[2D]Make a camera follow multiple characters.

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17 comments, last by P0jahn 9 years, 7 months ago
The video illustrates the problem fine, but I would need to see the programming involved in it.
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			//The bounding box
			float left   = focusObjs.get(0).x;
			float right  = focusObjs.get(0).x + focusObjs.get(0).getWidth();
			float top    = focusObjs.get(0).y;
			float bottom = focusObjs.get(0).y + focusObjs.get(0).getHeight();

			for(int i = 1; i < focusObjs.size(); i++)
			{
				GameObject focus = focusObjs.get(i);
				
				if (focus.x < left)
					left = focus.x;

				if (focus.x + focus.getWidth() > right)
					right = focus.x + focus.getWidth();
				
				if (focus.y < top)
					top = focus.y;

				if (focus.y + focus.getHeight() > bottom)
					bottom = focus.y + focus.getHeight();
			}
			
			float width = right - left;
			float height = bottom - top;

			/* Set the zoom */
			
			if(stage.visibleWidth > width && stage.visibleHeight > height) //Avoid modify the zoom value if the entities are close to each other
				zoom = 1;
			else if(width > height)
				zoom = width / stage.visibleWidth;
			else
				zoom = height / stage.visibleHeight;
			
			/* Translate tx and ty */

			float middleX = left + (width  / 2);
			float middleY = top  + (height / 2);
			float marginX = stage.visibleWidth / 2;
			float marginY = stage.visibleHeight / 2;
			
			if(marginX > middleX)
				tx = marginX;
			else if(middleX > stage.width - marginX)
				tx = stage.width - marginX;
			else
				tx = middleX;
			
			if(marginY > middleY)
				ty = marginY;
			else if(middleY > stage.height - marginY)
				ty = stage.height - marginY;
			else
				ty = middleY;

Note, visibleWidth and visibleHeight is the size of the view, which is 800x600.

I'm not sure how that 'margin' and the 'tx' and 'ty' are used, but I would make these (untested) changes:

			/* 1) Compute the bounding box. */
			
			float boxX	= focusObjs.get( 0 ).x;
			float boxY	= focusObjs.get( 0 ).y; 
			float boxWidth	= boxX + focusObjs.get( 0 ).getWidth();
			float boxHeight	= boxY + focusObjs.get( 0 ).getHeight();

			for(int i = 1; i < focusObjs.size(); i++)
			{
				GameObject focus = focusObjs.get(i);
				
				boxX = Math.Min( boxX, focus.x );
				boxY = Math.Min( boxY, focus.y );
				
				boxWidth  = Math.Max( boxWidth, focus.x + focus.getWidth() );
				boxHeight = Math.Max( boxHeight, focus.y + focus.getHeight() );
			}
			
			/* 2) Apply a padding so that none of the focus objects are on the edges of the viewport.
			   
			   Probably better to use a 'static final' member of some important class.
			   
			   The padding should be a value in pixels (e.g. '20') of the thickness of 
			   the border that insets from the viewport. */
			
			boxX -= gameEngine.CAMERA_FOCUS_PADDING;
			boxY -= gameEngine.CAMERA_FOCUS_PADDING;
			boxWidth  += gameEngine.CAMERA_FOCUS_PADDING * 2;
			boxHeight += gameEngine.CAMERA_FOCUS_PADDING * 2;

			/* 3) Constrain the padded bounding-box to the stage. */
	
			boxX = Math.Max( boxX, 0 );
			boxX = Math.Min( boxX, stage.width - boxWidth ); 			

			boxY = Math.Max( boxY, 0 );
			boxY = Math.Min( boxY, stage.height - boxHeight );
			
			/* 4) Set the zoom. */

			if ( boxWidth > boxHeight )
				zoom = boxWidth / stage.visibleWidth;
			else
				zoom = boxHeight / stage.visibleHeight;

			zoom = Math.Max( zoom, 1.0f ); // Don't let zoom factor be less than 1.0f.

			/* 5) Final step, compute the center of the box. */

			float middleX = boxX + ( boxWidth / 2 );
			float middleY = boxY + ( boxHeight / 2 );
The priority is making sure that the camera can view every focus object.

Thanks. The code piece did not work at all first. The bounding box was always wrong, being way to large.

I checked it out and noticed two missing lines after the for-loop:


boxWidth = boxWidth - boxX;
boxHeight = boxHeight - boxY;

That fixes the bounding box. However, the results are almost identical to the previous code. The bug showed in the video still occurs.

I am suspecting boxWidth > boxHeight is not enough, but dunno.

Thanks. The code piece did not work at all first. The bounding box was always wrong, being way to large.
I checked it out and noticed two missing lines after the for-loop:

boxWidth = boxWidth - boxX;
boxHeight = boxHeight - boxY;
That makes sense.

I would test some more by turning off all sorts of camera constraining being used (such as the one on step no. 3). This should have the camera centering the characters freely right at the start of gameplay.

According to the LibGDX source, the zoom feature of the orthographic camera is linear, it just multiplies the viewport dimensions when setting up the projection:
https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/blob/master/gdx/src/com/badlogic/gdx/graphics/OrthographicCamera.java#L56

This means that the zoom logic is most likely correct.

I tried removing some code, such as padding and camera camera constraining. No luck.

However, I added some debug code after the zoom is set:


if(isKeyPressed(Keys.E))	
	zoom = boxHeight / stage.visibleHeight;

So basically, I pressed 'E' every time the zoom messed up and it was corrected every time. So I am fairly sure that the if-statement boxWidth > boxHeight is the issue.

Not sure how to resolve it though.

Alright, try adding the padding and the size constraint back (making everything as it should be), but change that zoom comparison to this:

if ( (float)( boxWidth / boxHeight ) > (float)( stage.visibleWidth / stage.visibleHeight ) )

Tried that among a bunch of other conditions. Wont work :(

EDIT: Actually, the code snippet posted above by Kryzon works fine, thanks again for all the help.

The problem was in the casting. For example, (float)( stage.visibleWidth / stage.visibleHeight), these are two ints that are divided. The results, which is also an int, is then casted to a float, which is wrong.

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