CameraOperator

CameraOperator moves a Unity camera smoothly around a target.

It keeps the target in view, follows terrain, and avoids obstacles. The host application owns the camera and decides when to move it to a new position.

What it does

• After each Reposition call, follows the target from the requested world direction and distance.
• Aims at a configurable height on the target.
• Smooths movement, acceleration, and braking.
• Follows terrain and avoids obstacles.
• Reloads valid config.yaml changes while running.

Host responsibilities

The host application acts as the director. It is expected to:

• create and own the camera;
• decide whether to show this camera or the gameplay camera;
• choose a CameraPlacement, turn it into a world position, and call Reposition for each new view;
• decide how long each view lasts and when to switch to another one;
• start and stop video recording when needed.

CameraOperator only moves and aims the camera between reposition requests.

Placements

CameraPlacement provides six named choices for a host director:

• Front, Left, and Right;
• FrontTop, LeftTop, and RightTop for elevated views.

The host decides which placements are allowed. It may use top_height from config.yaml as the extra elevation for the three Top placements.

Create an operator

using CameraOperator;
using UnityEngine;

CameraWorld world = new CameraWorld
{
    GroundHeight = position => GetGroundHeight(position),
    IgnoreObstacle = collider => collider.isTrigger,
    IsActor = collider => collider.CompareTag("Player"),
    LogDebug = Debug.Log,
    LogInfo = Debug.Log,
    LogWarning = Debug.LogWarning
};

CameraOperatorController cameraOperator = new CameraOperatorController(
    camera, player, configPath, world);

Update the camera

Call Update after the target has moved:

private void LateUpdate()
{
    cameraOperator.Update(playerVelocity, playerMaximumSpeed);
}

Start from a new position

Use Reposition when another system chooses a new camera position:

CameraPlacement placement = CameraPlacement.LeftTop;
Vector3 newPosition = CalculatePosition(
    placement, player.transform.position);

cameraOperator.Reposition(newPosition, playerVelocity);

Here, placement records the director's choice and newPosition is the world position calculated for it. CameraOperator then follows the target from this new direction and distance.

Use DirectionFromTarget when the host director needs to compare a proposed view with the camera's current horizontal direction:

Vector3 currentDirection = cameraOperator.DirectionFromTarget;

Clean up

cameraOperator.Dispose();

CameraOperator does not destroy the camera or target.

Configuration

Pass the path to config.yaml when creating the operator. If the file is missing, CameraOperator creates it with default values.

The file controls placement, aiming, movement, terrain following, obstacle avoidance, and recovery behavior.