(Unity 4) Moving the camera - 03 - Roll-a-ball - Unity Official Tutorials

The camera doesn't move and from it's current position

cannot see very much.

We need to tie the camera to the player game object.

First let's set the position of the camera.

Let's lift it up by 10 units and tilt it

down by about 45 degrees.

Next let's make the camera a child of the

player game object.

This is a typical third-person setup,

with the camera as a child of the player

when we move the player's position

the camera moves with it.

When the player rotates the camera rotates as well.

Let's look at this from a position where we

can see both the player and the camera game object

Move the player,

rotate the player,

the child camera moves with it.

Now let's reset the player and test.

We enter play move, hold down the up arrow to move,

Whoa what's happening here?

Okay, well as the camera is a child of the

player's sphere, even thought the camera is not

moving at all relative to the player's game object,

the player game object is rotating like crazy

so the camera's point of view rotates with it.

Let's exit play mode.

Unlike a normal third-person game

our player game object is rotating on all 3 axis

not just 1.

In a typical third-person setup

the camera as a child of the player game object

will always be in a position relative

to it's immediate parent

and this position will be the parent's

position in the game, modified or offset by

any values in the child's transform.

We can't have the camera as a child of

the player, so let's detach it.

Our offset value will be the difference

between the player game object and the camera.

As the player game object is just above origin

or just above (0, 0, 0).

For simplicity in this assignment we will use

the camera's transform position value

as the offset value.

This is because the camera's position is based on

the distance from origin, which is very close

to that of the player game object.

Now we need to associate the camera with

the player game object, not as a child

but with a script.

Using the Add Component button choose New Script.

We are writing in C#

and name the script CameraController

and then click on Create and Add

or simply hit the return or enter key

to confirm our selection.

We should note, this way of creating a script

will create that script asset on

the root or top level of our project view.

File CameraController in the scripts folder

and open it for editing.

We need 2 variables here.

A public game object reference to the player

and a private vector3 to hold our offset value.

Offset is private because we can

set that value here in the script.

For our offset value we will use the

camera's current transform position.

So in start we can make offset equal transform position.

And then every frame we set our

transform position to the player's transform position

pus the offset.

However, update is not the best place for this code.

For follow cameras, procedural animation,

and gathering last known states

it's best to use LateUpdate.

So let's test this. Let's save our script

and return to Unity.

First we need to create a reference to the

player game object by dragging the player

game object in to the Player slot

in the camera controller's component.

Enter play mode

and now we get the behaviour we want.

The camera follows the rolling ball

without rotating

even as the ball goes over the edge.

In the next assignment we will setup the basic

play area and create and place our

special pick-up objects.