Overhead Camera

Ok, so we are getting close to having the basic mechanics worked out.  We will still have to do some tweeking to the physics and other behaviors, but that's ok!  The overhead cam is probably the biggest change we have made so far just because we have to tie it in to the other two cameras.

I also consolidated the code to hide/show the crosshairs into a function. Once we get the basic mechanics worked out, I am going to clean up the code a bit, so there may be some more consolidations.

Cleaning up the chase cam

 

 I really didn't like how sloppy my first chase cam was, but you have to start somewhere!  I cleaned things up a bit by relaxing the chase cam AI so that it didn't do much if the ball velocity falls below a certain threshold or the ball was within a certain range of the camera.  This is actually more in line with what I wanted originally when I imagined the chase cam.  I like that the camera stays put as the ball slowly rolls away at the end of the shot.

Matching the rotation of the ball to the camera and...Fire!

 Ok, so the next part is pretty easy, just match the rotation of the ball to the camera and launch the ball.  It doesn't really look as smooth as I would like it so I may change the chase cam code to be more stable.

Moving a camera with the mouse

Part of aiming the ball will be to move a camera in order to look at where you are aiming. I use the mouse controls to enable us to rotate the camera.

Chase cam - quick and dirty...very dirty

Yeah it's a bit rough, but you know, I've never found a polished stone sitting out in nature, so I think it's okay to start this way.  Also I had to do it in 2 parts because it was too long.  I think I will keep a stopwatch on hand from now on.

I'm contemplating ways to keep the walls out of the way and maybe I will try ray tracing.  If it hits a wall, move forward a bit--something to that effect.  You know, the really crappy thing about doing things this way is that I feel like everything I want to do I have to re-invent the wheel.  But that's also the great thing in a way...I feel like my brain is expanding every day!  On that note, I think I will start a new feature soon where I take the API functions I have used so far and expound on them based on what I have had to figure out.  We'll see....