3rd person camera system - info/source/programmer

[ch...@rumburakhq.ping.de]

Hi.

I wonder if anyone has experience with developing a 3rd person camera-system
as it is being used in tomb raider, or someone knows where to find related
source code or other information. I searched for interesting material for
some time, but it seems that papers focusing on this subject are rare. If
anyone has done this already, or is working on it I would be very interested
in exchanging experience.

Papers or sites with any further information are also very welcome.

Thanks,
Carsten

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[Dean Wood]

I noticed that Gamasutra had an article about that:
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/programming/19980703/quaternions_01.htm
It appears to be a 'reprint' of an article from Game Developer.

I hope it helps.

Dean Wood
<b...@asu.edu>

[Christian Fleischer]

ch...@rumburakhq.ping.de wrote:
>
> Hi.
>
> I wonder if anyone has experience with developing a 3rd person camera-system
> as it is being used in tomb raider, or someone knows where to find related
> source code or other information. I searched for interesting material for
> some time, but it seems that papers focusing on this subject are rare. If
> anyone has done this already, or is working on it I would be very interested
> in exchanging experience.

Hello Carsten!

For my game engine
(http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~daydream/engine/main.htm) I use a very
simple algorithm: The player has a position and a point where he is
looking at. First I move the camera behind him (distance varies for a
smooth movement; it also sways from side to side). Then I turn it with
the help of the arctan-function so that the camera looks at the point
where the player is looking at (or an approaching enemy/interesting
object in later versions). In the end you have to roll the camera around
the viewing-axis. I use a third point above the player position for
this. After projecting it and the player position you can calculate the
angle again with the arctan function.
It works pretty well, although it gets a bit more complicated if the
camera collides with walls and you have to calculate a path to get
behind the player again... Haven`t done that.

Hope this helps,
Christian