Essentials Series/Cameras

This page is part of the Essential Series modding tutorials. A camera (CAM) is a base asset that can move the game's view to a specific position. Cameras are used extensively in Scooby, in which the player cannot control the camera and they move to default positions depending on where you are in the level. In the other games, cameras are used less often, but still used to make small cutscenes during levels, such as to show a door opening in another point of the level or during a conversation with another character. CAMs are placed in the Default layer of the HIP file.

Using a Camera
Industrial Park has a Camera template. This is not the type of camera used in Scooby, but a static camera which you can switch to using events.

After placing the camera template, open its Asset Data Editor. Industrial Park allows copying the editor's view position and direction directly onto a camera. Move the editor's view to the position where you want the camera to be. Click on the "Get View Position" and "Get View Direction" buttons to copy the view to the camera. Now, to use the camera ingame, you must send events to it.

To switch to a static camera, send the StartConversation and Switch events to it at the same time. Usually, this is done in a timer which runs for how long you want the camera to act, but can be sent by any other asset. When you're done using the camera, send EndConversation to it and the view will switch back to the player. If you're using a sequence of multiple cameras, which is also quite common, you need to send StartConversation and Switch to the first one, and only Switch to the rest. Send EndConversation to the last one.

It's common for, during this cinematic view, control to be taken off from the player. Otherwise, the player will be able to move, in many cases without even seeing what they are doing because the camera is elsewhere! To prevent this, send the ControlOff event to the SPONGEBOB PLYR asset when the cinematic starts, and ControlOn when it ends.

You can also change the camera's field of view in the Asset Data Editor. If you want an even more accurate preview of the camera, set IP to windowed mode, use Display -> UI Mode Autosize to set the window's aspect ratio to the same as the game. Click on View (in the Archive Editor) with a camera selected to place the view in the exact position of the camera. The View Config window allows you to change the editor's field of view. You can test values for it in the editor and then use the same one in the camera. This allows you to see exactly how the camera would look in the game.