Arma 3 Scripting

Camera Tutorial

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Basics

A cinematic camera is what is commonly known as a "cutscene"; the player's input are dismissed and events happen during the video.
A camera is local to the computer where the script has been called; one player could see a cutscene but still get killed by another player that didn't trigger the video.

How to

The list of all camera commands can be found in the Camera command group category.

Important

The "Prepare" version of camera commands has been introduced with Armed Assault. Using this set of commands helps the engine preloading the camera's (future) field of view (see also preloadCamera).
Operation Flashpoint only features the "Set" version of camera commands; use them instead (e.g camPreparePos becomes camSetPos, camCommitPrepared becomes camCommit, etc).
Only camCommitted is common to both syntaxes.

Create the camera

private _camera = "camera" camCreate getPosATL player;

Enter the camera

_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back"];

Select a target

Object target

_camera camPrepareTarget player; // a camera will automatically target the human target's face

Position target

_camera camPrepareTarget getPosATL player;

Place the camera

World position

_camera camPreparePos (player getRelPos [5, 0]);

Relative position

_camera camCommitPrepared 0; // required to apply the prepared target first - otherwise a long trip from [0,0,0] is to follow
_camera camPrepareRelPos [0,5,0];

Apply camera's Field of View

_camera camPrepareFOV 0.5; // standard FOV is 0.7; lesser (e.g 0.5) is zoomed in, greater (e.g 0.9) is zoomed out

Apply all the changes

Immediately or with transition

_camera camCommitPrepared 0; // 0 for immediate change, value in seconds for transition

With a loading timeout

_camera camPreload 3;    // since Armed Assault - instantly moves the camera once preload or timeout is done.
                        // tells the game to preload the future field of view. 3 here is a timeout, 0 for infinite timeout

Check that the commit happened

camCommitted _camera; // for camCommit/camCommitPrepared usage

camPreloaded _camera; // for camPreload usage

Leave the camera

_camera cameraEffect ["terminate", "back"];

Delete the camera

camDestroy _camera;

Specific cases

Full example

SQF Syntax SQS Syntax 
private _camera = "camera" camCreate [0, 0, 0];
_camera camPrepareTarget player;
_camera camCommitPrepared 0; // needed for relative position
_camera camPrepareRelPos [0, -5, 10];
_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back"];
_camera camCommitPrepared 0;
waitUntil { camCommitted _camera };
_camera camPrepareRelPos [90, 25, 8];
_camera camCommitPrepared 5;
waitUntil { camCommitted _camera };
_camera camPrepareRelPos [-90, -5, 5];
_camera camCommitPrepared 3;
waitUntil { camCommitted _camera };
sleep 3;
_camera cameraEffect ["terminate", "back"];
camDestroy _camera;
 
_camera = "camera" camCreate [0, 0, 0]
_camera camSetTarget player
_camera camSetRelPos [0, -5, 10]
_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back"]
_camera camCommit 0
@camCommitted _camera
_camera camSetRelPos [90, 25, 8]
_camera camCommit 5
@camCommitted _camera
_camera camSetRelPos [-90, -5, 5]
_camera camCommit 3
@camCommitted _camera
~3
_camera cameraEffect ["terminate", "back"]
camDestroy _camera

Picture-in-Picture

Create Source

The Picture-in-Picture (PiP) RTT (or R2T, Render to Texture) source can be defined at the Enter the camera step; instead of

_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back"];

use the following to create a PiP source - multiple sources can be

_camera cameraEffect ["internal", "back", "rttName"];

Configure PiP Effects

A camera effect is set using setPiPEffect as such:

"rttName" setPiPEffect [2]; // sets thermal imaging

Once all the configuration is done, the PiP texture can be accessed by referencing its name "rttName". For example:

if (!isPiPEnabled) exitWith { systemChat "PiP is not enabled in video options"; };

with uiNamespace do // or use disableSerialization
{
    private _ctrl = findDisplay 46 createDisplay "RscDisplayEmpty" ctrlCreate ["RscPicture", -1];
    _ctrl ctrlSetPosition [safeZoneW * 0.75, safeZoneY, safeZoneW * 0.25, safeZoneH * 0.25];
    _ctrl ctrlSetText "#(argb,512,512,1)r2t(rttName,1.0)";
    _ctrl ctrlCommit 0;
};

In order to stop the camera from "broadcasting", use

_camera cameraEffect ["terminate", "back", "rttName"];    // terminates "rttName" r2t source
_camera cameraEffect ["terminate", "back"];                // terminates all r2t source

The camera still exists until destroyed with camDestroy.

See also