How do cameras work in competitive levels?

[LittleBigDave]

I'm wondering how game cameras and movie cameras are handled in competitive online multiplayer, with players having independent camera views. It seems like this would have been asked and answered already, but I haven't found the answer yet.

I'm tinkering with a level where players would be playing in sackbots, and I'd like the players to be able to independently toggle between different camera angles. So if I have a camera wired up to player A's square button, and he presses square, will just his camera view change, or would player B's change as well? Does the answer depend on whether it's a game camera versus a controls-not-disabled movie camera?

If that method doesn't work, has anybody achieved this another way?

Thanks for any tips.

ps: If nobody has a solid answer, and somebody wants to experiment with me to see what happens, let me know!

[Aya042]

I'm wondering how game cameras and movie cameras are handled in competitive online multiplayer, with players having independent camera views...

Movie Cameras definately affect all players, but I'm not sure about Game Cameras - it's seems reasonable they'd allow you to have an independent view per player, but even with Player Tracking at zero, a Game Camera always tries to keep your sackperson on-screen, so you can't really use them to show areas beyond your location.

The typical workaround is to have no cameras, but just have each player in an invisible controlinator attached to an invisible piece of hologram, and just move that piece of hologram around with a mover.

It's possible you could combine this with activating one or more Game Cameras with a different view settings to default, Player Tracking at 100%, Input Action set to "Activation Scale" and be able to pan, tilt, dolly and zoom by arbitrary amounts at runtime.

Hmm - this gives me an idea for a new level.

[Deftmute]

they totally missed the boat as far as the potential cameras could have had.

[mutant_red_peas]

Game Cameras only usually work when you're in their radius.

Alot of people don't seem to know that. If you have it so the controllinator is invisible on an invisible piece of holo with a follower to make it follow the sackbot then when your sackbot is in the radius of a camera, you are too. You could just have 3 cameras on a sackbot and you can toggle between them.

One could be looking off left, one off right and one in the middle for your normal view.

[Antikris•]

As far as I know, game cameras follow individual players. I cannot say whether it depends on game mode (Coop vs. Versus) what happens to other players that walk out of sight and whether they will die. Probably not, but I can imagine something happening in Coop mode.

A game camera for two players on the same console works differently, though; the game will try to keep both players within sight (in Game Mode) by zooming out if the game camera does not offer enough room. The maximum zoom is influenced by the global zoom settings in your popit tools in Create Mode.

Game (and Movie!) cameras in local space behave very odd, by the way, if they are tilted in even the slightest way (and you have to set the hotzone on the camera when it is chipped instead of on the chip... what is up with that?!).

[LittleBigDave]

As far as I know, game cameras follow individual players. I cannot say whether it depends on game mode (Coop vs. Versus) what happens to other players that walk out of sight and whether they will die. Probably not, but I can imagine something happening in Coop mode.

Coop game cameras work the same way offline and online, in terms of keeping everybody in one view and killing people who stay off camera too long. The camera setup for competitive levels in lbp2 has been enhanced to allow different screen views for different players, but I don't really know the specifics of the mechanic of that, which is what prompted this question.

Game (and Movie!) cameras in local space behave very odd, by the way, if they are tilted in even the slightest way

The local space setting is meant to make the camera rotate along with whatever it is attached too. This works as it should for movie cameras but is currently wonky with game cameras - the view rotates in the opposite direction. That's been listed as a known bug on the wiki. Hopefully it will get patched.

[Aya042]

The camera setup for competitive levels in lbp2 has been enhanced to allow different screen views for different players, but I don't really know the specifics of the mechanic of that, which is what prompted this question.

There's some similar discussion in this thread which you might be interested in.