Orbiting Camera Strange Collision Detection

[pschlik]

Something that's been bugging me for a while is the awkward way in which the orbiting camera collides with surrounding objects. As far as I can tell, the camera seems to calculate collision in a line that extends from the center of the locomotive to the actual camera location. If it decides anything along this line should have collision, then the camera suddenly zooms in to "avoid" colliding with that object...even if the camera itself was actually zoomed out far enough to not directly collide with said object. This is most obvious on freight trains, where the camera 'line' processes collisions with the freight wagons, resulting in this happening at many camera angles:

If it's not clear what's going on there, the camera has zoomed in very very close to the locomotive to avoid colliding with the freight wagons. Previously I was zoomed out the maximum distance and just panning the camera around. This happens all the time and is both jarring and obnoxious. Similar things happen for some (but not all) scenery objects, resulting in the camera jumping around when (for example) light poles pass between the train and the camera. The camera will be at the intended zoom level, then when the light pole crosses between the camera and the locomotive, the camera suddenly moves in front of the light pole, then suddenly returns to the previous zoom level once the light pole has passed. (The 'jumping' effect is so fast I worry this could trigger epilepsy in sensitive people).

To make the orbiting camera more enjoyable to use, I think it would help to change collision detection to only work at the camera location (as opposed to checking collision anywhere in between the locomotive and the camera) or to just turn off the camera collision on everything except the ground. I understand the desire to have collision detection on the camera, but what we have now is over zealous.

[Admin BOT]

Thank you for reporting this issue! Dziękujemy za zgłoszenie tego problemu! Internal Ticket \ Wewnętrzny ticket:

https://git.simkol.pl/simkol/unitysim-new/-/issues/1163

[Gazz292]

have you ever played the game tsw?  the orbiting camera in that is horrible, it will get stuck against pillars and station furniture, people walking along the platform bump into it and move it,

 

I personally like the way this camera moves in SimRail,  i like moving it behind the loco so it moves between the first coach and the rear of the loco, and then i can even move it so i can see the wheels... complete with the brake discs etc spinning as i'm driving along.

[pschlik]

I never use the orbiting camera in TSW (for largely the same reasons as my OP), I much prefer the flying camera (camera 3 in TSW) to any style of 'orbiting' camera. The 'drone' has collision that makes sense, gives more freedom for movement, and makes it generally easier to get the camera where you want it to be.

Now I've never been able to get the orbiting camera to stick to anything other than the locomotive-is there actually a way to change what it's attached to?