Cameras - Game Programming Algorithms and Techniques - page 190

Figure 8.1 Top-down view of a sample scene, and where fixed cameras might be
placed.
Whereas the designer might see a fixed camera as an opportunity to create tension,
some players find the lack of camera control frustrating. This is perhaps one of
the reasons why the modern iterations of the Resident Evil series have abandoned
a fixed-camera system for more dynamic ones. Some modern games use camer-
as where the player still does not have any control, but the camera dynamically
moves as the player moves through the level. One series that uses this type of sys-
tem is God of War .
A detailed implementation of a fixed-camera system is not covered in this topic,
but it is one of the easier types of cameras to implement. One possible approach
would be to have a list of convex polygons that correspond to a particular camera
location. Then, as the player moves, the camera system could check which convex
polygon the player is in (using the point in polygon algorithm covered in Chapter
7 , “ Physics ”) and select the camera that's associated with said convex polygon.
First-person Camera
A first-person camera is one that is designed to give the perspective of the player
character moving through the world, as in Figure 8.2 . Because the camera is from
the character's perspective, first-person camera is often referred to as the most im-
mersive type of game camera. First-person cameras are very popular for the ap-
propriately named first-person shooter, but they also see use in other games such
as Skyrim .