PhantomCam Configurations

A Phantom Camera’s behavior is the composition of one Body stage, one Aim stage, and zero-or-more Additive stages. The same GS_PhantomCameraComponent becomes a follow cam, an orbital cam, a tracking dolly, or a third-person shoulder cam depending on what is slotted from the editor’s type-picker.

Each recipe below names a Body pick, an Aim pick, and any Additive picks, plus the key field values that produce the target behavior. For the concept, the per-tick pipeline, and per-stage field references, see The Basics: Phantom Cameras and the Stage Pipeline API.

Contents

• Recipe: Third-Person Shoulder Cam
• Recipe: Orbital Player Cam
• Recipe: Static Orbit Showcase Cam
• Recipe: First-Person Clamped Look
• Recipe: Tracking Dolly
• Recipe: Group-Framing Cam
• See Also

Recipe: Third-Person Shoulder Cam

A camera that follows the player at standoff distance, holds position when the player is moving inside an authored band, and slides smoothly around to re-frame when the player travels in a new direction. The canonical leading-look feel.

Why this combination:

• LeadingFollowBody holds position inside its band — abrupt 180° turns by the player don’t swing the cam.
• DefaultLookAtAim smoothly tracks the player’s chest.
• CollisionReposition sphere-casts from the player to the cam and pushes the cam inside walls or geometry, gliding back out via the soft buffer when the player walks away.

Optional: Add PerlinNoise with a Normal_Mild.camnoiseprofile profile for a touch of handheld feel. See Camera Noise Configurations.

Recipe: Orbital Player Cam

A camera that orbits around the player driven by player input (right-stick or mouse). The current go-to for third-person action games.

Required companion: Add a GS_CameraInputReaderComponent to the same entity. It implements the OrbitInputProvider interface that DynamicOrbitBody polls each tick. Configure sensitivity (raw input scale) and halflife (input damping) on the reader.

Why this combination:

• DynamicOrbitBody holds target yaw and pitch angles internally; input integration nudges them each tick, and the orbital solver damps the cam’s position toward whatever the angles imply on the orbit surface.
• The .camorbit shape asset defines the surface (sphere, oblate spheroid, rounded box) — different shapes give different “feel” for the orbit motion.

Recipe: Static Orbit Showcase Cam

A camera locked to a fixed orbital pose around its target — no input, no movement. Useful for menu / inventory / character-detail screens. Replacement for the retired StaticOrbit_PhantomCamComponent.

No additives needed for the basic case.

Static via DynamicOrbitBody. You can also get a static orbit using DynamicOrbitBody by simply not adding a GS_CameraInputReaderComponent — without an input provider, target angles never change and the solver damps once, then holds. Use the dedicated OrbitBody when you want the explicit “this is a fixed shot” identity (and the inheritance Get-only behavior that comes with it).

Recipe: First-Person Clamped Look

A first-person camera whose look-at rotation is clamped within authored pitch and yaw bounds. Replacement for the retired ClampedLook_PhantomCamComponent.

ClampedLookAim captures a starting forward on first evaluation, and the envelope clamps relative to that origin. Setting LocalSpace = true keeps the clamp axes aligned with the cam’s starting orientation rather than world axes.

Recipe: Tracking Dolly

A camera that slides along a spline path while tracking a target. The “dolly track” cinematic shot. Replacement for the retired Track_PhantomCamComponent.

Authoring steps:

1. Add a SplineComponent to a separate entity. Author the spline shape in the editor (linear, bezier, etc.).
2. On your Phantom Camera entity:

TrackBody projects the target onto the spline at each tick and interpolates between StartData and EndData by spline parameter. If EndData.FieldOfView > 0, the cam’s FoV animates along the dolly too — useful for “zoom in as the cam reaches the climax point.”

Recipe: Group-Framing Cam

A camera that frames multiple subjects (e.g. all party members, all combatants in an encounter) using a Group Target.

Authoring steps:

1. Create a Group Target entity. Add GroupTargetComponent, give it a name (e.g. "PartyCentroid"), set its centroid mode (WeightedMean is the common choice), and add subjects with their weights. See Group Target Configurations for full subject-management patterns.
2. On your Phantom Camera entity:

The group target’s transform IS the weighted centroid of its subjects, so the cam tracks “where the group is” rather than any single member.

See Also

Related recipe collections:

• Camera Noise Configurations — adding shake to any of the above.
• Group Target Configurations — building the centroid target for the group-framing recipe.
• Camera Tug Configurations — adding magnetic spatial pulls to any of the above.

Basics this builds on:

• The Basics: Phantom Cameras — base component fields and lifecycle.
• The Basics: Blend Profiles — how transitions between cams are authored.

Framework API:

• Stage Pipeline
• Body Stage Variants
• Aim Stage Variants
• Additive Stage Variants