Populating the Game Environment - Unity for Absolute Beginners - page 314

In the OnTriggerEnter function below the if function, add
follow.distance = 1.15f; // change the SmoothFollow distance
follow.height = 0.5f; // change the SmoothFollow height

3.

In the OnTriggerExit function below the if function, add 4.

follow.distance = 2.8f; // revert the SmoothFollow distance
follow.height = 1.8f; // revert the SmoothFollow height

5. Save the script.

6. Select Common Wall 2's GardenGates object, and drag the Main Camera

onto the Follow parameter.

7. Click Play, and test the new functionality.

It's an improvement, but you would have more control if you could adjust the camera relative to how
close the gnome was to the gate. The closer the gnome is to the gateway, the closer to the gnome
the camera should be. While this solution also has some “gotchas,” it will give you a chance to try
another extremely useful bit of scripting, the Distance() function.

Comment out or delete the follow lines you added to the SensorDoors script
(including the variable declaration).

1.

2. Save the script.

3. Create a new C# Script in the Game Scripts, and name it DistanceDetector .
The Distance() function can use Vector2 , Vector3 , and Vector4 data to calculate distance. Vector2 is
(x,y), Vector3 is (x,y,z), and Vector4 is (x,y,z,w). Color, a 3 or 4 part struct , can be (r,g,b) or (r,g,b,a). For
the gateway, the Vector2 variety will give better results, as it can ignore the distance from the ground.

4. Just below the class declaration, add the following variables:

public Transform targetTransform; // the gnome's transform
public Transform theCamera; // the camera's transform
Vector2 source; // the gateway
Vector2 target; // the gnome
Using a Vector2 means you will have to assign the x and z values from the transform manually.

In the Start function, add the following:

5.

// assign the x and z position to the source var
source = new Vector2(transform.position.x,transform.position.z);
A Struct , or structure, is a value type that is typically used to encapsulate small groups of related
variables. To access the elements of the struct, one uses dot notation.

The target, the Gnomatic Garden Defender, because it may be moving, must be updated every
frame. To begin with, you will have the distance printed out in the console.