Static camera

[toneddu2000]

Hy guys, I just searched a bit in the forum but I didn't find anything usable(except some Nahuel's tests). I'd like to create a very simple camera fixed. Stop. You start the game and the camera stands still. That's it. I just need ONE camera (not the player camera AND this camera).
Is it possible?
thx

[Spike]

main problem is that you cannot lock the camera down without removing the player's ability to move.
set the player to MOVETYPE_NONE, stuff their m_yaw, m_pitch, cl_yawspeed, cl_pitchspeed cvars to 0, then they cannot change the direction they are looking unless they really try.
setorigin the player where you want the camera, set the player's angles to how you want them to be looking, and set fixangle = TRUE.
you have now turned the player into a static camera.

cons: you changed their cvars. people hate it if you do this, especially on public servers as it can leave cvars with bad values. people with non-default preferences will be annoyed if your mod switches between static camera mode and first-person (even if on different maps, as you will need to restore cvars to some value which is likely to be the default).
cons: the player cannot move nor turn. you're limited to just attack/jump/impulses as inputs from the player.


csqc can do a static camera easily enough. its actually just two calls different from a normal mod (assuming you know the origin/angles to use, those two values of course are what constitute those two calls). This method does not have either of the two cons I mentioned above, but would require csqc and all the compatibility issues that come with it.

[toneddu2000]

[Nahuel]

ssqc cameras are very problematic I will try a csqc camera, if i can do it i will release the code

[Spike]

[dreadlorde]

Did you look at the camera code from custents?

[Nahuel]

[Nahuel]

[toneddu2000]

[Spike]

you think I actually tested it? or even compiled it?
the builtin+constant names come from csqctest, rather than the DP-specific bare stuff, hence why you don't need those other pointless functions.

remove the MASK_ENGINEVIEWMODEL and you'll get rid of the view model.

regarding the player ent, I forgot about that, sorry. There are three possibilities, one is svc_setview so the client hides a different ent, the second is sending the player via csqc, and the third is an ssqc-based clone of the ent (movetype_follow jobbie with drawonlytoclient set).

[Nahuel]

[toneddu2000]

Thanks to you both! Nahuel's version works perfectly

[Spike]

I generally don't recommend sending the player via csqc unless you want to go fully into csqc. Its quite involved if you want to do it properly - doing so basically means you can't automatically utilize any engine-based prediction - this is especially true with DP right now.
csqctest (a mod you can find on fte's svn) does feature prediction, but still uses an engine builtin to do it, one which DP does not implement (its a stub, so will not crash, but won't work either).
That said, if you set the player's SendEntity field _only_ when the cam is meant to be active, you can still benefit from dp's cl_movement cvar when its not active (which is the only time when you actually can, anyway). However, this can result in the view position snapping to '0 0 0' or so if your network is saturated.

the svc_setview option is basically two lines and will still work in every engine that supports csqc, even that hacked-up winquake version. As far as I am aware, even when saturated, DP will not split the svc_setview and the stuffcmds across packets so there is no possibility of weird view positions at all.

[Nahuel]

[Nahuel]