Playback and paths

"Ten seconds is a long shot. Ten seconds is also nothing. Both are true and only one is useful." — Holorecordist Ban Sethi
Verified

Once a track has 2 or more waypoints you can fly the camera along it, cut between the waypoints, or choose how the move curves.

Like every /camera command, playback needs the director's chair first, whatever your admin rank.

What it does

Playback moves everyone's view along the track from waypoint 1 to the last one. A cycle cuts between the waypoints instead of moving. A path style changes the shape of the curve between waypoints without touching the waypoints themselves.

Each track remembers its own duration. A new track starts at 10 seconds.

Playing a track

An explicit secs argument rewrites the track's stored duration for good. /camera play 1 4 does not play the track once at 4 seconds. It makes 4 seconds the track's duration from then on, and flight boxes bound to that track inherit the new value. Leave secs off to play at whatever the track already holds.

Add linear to move at a constant speed rather than easing in and out. It works with or without a duration, so /camera play linear and /camera play 8 linear are both valid:

Durations are clamped to 1 to 600 seconds. A track with fewer than 2 waypoints is refused:

Every connected player owes a report when the flight ends. Once the last one is in, you get a line confirming the room is back in their own bodies:

Testing a shot privately

/camera test takes exactly the same arguments as play but runs for you alone. It prints no reply, and it shields you from any camera box you cross while the flight is running.

/camera test [track] [secs] [linear]

An explicit secs on a test overwrites the track duration in the same way a play does. A rehearsal at a different length is not free.

Cycling through waypoints

A cycle holds each waypoint for a fixed time, then cuts to the next and loops. It is the shot for a holding pattern while you set something up.

Seconds default to 5 and clamp to 1 to 600. A cycle needs 2 waypoints as well:

The seconds you give a cycle are not stored on the track, unlike the ones you give a play.

Path styles

A path style decides how the camera curves between waypoints. It is set per track and shows up live in your preview.

There are 4 accepted names for 3 curves:

  • standard runs a curve through every waypoint exactly, which suits a move that must hit its marks
  • catmull is an accepted alias for standard
  • smooth rounds the corners off, so the camera drifts past a waypoint rather than through it
  • straight joins the waypoints with straight lines and turns hard at each one

path is one of the commands that can leave the track out, because a style name is never a number:

Give an unrecognised style and the reply tells you what the track is set to now:

Stopping

/camera stop releases everybody from a flight, a cycle or a locked still, and prints nothing.

/camera stop

Camera boxes stay armed through a stop, so anyone standing in one is picked up again on the next frame. Use /camera boxes off or /camera removebox to disarm them.

Things to note

  • An explicit secs on play or test is permanent. Both rewrite the track's stored duration, and no reply says the duration was stored.
  • play and test can omit the track, still and remove cannot. See tracks and waypoints for the full rule.
  • Field of view comes from each waypoint, not from playback. A track built at one Client-side. Sets how wide your view is. The camera copies it when a waypoint is placed. and half-rebuilt at another will zoom mid-shot. Rebuild the waypoints to fix it.
  • A cycle never ends on its own. It loops until you stop it.
  • Starting a still or a cycle cancels a flight in progress. The completion tally is dropped with it, so the "all players have completed" line never arrives.
  • Bots never report back. They are left out of the tally rather than stalling it.
  • A player with sf_killcamera 1 sits the whole thing out. They still report as done, so the tally completes and you are told nothing.

Next

  • Camera boxes: fire these shots automatically when someone walks into a space
  • Tracks and waypoints: rebuild a waypoint when a shot needs reframing
  • The ESC menu: FILM MODE, a spectator's personal gimbal and dolly for hand-flown shots