Unit Camera Spectator System Reference

Unit Camera Spectator System Reference

Source-verified 2026-06-21 against master 0139a346. Paths relative to Missions/[55-2hc]warfarev2_073v48co.chernarus/ unless noted. Arma 2 OA 1.64.

RscMenu_UnitCamera is the in-dialog spectator camera the commander drives after the Tactical menu launches it. The dialog body lives in one file, Client/GUI/GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf (130 lines), which builds two player/unit listboxes plus a camera-mode listbox over an embedded minimap, then runs a 0.1s loop that resolves a target unit-or-vehicle and applies switchCamera to it. This page documents that runtime body: the camera modes, the listboxes, the map-click-to-spectate path, the unflip button, the dead-unit fallback, and teardown. The launch gate (the commandInRange check and the no-fee entry point) is owned by Tactical-Support-Menu-Player-Guide; the dialog's IDC registration and minimap geometry are owned by Client-UI-Systems-Atlas and Map-Control-Template-And-Minimap-Embed-Reference.

Launch and teardown

The Tactical menu's Units_Camera request closes itself and opens this dialog. Entry is gated on commandInRange (the control is enabled only when that flag is true); there is no fee.

Step	Location	Behavior
Enable gate	Client/GUI/GUI_Menu_Tactical.sqf:283-284	case "Units_Camera": { _controlEnable = commandInRange; }
Launch	Client/GUI/GUI_Menu_Tactical.sqf:339-342	closeDialog 0; createDialog "RscMenu_UnitCamera";
Dialog init	Client/GUI/GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:6-10	disableSerialization; caches _display; resets MenuAction, mouseButtonUp, and WF_MenuAction to -1 (latch reset, mirroring other map-click dialogs per Client-UI-Systems-Atlas:95)
Teardown	Client/GUI/GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:130-131	After the loop exits, closeDialog 0; then ((player) Call GetUnitVehicle) switchCamera _currentMode; restores the viewer's own camera

Note that teardown reuses _currentMode, so the viewer's restored camera inherits whatever mode the spectator last selected, applied to their own unit-or-vehicle.

Camera modes

The mode applied to switchCamera is taken from a fixed four-element array, not from the listbox labels.

Item	Location	Detail
Mode array	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:12	_cameraModes = ["Internal","External","Gunner","Group"] — these strings are passed to switchCamera
Initial mode	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:33-34	_currentMode = "Internal"; _currentUnit switchCamera _currentMode;
Listbox labels	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:43-45	_type = if (!(difficultyEnabled "3rdPersonView")) then {["Internal"]} else {["Internal","External","Ironsight","Group"]}; populates listbox 21006, pre-selecting index 0
Mode select	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:97-100	On MenuAction == 103, _currentMode = (_cameraModes select (lbCurSel 21006));

There is a label/value mismatch worth flagging: listbox index 2 is shown to the player as "Ironsight" (line 43) but _cameraModes select 2 resolves to "Gunner" (line 12). Selecting the third row therefore enters gunner view, not ironsight. When 3rdPersonView is disabled in difficulty, only "Internal" appears in the listbox, so the player can pick no other mode.

Player list (listbox 21002)

On open, the dialog enumerates clientTeams and lists only groups whose leader is a human player, so empty AI slots are excluded. The viewer's own group is pre-selected.

Item	Location	Detail
Build list	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:18-26	forEach clientTeams: if isPlayer (leader _x), append the group to _list_Players and lbAdd[21002,Format["[%1] %2",_n,name (leader _x)]]; _n is the displayed index
Pre-select self	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:28-31	_player_group = group player; _id = clientTeams find _player_group; lbSetCurSel[21002,_id];
Leader select	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:74-86	On MenuAction == 101, resolves _selected = leader (_list_Players select (lbCurSel 21002)), sets _currentUnit to that leader's unit-or-vehicle, rebuilds the AI list, and flags _cameraSwap = true

The selected-index _id is computed against clientTeams (the raw team list), while the listbox rows come from the filtered _list_Players. The two indices coincide only when no AI-led groups precede the viewer's group in clientTeams; with AI-led groups present, the pre-selected row can point at a different entry than the viewer's own group.

AI-unit list (listbox 21004)

For the selected leader, the dialog lists that leader's live subordinate units (the leader itself excluded), each labelled with its AI digit, vehicle display name, and unit name.

Item	Location	Detail
Initial units	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:35	_units = (Units (group player) - [player]) Call GetLiveUnits;
Row format	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:37-40	Per unit: _unitNumber = (_x) Call GetAIDigit; then lbAdd[21004,Format["[%1] (%2) %3", _unitNumber, GetText (configFile >> "CfgVehicles" >> (typeOf (vehicle _x)) >> "displayName"), name _x]]
Rebuild on leader change	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:79-84	lbClear 21004 then re-populate from (Units (group _selected) - [_selected]) Call GetLiveUnits
AI select	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:90-93	On MenuAction == 102, _currentUnit = (_units select (lbCurSel 21004)) Call GetUnitVehicle; and flag a camera swap

GetAIDigit and GetUnitVehicle are generic helpers documented elsewhere — see Namespace-Profile-And-Diagnostic-Utility-Reference and Array-And-Collection-Utility-Reference. GetUnitVehicle resolves a man to their vehicle when mounted, which is why spectating a crewed unit frames the vehicle.

Map-click spectate

Clicking the embedded minimap (control 21007) picks the nearest valid entity at the clicked world position. The latch mouseButtonUp is set by input handling and consumed here.

Step	Location	Behavior
Consume latch	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:58-59	if (mouseButtonUp == 0) then { mouseButtonUp = -1;
Screen to world	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:60	_near = _map PosScreenToWorld[mouseX,mouseY];
Candidate scan	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:61	_list = _near nearEntities [["Man","Car","Motorcycle","Ship","Tank","Air"],200]; (200 m radius)
Side filter	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:64	Per candidate: a friendly entity (side _x == sideJoined) is appended to _objects; an empty enemy vehicle has a (no-op) removal applied
Resolve nearest	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:65-67	If any friendly candidate, _currentUnit = ([_near,_objects] Call WFBE_CO_FNC_GetClosestEntity) Call GetUnitVehicle; and _cameraSwap = true

The filter at line 64 only ever adds friendly entities to _objects (the array starts empty at line 63); the enemy-empty-vehicle branch performs _objects - [_x] on an array that does not yet contain _x, so it has no effect. In practice the result is: only friendly entities within 200 m of the click are eligible, and the closest of them is spectated. WFBE_CO_FNC_GetClosestEntity is the same closest-entity helper used by the fired event handler (Client/Functions/Client_FNC_OnFired.sqf:22).

Unflip button and dead-unit fallback

A dedicated unflip button lets the spectator right a flipped friendly vehicle, and a guard snaps the camera home when the spectated unit dies.

Item	Location	Behavior
Unflip trigger	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:103-104	if (WF_MenuAction == 140 && !(isNil "_currentUnit")) then { WF_MenuAction = -1;
Player guard	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:106	Only acts if(!(isPlayer (_currentUnit))) — players are not nudged
Nudge	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:107-110	_vehicle = vehicle _currentUnit; then _vehicle setPos [...x, ...y, 0.5]; _vehicle setVelocity [0,0,-0.5]; — drops the vehicle to z=0.5 with a small downward velocity so it settles upright
Swap after unflip	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:113	_cameraSwap = true;
Dead-unit fallback	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:116-119	if !(alive _currentUnit) then { _currentUnit = (player) Call GetUnitVehicle; _cameraSwap = true; };

The nudge does not teleport or rotate the vehicle; it re-seats it at z=0.5 above its current x/y and lets engine physics resolve the upright orientation as it falls. For a general treatment of vehicle recovery, see AutoFlip-Vehicle-Recovery-Reference.

The per-frame loop

The body of the dialog is a while {true} loop sleeping 0.1s per iteration, with an exit guard and a single camera-update block that runs when any action set _cameraSwap.

Step	Location	Behavior
Loop and tick	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:51-52	while {true} do { sleep 0.1;
Reset swap flag	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:54	_cameraSwap = false; each iteration
Exit guard	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:55	`if (side group player != sideJoined
Camera update	GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:122-127	If _cameraSwap: ctrlMapAnimClear _map; then animate the minimap to getPos _currentUnit over 0.25 and _currentUnit switchCamera _currentMode;

Every interaction path — map click, leader select, AI select, mode change, unflip, dead-unit fallback — funnels into the one _cameraSwap block, so the minimap re-centers on the target and switchCamera re-applies on the same frame the selection changes. The initial minimap animation is set up once on open at GUI_Menu_UnitCamera.sqf:47-49 (ctrlMapAnimAdd [0,.25,getPos _currentUnit]), before the loop starts.

Continue Reading

• Tactical-Support-Menu-Player-Guide — the launch gate, commandInRange, and no-fee entry point for this dialog
• Client-UI-Systems-Atlas — RscMenu_UnitCamera IDC 21000 registration and the map-click latch-reset convention
• Map-Control-Template-And-Minimap-Embed-Reference — the embedded CA_MiniMap (control 21007) geometry used by this dialog
• AutoFlip-Vehicle-Recovery-Reference — broader vehicle-righting mechanics related to the unflip button
• Array-And-Collection-Utility-Reference — GetUnitVehicle and related collection helpers used to resolve the spectated target