Sidescroller camera tracks player X but with a fixed Z, stutters when jumping/falling.

[kenmorechalfant]

So I have a sidescrolling platformer and I’m trying to implement a camera system.

To start out, I’m just trying to implement what this gamasutra article calls “dual forward focus”, which is a common camera system as seen in Donkey Kong Country, for example.

Player direction changes switch camera focus to enable wide forward view

Currently I am putting the camera logic in a PlayerCameraManager blueprint. Is this the correct place to put this kind of logic? Or should it go on the Character/Pawn itself?

So in my PlayerCameraManager I get the camera and set it’s X value (horizontal) to the Character’s current X value and the Y and Z axes are set to static numbers. Therefore the Z height of the camera should not change.
However, whenever my player jumps or falls the camera stutters vertically.

Can anyone tell me how to fix this or point me in the right direction?

Video:

- YouTube

Here is my PlayerCameraManager blueprint:

Character blueprint:

[tyoc213]

Thanks for the share on the camera article!

I will try to make the normal spring arm and do a sublass of it if possible to try to control the camera handling