Camera Documentation

The camera can be interfaced through either the in game camera system as well as from the scripting language.

To spawn a camera from script use the following command:

spawn Camera targetname MyCamera

Switching between cameras is accomplished with these commands:

cuecamera cameraName [switchTime]

Switch to the specified camera. If switch time is specified and you are not already in camera view, the camera will smoothly transition from the third person camera to this camera

cueplayer [switchTime]

Switch back to third person mode. If switchtime is specified, than camera will switch over that period of time.

Other useful scripting commands for cinematics:

freezeplayer

Freezes the player wherever he is standing

releaseplayer

Release the player after he has been frozen

fakeplayer

Create a fake version of the player, hide the real one. The fake player has a targetname of "fakeplayer"

removefakeplayer

Remove the fake player and unhide the real one

The ingame camera system utilizes the following commands:

cam new

Start a new camera path

cam load [filename]

Loads the camera path from cams/[filename].cam. If no filename is set, filename is taken from the cam_filename CVAR.

cam save [filename]

Saves the current path to cams/[filename].cam. If the targetname of the path has not been set, then it is set the same as [filename]. If no filename is set, filename is taken from the cam_filename CVAR.

cam savemap [filename]

Saves the current path to cams/[filename].map. This is a special format for integration into existing map files.

cam setpath targetname

Changes the current path to the path with the specified targetname.

cam settargetname targetname

Sets the targetname of the current path point [targetname].

cam settarget target

Sets the target of the current path point to [target]. Doing this will cause the entity with the targetname of [target] to be triggered when the camera reaches this path point.

cam setthread threadname

Sets the thread of the current path point to [threadname]. Doing this will cause the thread [threadname] to be executed when the camera reaches this point.

cam setspeed [speed]

Sets the speed of the camera at this path node. Speed is displayed above the currently selected path point when the path is being drawn. Speed is the number of path points the camera will go through per second, so a speed of 2 makes the camera take ½ a second per path point. Speed defaults to 1. SetSpeed sets the speed on the current node and any nodes added in the future.

cam add

Creates a new path point at the current player location and angle using the current speed.

cam delete

Deletes the currently selected path point. The current node then becomes the path point that was immediately after the path point.

cam replace

Changes the position, angle, and speed of the currently selected path point to that of the player and current speed.

cam moveplayer

Places the player at the position of the current path point. The player’s view remains the same, however.

cam next

Selects the next point in the path.

cam prev

Selects the previous point in the path.

cam show

Displays the current path. The Current path point is draw in yellow with the speed drawn above it. At each node, a coordinate system is drawn to show the orientation. Red is forward, green is right, blue is up. The lines draw between path points to indicate the direction the camera will take.

cam hide

Stops drawing the current path.

cam play

Makes the camera play the path once.

cam play [targetname]

Causes the camera to play the path specified by targetname once.

cam loop

Makes the camera play the path and continuously loop.

cam loop [targetname]

Makes the camera play the path specified by targetname and continuously loop.

cam stop

Stops the camera and switches the view back to the player.

cam watch targetname

Mark the node to tell the camera to watch the specified target when the camera gets to that control point. [targetname] can be one of the reserved keywords path, node or none or it can just be a targetname for a specific entity.

path –

Watch the path as we move, in other words look in the direction that we are moving

node –

Orient ourselves based off of the orientation in each node, in other words use the stored orientations at each node to determine our view.

none

– Do not make any orientations whatsoever, This means that the camera will not change it’s orientation at all.

cam nowatch

Mark the node to tell the camera to stop watching any entities when the camera gets to that control point. Equivalent to "cam watch none"

cam setfov

Set the fov of the current path node

cam setfadetime

Set the fadetime of the current path node

Script commands for the camera are as follows:

All commands must have the targetname of the camera pre-pended.

start

Start the camera moving or watching

pause

Pause the camera along its path.

continue

Resume the camera’s movement

stop

Stop the camera from moving and watching

speed newSpeed

Set the speed of the camera

fov newFov [fadeTime]

Set the fov of the camera and optionally the time over which the fov should transition, default is whatever the camera’s fadetime is set to.

follow targetEntity [targetWatchEntity]

Start following an entity, if that entity is a splinepath then the path will be followed. If targetWatchEntity is specified than that entity will be watched while following targetEntity. By default targetEntity will be watched as well.

follow_distance followDistance

Distance at which the camera should follow an entity, also used for orbit radius.

follow_yaw yawOffset

Yaw offset of the camera following an entity

follow_yaw_absolute

Make the follow yaw absolute rather than relative to the follow entity’s angles

follow_yaw_relative

Make the follow yaw relative to the follow entitiy’s angles

orbit targetEntity [targetWatchEntity]

Start orbiting an entity, if that entity is a splinepath then the path will be followed and looped. If targetWatchEntity is specified than that entity will be watched while following targetEntity. By default targetEntity will be watched as well.

orbit_height newHeight

Height offset for orbiting an entity

watch watchEntity [fadeTime]

Start watching an entity, and optionally the time over which the transition should occur. The default transition time is the camera’s fadetime.

watchpath [fadeTime]

Start looking along the direction of movement and optionally the time over which the transition should occur. The default transition time is the camera’s fadetime.

watchnode [fadeTime]

Start basing the camera’s orientation off of what is stored in the camera path nodes and optionally the time over which the transition should occur. The default transition time is the camera’s fadetime.

nowatch [fadeTime]

Stop watching an entity, looking along a path or anything else. The camera’s orientation is now static. Optionally transition overt the time specified. The default transition time is the camera’s fadetime.

lookat targetEntity

Immediately make the camera look at the given entity

turnto newAngles

Immediately turn the camera to the desired angles. NewAngles is a vector

moveto targetEntity

Immediately move the camera to the targetEntity’s origin

movetopos newPosition

Immediately move to the specified world space position

fadetime newFadetime

Specifiy a new fadetime for this camera, this fadetime will be used for any of the watch or follow commands if no explicit fadetime is specified.

cut

Switch cameras immediately, don’t transition over time

nextcamera cameraName

Next camera to use in a security camera system arrangement

setthread threadName

Sets the thread of the camera which is accessed from a trigger_camerause