Improvements to the camera system


I've spent the past week on some improvements to the game's camera system. A number of play testers pointed out that the simpler horizontal scrolling camera doesn't always show both the player and the blocks, leading to some funny situations where you can't see the result of your actions.

This turned out to be a less-than-straightforward problem to solve as I had to make it so the camera can figure out when and where it needs to move to put both the player and the shot in the scene. It also meant making the camera system more sophisticated in general because it now needs to smoothly transition between different focal points in the scene. 

To get a smooth result, I built a camera system that usually follows the player, keeping it in the center of the screen. However, if the player is firing the beam, and the shot goes a certain distance past the center of the screen, the camera will then transition to a point between the player and the shot.


Also, to keep things smooth and avoid changing the camera too much, I built a system that biases not moving the camera. Once the camera comes to a complete stop, it doesn't move until there is a reason to move it. That could mean the player has reached the edge of the screen or the shot and the player no longer fit in the scene.

I suffer from motion sickness, so anything with as little camera movement as possible is best.

This camera system isn't perfect, but it is much better than the previous iteration. The are problems with some platforming challenges where I want the camera to move a little further past the objective so you can see everything in context, but I have a plan to deal with those details later.

I haven't posted the new build yet, but I will within the next few days. I want to change up some of the levels based on player feedback from the previous iteration.

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