Visualization System Camera System

Camera System

Overview

The Camera System manages the viewport in the 3D canvas, transitioning smoothly between free-roam orbit mode and programmatic follow mode.

Why it matters

Navigating a 24-layer transformer stack manually via scrolling is tedious and disorienting. A smart camera system acts like a director, automatically framing the relevant mathematical operation so the user can focus on the data.

How TokenPrint implements it

TokenPrint uses the R3F <PerspectiveCamera> paired with drei's <OrbitControls>.

The Glider

During Live Inference and Walkthrough chapters, the camera relies on a custom easing function.

1. playback.ts calculates a Vector3 anchor coordinate for every layer in the stack based on the known geometric heights.
2. When the activeOp advances to a new layer, the targetAnchor updates.
3. Inside a useFrame loop, the camera's position and look-at target are mathematically interpolated (using damp or lerp) towards the new anchor.

Breaking the Glide

If the user clicks and drags the canvas, an event fires that sets userOrbiting = true. This instantly disables the easing function, yielding full control to the user. The UI displays a "Recenter" button to re-engage the Follow mode.

Diagram

flowchart TD
    Tick[activeOp updates] --> Math[Calculate target Y coordinate]
    Math --> Lerp[useFrame: lerp(current, target, 0.1)]
    Lerp --> Cam[Update Camera Position]
    
    User[Mouse Drag Event] --> Lock[Set userOrbiting = true]
    Lock -.->|Disables| Lerp

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Related pages

• Camera Controls
• Scene Navigation

Further reading

• Frontend Architecture

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