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DramaticShapeVoxelMod/lib/BattleCam.lua
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2026-08-03 17:09:03 -04:00

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Lua

-- Overworld battles: the over-the-shoulder camera and its parallax drift.
--
-- The two mons are PINNED to their cells: each pic is drawn wherever its
-- patch of ground projects to, not at a fixed screen slot. So the camera is
-- not decoration -- it is the thing that decides where the fight appears,
-- and it has to put those two patches of ground exactly where the battle
-- screen wants its two pics:
--
-- the player's mon (26, 96) back pic, feet on the text box, well left
-- the enemy's mon (124, 56) front pic, bottom of the 7x7 slot
--
-- Four screen coordinates, so four equations. The rig below is the solution:
-- SIDE / BACK / HEIGHT place the eye relative to the arena's midpoint, LOOK
-- aims it, and FRAME_H sets the lens, and together they land both marks
-- within a thousandth of a pixel of the targets. They are not hand-picked
-- numbers that looked about right -- they came out of a solver, and the
-- suite reprojects them so a future edit either still lands or says so.
--
-- East is what decides which mon is on which side. The arena axis runs north
-- (the enemy) to south (the player's mon), and a camera east of that axis
-- sees the near end swing LEFT and the far end RIGHT -- the layout arrived
-- at by standing in the right place rather than by mirroring anything.
--
-- ------- and two more equations, from the pixels
--
-- The pics are pixel art and their size on screen is not something the mod
-- gets to choose: 56 pixels for a front pic, 64 for a back one. And a mon has
-- to stand in ONE OVERWORLD SQUARE, or it towers over the houses and gives
-- away that the world behind it is a picture. Together those say the square
-- each mon stands on must project to about the width of its own pic, which is
-- two more equations for the same six unknowns -- and they are what set the
-- distance.
--
-- The answer is a LONG LENS FROM A LOW STANCE: twelve degrees above the
-- floor, twelve degrees wide, from five blocks back. Not a stylistic choice
-- -- it is what a 56-pixel sprite standing on a 16-pixel tile forces on a
-- 160-pixel screen. Roughly three tiles fit across the frame, so the camera
-- has to be far away and zoomed in rather than near and wide. That is the
-- DEFAULT rig, and every map that can take it gets it.
--
-- ------- the exception: rooms too small to stand back from
--
-- Five blocks back is further than some rooms are wide. A gym is about ten
-- cells across, so on one the eye lands OUTSIDE the map, where the border
-- ring the engine draws round every map -- extruded into a cliff by this mode
-- -- crosses the near Pokemon wherever it stands. Three gyms could not be
-- staged anywhere at all for that reason.
--
-- So there is a second rig, and an arena asks for it by name (cam = "wide"
-- in data/battle_arenas.lua). It comes in to about four cells with the lens
-- opened up to match: an ordinary 44-degree shot that fits inside the room.
-- The mons render smaller for it -- a bit over half a tile rather than a
-- whole one -- which is the price. Both rigs are solved against the SAME four
-- anchors, so the composition is identical either way; only the lens and the
-- distance differ, which is what makes it safe to pick per map.
--
-- Rooms too small for the long lens are the reason it exists, but it is not
-- only for them: an area that simply reads better with more of itself in
-- shot can ask for it too.
--
-- Purely presentational, like everything else in this mod: the camera looks
-- at the map, and nothing it does reaches collision, movement or scripts.
-- the mod namespace (see main.lua): V.require loads a sibling module
local V = ...
local BattleCam = {}
-- ------- the rig, in world pixels (a map cell is 16, a block 32)
--
-- Solved against the four anchors and two spans above, with the two mons 48
-- world pixels (three cells) apart -- BattleArena.SHAPES is where that gap is
-- set, and changing it invalidates these.
-- `frameH` is how much world the frame is tall enough to hold at the aim
-- distance, which together with that distance is the lens.
-- Named for the LENS, because that is what an author is choosing between
-- when they look at a shot and decide it wants more room in it.
BattleCam.RIGS = {
-- the default: a long 11.5-degree lens from five blocks back, which is
-- what makes one tile big enough to stand a 56-pixel mon on
tele = {
side = 78.79, back = 144.96, height = 37.88,
lookX = -0.26, lookY = 0.34, frameH = 34.11,
},
-- 44 degrees from four cells: fits inside a room the long lens cannot
-- stand back from, and shows more of anywhere else, at the cost of a
-- smaller pair
wide = {
side = 41.98, back = 41.16, height = 28.48,
lookX = -3.24, lookY = -1.35, frameH = 55.62,
},
}
BattleCam.DEFAULT_RIG = "tele"
-- The rig an arena asks for, falling back to the default for anything that
-- does not ask (and for a name that is not one of the two).
function BattleCam.rigFor(arena)
local want = arena and arena.cam
return BattleCam.RIGS[want] or BattleCam.RIGS[BattleCam.DEFAULT_RIG]
end
-- ------- the drift
--
-- A slow orbit about the arena's vertical axis. Rotating about a point
-- BETWEEN the two mons is what makes it parallax rather than a pan: the mons
-- are pinned to the ground, so the near one slides one way across the frame
-- and the far one slides the OTHER, by the amount their difference in
-- distance implies. Over a full swing that is about eight pixels of relative
-- movement -- plainly visible as depth, far too slow to fight the fight.
-- The angle is small because the lens is long: two degrees of orbit is seven
-- pixels of travel through an eleven-degree field of view.
--
-- Under it, a much smaller breath in and out along the same line, on an
-- unrelated period, so the pair never returns to the same pose on any cycle
-- a battle is long enough to show. A DOLLY rather than a pan of the aim:
-- moving the aim point would slide both mons the same way, which with pinned
-- pics is just the whole picture walking sideways. Changing the DISTANCE
-- moves them apart and back together about the frame's centre, which is the
-- same depth cue the orbit gives, from the other axis.
BattleCam.PAN_YAW = math.rad(2) -- half-angle of the orbit
BattleCam.PAN_PERIOD = 26 -- seconds for one there-and-back
BattleCam.PAN_DOLLY = 0.02 -- how far the eye breathes, as a fraction
BattleCam.DOLLY_PERIOD = 37
-- ------- the player's own orbit
--
-- The drift above is the shot breathing. THIS is the player steering it:
-- a right stick, a drag across the screen or the mouse walks the eye
-- around the arena's axis, and it stops at both ends.
--
-- 0 is the shot the rig was solved for and the LEFT stop, because there is
-- nothing to the left of it -- the composition below is what the whole
-- module exists to land, and past it the two mons start swapping sides.
--
-- 1 is SIDE-ON: the eye swung round until it is square to the arena's
-- north-south axis, where the two mons stand at the same distance instead
-- of one behind the other. That is as far as the picture stays a battle
-- rather than a diorama with two Pokemon in it, and it is a different angle
-- for each rig -- the tele lens starts 28 degrees off the axis and the wide
-- one 45 -- so the stop is COMPUTED from the rig rather than written down,
-- and retuning either moves its own stop with it.
--
-- The input is deliberately not 1:1 with the pixels: it accumulates into
-- `orbitGoal` and the live angle eases after it, so a flick reads as the
-- camera being pushed rather than as the camera being dragged.
BattleCam.ORBIT_TIME = 0.22 -- seconds for the eye to catch its goal
BattleCam.ORBIT_DRAG = 1.15 -- fraction of the range per screen width
BattleCam.ORBIT_STICK = 0.9 -- fraction of the range per second, full tilt
BattleCam.ORBIT_MOUSE = 0.0011 -- fraction of the range per mouse count
BattleCam.STICK_DEAD = 0.2
-- ------- and the player's own zoom
--
-- How much world the frame holds, as a multiple of the rig's own frameH:
-- BELOW one is zoomed in. It has to be the LENS rather than the distance,
-- because the rig derives its field of view from frameH and the distance
-- together -- so moving the eye alone changes the perspective and not the
-- framing, which is exactly what the dolly breath above is for.
BattleCam.ZOOM_MIN = 0.45 -- the pair filling the frame
BattleCam.ZOOM_MAX = 2.0 -- the fight in its own landscape
BattleCam.ZOOM_STEP = 1.15
BattleCam.ZOOM_TIME = 0.18
BattleCam.orbit = 0
BattleCam.orbitGoal = 0
BattleCam.zoom = 1
BattleCam.zoomGoal = 1
-- Hold the rig perfectly still (VR sets this while a session runs). The
-- drift exists to give a FLAT screen the depth cue the picture cannot
-- have; a headset gets real parallax from the player's own head, and a
-- picture that sways on its own inside VR reads as the world lurching --
-- on the floating panel especially, where the battle screen is watched
-- from a fixed seat.
BattleCam.still = false
BattleCam.t = 0
-- Every fight opens on the shot the rig was solved for: the orbit and the
-- zoom are a way of LOOKING at this battle, not a preference carried into
-- the next one, and a player who left the camera side-on an hour ago should
-- not have the next encounter open there.
function BattleCam.reset()
BattleCam.t = 0
BattleCam.orbit, BattleCam.orbitGoal = 0, 0
BattleCam.zoom, BattleCam.zoomGoal = 1, 1
end
-- How far the eye may swing, in radians, before it is square to the arena's
-- axis. The rig's own stance decides it: `side` and `back` are the offset
-- it starts at, so the bearing it starts on is atan2(side, back) and what
-- is left to a quarter turn is the room the player has.
function BattleCam.orbitRange(arena)
local R = BattleCam.rigFor(arena)
return math.max(0, math.pi / 2 - math.atan2(R.side, R.back))
end
-- ------- what the player's inputs reach
--
-- All four take a signed amount and clamp; positive is RIGHTWARD, toward
-- the side-on stop. Returning whether the goal actually moved lets a
-- caller tell "steered" from "already against the stop".
local function setOrbit(goal)
local was = BattleCam.orbitGoal
BattleCam.orbitGoal = math.max(0, math.min(1, goal))
return BattleCam.orbitGoal ~= was
end
-- A drag, in fractions of the screen's width.
function BattleCam.dragOrbit(fraction)
return setOrbit(BattleCam.orbitGoal + (fraction or 0) * BattleCam.ORBIT_DRAG)
end
-- Relative mouse motion, in counts.
function BattleCam.mouseOrbit(dx)
return setOrbit(BattleCam.orbitGoal + (dx or 0) * BattleCam.ORBIT_MOUSE)
end
-- A stick held for `dt` seconds, as a rate with a squared response -- the
-- first half of the throw aims and the rest travels, the same curve the
-- free-roam look uses.
function BattleCam.stickOrbit(x, dt)
local a = math.abs(x or 0)
if a < BattleCam.STICK_DEAD then return false end
a = (a - BattleCam.STICK_DEAD) / (1 - BattleCam.STICK_DEAD)
local v = ((x < 0) and -1 or 1) * a * a
return setOrbit(BattleCam.orbitGoal
+ v * BattleCam.ORBIT_STICK * (dt or 0))
end
-- The zoom, in notches (positive pulls OUT, like every other zoom here).
function BattleCam.stepZoom(notches)
local was = BattleCam.zoomGoal
BattleCam.zoomGoal = math.max(BattleCam.ZOOM_MIN,
math.min(BattleCam.ZOOM_MAX,
was * (BattleCam.ZOOM_STEP ^ (notches or 0))))
return BattleCam.zoomGoal ~= was
end
-- How much world the frame holds right now: the rig's own reach at the
-- player's zoom. The sun's box is fitted to this too, so a zoomed shot
-- lights exactly the ground it shows.
function BattleCam.frameH(arena)
return BattleCam.rigFor(arena).frameH * BattleCam.zoom
end
local function chase(now, goal, dt, time)
if now == goal then return goal end
local v = now + (goal - now) * math.min(1, (dt or 0) / time)
return (math.abs(goal - v) < 1e-4) and goal or v
end
-- Real frame time, like every other presentational tween in this mod: a
-- fast-forwarded battle must not spin the camera.
function BattleCam.update(dt)
BattleCam.t = BattleCam.t + (dt or 0)
-- keep the phase small forever rather than letting a long session lose
-- float precision in the sines below
local wrap = BattleCam.PAN_PERIOD * BattleCam.DOLLY_PERIOD
if BattleCam.t > wrap then BattleCam.t = BattleCam.t - wrap end
-- and the steered pair easing after whatever the player last asked for,
-- which is what keeps a flick of the stick from being a cut
BattleCam.orbit = chase(BattleCam.orbit, BattleCam.orbitGoal, dt,
BattleCam.ORBIT_TIME)
BattleCam.zoom = chase(BattleCam.zoom, BattleCam.zoomGoal, dt,
BattleCam.ZOOM_TIME)
end
local function phase(t, period)
return math.sin(2 * math.pi * t / period)
end
-- The camera for `arena` this instant: the record Voxel3D.camera takes, plus
-- the pitch the pull and the sun frustum want (measured from straight down,
-- the same convention Voxel.angle uses).
--
-- `fov` here frames the GB's 160x144. A caller rendering at window
-- resolution widens it for the extra picture around that frame -- see
-- BattleScene.letterboxFov, which is what keeps the pins exact at any window
-- size.
--
-- `groundY` is the height of the arena floor, so a fight staged on a ledge
-- or a raised walkway is shot from above THAT rather than from inside it.
-- `canonical` asks for the shot the rig was SOLVED for -- no drift, no
-- breath, no steer, no zoom -- from a caller that is reasoning about the
-- arena rather than drawing it. BattleArena's clearance test is the one
-- that needs it: whether a fight can be staged somewhere is a fact about
-- the ground, and answering it through whatever angle the player happened
-- to leave the last battle on would pick a different arena depending on
-- where they had swung the camera an hour ago.
function BattleCam.rig(arena, groundY, canonical)
groundY = groundY or 0
local R = BattleCam.rigFor(arena)
local mx, mz = arena.mid[1], arena.mid[2]
-- VR asks for the same stillness for its own reason (see BattleCam.still)
local fixed = BattleCam.still or canonical
-- The drift, plus wherever the player has steered to. The steer is
-- NEGATIVE because the rotation below runs the other way from the bearing
-- it turns: rotating (side, back) by +yaw carries the eye back toward the
-- arena's own axis, and the room the player has is all on the far side of
-- that -- out toward square-on. (orbitRange measures exactly that room.)
local steer = fixed and 0 or -BattleCam.orbit * BattleCam.orbitRange(arena)
local yaw = steer + (fixed and 0
or BattleCam.PAN_YAW * phase(BattleCam.t, BattleCam.PAN_PERIOD))
local c, s = math.cos(yaw), math.sin(yaw)
-- the breath scales the whole offset, height included, so the eye moves
-- along its own line to the arena and the pitch of the shot never changes
local k = fixed and 1
or 1 + BattleCam.PAN_DOLLY
* phase(BattleCam.t, BattleCam.DOLLY_PERIOD)
local dx = (R.side * c - R.back * s) * k
local dz = (R.side * s + R.back * c) * k
local eye = { mx + dx, groundY + R.height * k, mz + dz }
local focus = { mx + R.lookX, groundY + R.lookY, mz }
local ex = eye[1] - focus[1]
local ey = eye[2] - focus[2]
local ez = eye[3] - focus[3]
local dist = math.max(1, math.sqrt(ex * ex + ey * ey + ez * ez))
local horiz = math.sqrt(ex * ex + ez * ez)
-- The lens carries the player's zoom: how much world the frame holds is
-- the one thing that actually changes the framing here, because the field
-- of view is DERIVED from that reach and the distance. Moving the eye
-- instead would leave the picture the same size and only change its
-- perspective -- which is what the dolly breath above is deliberately
-- for, and is not what "zoom" means to anyone holding a wheel.
local frameH = fixed and R.frameH or BattleCam.frameH(arena)
return {
eye = eye,
focus = focus,
fov = 2 * math.atan((frameH / 2) / dist),
-- the world curve is a free-roam flourish that bends the horizon away
-- from the player; a fixed camera on a staged shot has no player to bend
-- around, and the bend would tip the arena floor out from under the mons
-- the pics are pinned to
curve = 0,
}, math.atan2(horiz, math.max(1e-3, ey))
end
return BattleCam