Camera Effects

16 - Camera Effects

These scripts go on the Entity that holds the Camera component, which is normally the player. A Camera component is reached with entity.camera and has:

Member	Notes
fov	Field of view
yaw, pitch	Look angles in degrees. The PlayerController changes these from the mouse every frame
forward	Read-only Vector3, the direction the camera faces
nearPlane, farPlane, aspectRatio	Projection settings
isActive	Whether this camera is the one rendering. Setting it to true switches to it and unticks the others

---

Sprint FOV kick and zoom

Widens the view slightly while sprinting and narrows it while the right mouse button is held. The change eases in and out instead of snapping.

-- Scripts/Camera/FovEffects.lua (entity script)
public number sprintFovBonus = 10
public number zoomScale = 0.5
public number blendSpeed = 8

local cam
local baseFov = 60.0

function Start()
    cam = entity.camera

    if cam == nil then
        Debug.LogError("FovEffects: " .. entity.name .. " has no Camera")
        return
    end

    baseFov = cam.fov   -- whatever the designer set is "normal"
end

function Update()
    if cam == nil then return end

    local target = baseFov

    if Input.GetMouseButton(Input.MouseRight) then
        target = baseFov * zoomScale
    elseif Input.GetKey(Key.LShift) and Input.GetKey(Key.W) then
        target = baseFov + sprintFovBonus   -- same condition the PlayerController sprints on
    end

    -- Frame-rate independent easing toward the target.
    local k = 1 - math.exp(-blendSpeed * GameTime.deltaTime)
    cam.fov = mathT.Lerp(cam.fov, target, k)
end

---

Head bob

Adds a gentle vertical sway while walking on the ground.

-- Scripts/Camera/HeadBob.lua (entity script)
public number bobHeight = 0.6
public number stepsPerUnit = 0.04
public number blendSpeed = 10

local pc, rb
local baseEye = 12.0
local phase = 0.0
local amount = 0.0

function Start()
    pc = entity.playerController
    rb = entity.rigidbody

    if pc == nil or rb == nil then
        Debug.LogError("HeadBob: " .. entity.name .. " needs a PlayerController and a Rigidbody")
        return
    end

    baseEye = pc.eyeHeight
end

function Update()
    if pc == nil or rb == nil then return end

    local dt = GameTime.deltaTime
    local v = rb.velocity
    local speed = math.sqrt(v.x * v.x + v.z * v.z)
    local walking = rb.isGrounded and speed > 1

    if walking then
        phase = phase + speed * dt * stepsPerUnit * 2 * math.pi
    end

    -- Fade the bob in and out so it doesn't jolt when starting or stopping.
    amount = mathT.Lerp(amount, walking and bobHeight or 0.0, 1 - math.exp(-blendSpeed * dt))

    pc.eyeHeight = baseEye + math.sin(phase) * amount
end

Notes

• It works by nudging the controller's eyeHeight, so it will fight the crouch script in 03_player.md, which writes the same property. Use one or the other, or fold the crouch height into baseEye.

---

Screen shake

Shakes the view by nudging yaw and pitch. Other scripts trigger it through a public Shake function, so an explosion, a landing, or a crusher can all rattle the camera.

-- Scripts/Camera/ScreenShake.lua (entity script)
public Key testKey = Key.T

local cam
local strength = 0.0
local timeLeft = 0.0
local totalTime = 1.0
local offsetYaw, offsetPitch = 0.0, 0.0

-- Public: shakerScript:Shake(degrees, seconds)
function Shake(self, degrees, seconds)
    strength = degrees
    timeLeft = seconds
    totalTime = math.max(seconds, 0.001)
end

function Start()
    cam = entity.camera

    if cam == nil then
        Debug.LogError("ScreenShake: " .. entity.name .. " has no Camera")
    end
end

function Update()
    if cam == nil then return end

    if Input.GetKeyDown(testKey) then Shake(nil, 2.0, 0.4) end

    -- The mouse look keeps adding to yaw/pitch, so take back last frame's shake first.
    cam.yaw = cam.yaw - offsetYaw
    cam.pitch = cam.pitch - offsetPitch
    offsetYaw, offsetPitch = 0.0, 0.0

    if timeLeft > 0 then
        timeLeft = timeLeft - GameTime.deltaTime

        -- Fades out as the shake runs down.
        local k = strength * math.max(0, timeLeft) / totalTime
        offsetYaw = mathT.RandomF(-k, k)
        offsetPitch = mathT.RandomF(-k, k)
    end

    cam.yaw = cam.yaw + offsetYaw
    cam.pitch = cam.pitch + offsetPitch
end

Calling it from another script

public Behaviour shaker = nil

-- ...when something explodes:
if shaker ~= nil then shaker:Shake(3.0, 0.5) end

Notes

• The shake is an offset that is removed and re-applied every frame. Writing random values straight into yaw/pitch without undoing them would slowly drag the player's aim around.