I'm testing everything on a clean scene, just a terrain, some trees, the FirstPersonController and Cinemachine.
I'm testing some ideas and I have merged the Update inside the FixedUpdate in the FirstPersonController. Now it goes smooth like a silk and the problem is solved. The new question is, why it's working now?

 

Ok, so in that case I only have code to move the character. The camara will follow the character using Cinemachine. So in my case the integration of the virtual camera could be solved right now, but I want to hear more options. Now the main problem is How do I solve the problem of idle, walk and run moves with cinemachine?

 

Yes you are right, but this is the second part, first I need to know how to set up the virtual camera for each state. Perlin Noise for a Walk movement is not a realistic solution unless you know how to config perlin noise for a walk.

I could make a script with a curve to simulate the movement on each state, but this comment prevents me to go on that way...

The question here is how do I config the movement on the virtual camera for idle, walk and run ?

 

Have a look at "Assets\Cinemachine\Examples\Presets" it will change your mind about it!

 

Thanks to both, I modified Handheld_normal_mild preset for the idle and works pretty well. But the movements I was trying to do are a quite symmetrical, like a sine.
I will write some code for this states on CinemachineBasicMultiChannelPerlin.cs but this should be resolved on Cinemachine. I made these questions because this is one of the problems I found on Cinemachine. For these cases we need more settings. Perlin Noise is an option for an irregular terrain like a mountain, but if you are walking over a plane terrain, I need another kind of settings

From 0:00 to 0:15 (running).

 

https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/individual-blend.485247/

You can directly lower the amount of noise like that:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2.            freecam.GetCinemachineComponent<CinemachineBasicMultiChannelPerlin>().m_AmplitudeGain = shakeIntensity;

 

Lowering the intensity does not change the way it is done. Also when the character runs, the camera movement is violent and quite symmetric, ergo, we need intensity. (perlin noise is not symmetric at all)

 

The Magical Interfaces!

Code (CSharp):

1.         public CameraState MutateCameraState(CameraState curState, CameraState statePrevFrame, float deltaTime)
2.         {
3.             CameraState newState = curState;
4.             newState.PositionCorrection = GetNoisePosition();
5.             newState.OrientationCorrection = GetNoiseRotation();
6.             return newState;
7.         }
8.  
9.         Vector3 GetNoisePosition()
10.         {
11.             float posTargetX = Mathf.Sin(Time.time * walkPositionSpeed.x) * walkPositionAmounts.x;
12.             float posTargetY = Mathf.Sin(Time.time * walkPositionSpeed.y) * walkPositionAmounts.y;
13.             float posTargetZ = Mathf.Sin(Time.time * walkPositionSpeed.z) * walkPositionAmounts.z;
14.             return new Vector3(posTargetX, posTargetY, posTargetZ);
15.         }
16.  
17.         Quaternion GetNoiseRotation()
18.         {
19.             float eulTargetX = Mathf.Sin(Time.time * WalkRotationSpeed.x) * walkRotationAmount.x;
20.             float eulTargetY = Mathf.Sin(Time.time * WalkRotationSpeed.y) * walkRotationAmount.y;
21.             float eulTargetZ = Mathf.Sin(Time.time * WalkRotationSpeed.z) * walkRotationAmount.z;
22.             return Quaternion.Euler(eulTargetX, eulTargetY, eulTargetZ);
23.         }

The point of this was to mark something that may be useful for cinemachine users. Obviously I do not pretend that cinemachine covers all the gaps in the development of any game because that is impossible, but this seemed useful, at least on fps.
Ok, now we have a virtual camera following the player, smooth and with the simulation of footsteps.

I have another question and, as the others, the solution could come from one thousand different forms. how could I solve this? Take a look to the minute 1:54

I wanna do something similar on the FPS. For example, I have a wall, on the top of the wall there is a message I want the player read when he is walking distracted over there. The camera must look at this point smoothly. I could make a transform.LookAt but I wondering if cinemachine could do that on other way. Any idea?

 

Do you think is it a good idea to use Timeline and CM together in this kind of situations? maybe I have to move and rotate the player to look at the interest point, because in our case the player can look his own body.. or maybe I'm making it too complicated and with only the camera move I've got the effect I want.

 

@Adam_Myhill I have the same question, how to config cinemachine on a fps game? is there a recommend solution? I really want to use cinemachine in my fps game, it's awesome.

By the way @churi24 Thanks for your solution, a good inspiration to me.

 

@Go3k we are working on a FPS camera type. It probably won't make the CM v2.1 release (next week) but we will get a beta out as soon as possible so people can try it and give us feedback

 

Hey Adam, let me know if you need beta test, cause we are investigating to use Cinemachine camera for our game
Thanks

 

@rneron1 We'd love your feedback. Fee free to reach out with any questions or camera design desires you may have. We know our documentation isn't amazing (it's gotten a lot better recently though) and the tutorials and demo scenes are minimal (more coming, really, we've hired people) so if we can help with suggesting configurations, we'd love to.

The POV camera module is currently going through testing. It's going to make our official CM v2.1 release and we'll share in here on the forums for you when it's had a little more testing.

 

Hi! Just jumping into Cinemachine today, seeing how I can replace a bulky and messy camera script with this cool stuff. I'm currently using a camera shaker script that resides on a parent object of multiple cameras. That won't really work here, so I'm wondering if the Impulse (and other) modules are out yet, or coming soon?

Thanks!

 

Hi, we are advancing in the game and cinemachine & timeline were really useful, they helped me to reduce development time (only one developer and one artist on an horror survival project). Soon I will upload a demo showing how Project Nightmares is going. https://www.instagram.com/projectnightmares/

I have a question .. I have a virtual camera looking at an object that is moving forward with an animation. I'm using "look at" for the virtual camera to follow that target. I want the player to have some control in the camera, that is, always focus on the object, but can move the camera slightly up and to the sides. Any idea how to do this?

To handle the shake I've made a simple script in 2 minutes, I don't know if this is elegant and correct but it works ..

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using Cinemachine;
5.  
6. public class VirtualCameraShaker : MonoBehaviour
7. {
8.     public CinemachineVirtualCamera vcam;
9.     public AnimationCurve curveShake;
10.     public float shakeTime = 1f;
11.     private CinemachineBasicMultiChannelPerlin noise;
12.  
13.     private void OnEnable()
14.     {
15.         noise = vcam.GetCinemachineComponent<CinemachineBasicMultiChannelPerlin>();
16.         StartCoroutine(ShakeItBaby());
17.     }
18.  
19.     IEnumerator ShakeItBaby()
20.     {
21.         float timer = 0f;
22.         while (timer < shakeTime)
23.         {
24.             timer += Time.deltaTime;
25.             noise.m_AmplitudeGain = curveShake.Evaluate(timer);
26.             yield return null;
27.         }
28.     }
29. }

 

@Gregoryl worth mentioning - the CinemachineConfiner class you recommend as a starting point, is only included in 2.1RC and not 2.0 from the Asset Store.

 

Hi @Adam_Myhill!!
You mentioned a FPS Camera Type in Cinemachine... it is released already?
Thanks!

 

Go to your vCam and change Aim to POV.

 

Guys, little question, please: there are plans to make Cinemachine built-in with Unity? It would be very good

 

It would be super useful and awesome if you guys could provide a working sample with Cinemachine in a True First Person scenario...
Thanks!!

 

@discofhc - CM will be 'built into' Unity with the new Package Manager system. Many modules are moving to this Package Manager so the core of Unity becomes smaller and people load up the packages which they want for any given project. We got you!

 

Hi Adam! Is there any release date/time? (Week/Month)

 

Good to hear!
I can´t find any official info about the Package Manager (how it will behave)... can you please share any link / info?
Thanks!

 

https://forum.unity.com/threads/what-is-packman.482001/#post-3135334 You can test it in 2018.1 Beta.

 

Hi there. I created an aiming camera module and I want to share it with you. this will simply rotate with the player, however it allow you to look vertically by a specified amount. it is an updated version of the POV module. I use it with a Transpose module (where I set the Yaw Damping to 1.5). I love it, it work like the camera used in Tombraider when Lara is aiming (or like GTA). hope anyone enjoy it. I like Cinemachine, it is fantastic !

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using Cinemachine;
3.  
4. [DocumentationSorting(23, DocumentationSortingAttribute.Level.UserRef)]
5. [AddComponentMenu("")] // Don't display in add component menu
6. [RequireComponent(typeof(CinemachinePipeline))]
7. [SaveDuringPlay]
8. /// This will allow the virtual camera to rotate with the player horizontaly and to let you set how much it will rotate vertically. very powereful for player aiming scenario
9. public class PlayerAiming : CinemachineComponentBase
10. {
11.     /// <summary>The Vertical axis.  Value is -45..45 (adjustable). Controls the vertical orientation</summary>
12.     [Tooltip("The Vertical axis.  Value is -45..45 (adjustable). Controls the vertical orientation")]
13.     public AxisState m_VerticalAxis = new AxisState(300f, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0f, "Mouse Y", true);
14.  
15.     public float minVerticalValue = -45;
16.     public float maxVerticalValue = 45;
17.  
18.     private void OnEnable()
19.     {
20.         m_VerticalAxis.SetThresholds(minVerticalValue, maxVerticalValue, false);
21.     }
22.  
23.     /// <summary>True if component is enabled and has a LookAt defined</summary>
24.     public override bool IsValid { get { return enabled; } }
25.  
26.     /// <summary>Get the Cinemachine Pipeline stage that this component implements.
27.     /// Always returns the Aim stage</summary>
28.     public override CinemachineCore.Stage Stage { get { return CinemachineCore.Stage.Aim; } }
29.  
30.     /// <summary>Applies the axis values and orients the camera accordingly</summary>
31.     /// <param name="curState">The current camera state</param>
32.     /// <param name="deltaTime">Used for calculating damping.  Not used.</param>
33.     public override void MutateCameraState(ref CameraState curState, float deltaTime)
34.     {
35.         if (!IsValid)
36.             return;
37.  
38.         //UnityEngine.Profiling.Profiler.BeginSample("CinemachinePOV.MutateCameraState");
39.  
40.         // Only read joystick when game is playing
41.         if (deltaTime >= 0 || CinemachineCore.Instance.IsLive(VirtualCamera))
42.         {
43.             m_VerticalAxis.Update(deltaTime);
44.         }
45.  
46.         Quaternion rot = FollowTarget.rotation * Quaternion.Euler(m_VerticalAxis.Value, 0, 0);
47.         rot = rot * Quaternion.FromToRotation(Vector3.up, curState.ReferenceUp);
48.         curState.OrientationCorrection = curState.OrientationCorrection * rot;
49.  
50.         //UnityEngine.Profiling.Profiler.EndSample();
51.     }
52. }

 

and this is my rig





I set the Follow and LookAt targets at run time (because my game is a Network game ) so I wait when the local player is spwaned...

 

and this is my rig


View attachment 266731
View attachment 266732

I set the Follow and LookAt targets at run time (because my game is a Network game ) so I wait when the local player is spwaned...

 

Hi all quick question about state driven camera and POV component. So I have modified FPS script couples cameras as a child of SDC and I'm trying to get value from horizontal axis but I'm getting null reference.

Code (CSharp):

1. transform.localRotation = Quaternion.Euler(0, vCamera.ChildCameras[0].GetComponent<CinemachinePOV>().m_HorizontalAxis.Value, 0);

Thanks

 

If I break it down like that

Code (CSharp):

1. CinemachinePOV pov = vCamera.ChildCameras[0].GetComponent<CinemachinePOV>();
2. Debug.Log(pov.name);

null its on the pov object

 

It's says that CinemachineCameraBase don't have a definition for GetCinemachineComponent

 

Thank you, its working now.