God game camera style

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
1

Well hello,

I’m completely new to the Unreal Engine. I played with UDK before but i found it very hard to suit it to the needs of my favorite game genres (RTS, tycoon, god / simulation). It is possible though, i know that :).
Anyway, because i’m learning (i’m a noob) i just want to post a blueprint i made and i hope for some feedback. I want to be on the right track. You can implement everything in many different ways but i want to find the most efficient way. This is what i did:

I created a blank project.
In there i created 3 blueprints:

  • RTS_GameMode extends from GameMode
  • RTS_PlayerController extends from PlayerController
  • RTS_Pawn extends from DefaultPawn

I just tweaked the GameMode blueprint so it loads the PlayerController and Pawn.
I edited the Input settings of the project to allow moving around and stuff. Nothing fancy yet.

Now, inside the RTS_Pawn Blueprint added 2 components: A springarm and a camera attached to it.

I wanted a middlemouse click modifier before the camera is set able to pitch and yaw.
I want to know if this scheme is ok. I added 2 sequence after the middle mouse button click event so the game wouldnt have to check for middle mouse clicks twice. I don’t know if this is the right way.

The scheme allows the user to look around the pawn (with a arm length (springarm) of 300.0f).

One more thing: This is working because i enabled “Use Controller View Rotation” inside the CameraBoom component ‘camera settings’. But i want the camera to be up and angled towards the pawn at the start of the game. Just like in a normal RTS game. Anyone has a clue on how to do that without losing the controller view rotation? I need that to let the user move around and the camera to yaw around the pawn. If i turn it off moving around is screwed up… I can’t turn it off. But when it is on, the camera is reset just behind the pawn.

2

If you are creating a strategy game (click here) like Age Of Empires or Rise Of Legends then the current camera setup you have wont work. What i did is i have a separate Camera Blueprint that i view through which has WASD movement and rotation in Tick event and i set the variables through PlayerController Blueprint class.

3

Yes it’s a city builder game.

So essentially you made a ‘look at target’ camera? The camera always looks at the target (pawn) no matter what position it is in the real world?
I wonder how to archive such result in Blueprint. I know there is a ‘find look at rotation’ math function in Blueprint.

4

I did a tutorial for an RTS style camera move (with edge scrolling) Check it out here: RTS Style Camera Movement

I believe it might be what your looking for. The controls can easily be changed and doesn’t use the player rotation but still allows you to pivot around a central point. If there’s any bits you would like me to explain some more let me know. :slight_smile:

5

Thank you, i will take a look at it.