SceneKit Following Camera

Question

I'm using ball as the main physics body of my player:

setup_Player () {

    playerGeometry = SCNSphere(radius: CGFloat(radius))
    playerGeometry.segmentCount = 64

    player = SCNNode(geometry: playerGeometry)
    player.geometry?.materials = [playerMaterial];
    player.position = SCNVector3(x: 1, y: 15, z:  0.5)

    let playerShape = SCNPhysicsShape(geometry: playerGeometry, options: nil)
    let playerBody = SCNPhysicsBody(type: .dynamic, shape: playerShape)

    player.physicsBody?.categoryBitMask = collisionRollingBall
    player.physicsBody?.collisionBitMask = collsionTarget
    player.physicsBody?.mass = 10
    player.physicsBody = playerBody

    scene.rootNode.addChildNode(player)

    }

Wrote code to fix position of camera next to my player:

func setupCamera () {

    //create a main camera
    cameraNode = SCNNode()
    cameraNode.camera = SCNCamera()
    cameraNode.camera?.zFar = 100;
    cameraNode.position = SCNVector3Make(0, 0, 0)
    cameraNode.eulerAngles = SCNVector3Make(0, 0, 0)
    cameraNode.rotation  = SCNVector4Make(0, 1, 0, Float(-M_PI_4*0.75))
    scene.rootNode.addChildNode(cameraNode)

    //add a secondary camera to the player
    let frontCameraNode = SCNNode()
    frontCameraNode.position = SCNVector3Make(0, 15, 0)
    frontCameraNode.rotation  = SCNVector4Make(1, 0, 0, Float(-M_PI_4*2.2))

    frontCameraNode.camera = SCNCamera()
    frontCameraNode.camera?.zFar = 100

    player.addChildNode(frontCameraNode)

}

I just need to freeze the camera position at a certain distance, as in the games from 3rd person.

In such a scenario, the camera acquires the physical properties of the ball and rotating with it. But i need to follow player and all, not rotating with huge speed of ball...

How to fix the camera next to the player, not inheriting its properties? Any ideas how ignore rotation of physic body ?

Thanks in advance.

Nico S. Nico S. · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-03T22:35:48

You could just update the position of the camera and just add it to the scene and not to the player. You should do this every frame in the renderer(_:updateAtTime:)

https://developer.apple.com/reference/scenekit/scnscenerendererdelegate/1522937-renderer

frontCamerNode.position = SCNVector3(x: player.position.x, player.position.y, player.position.z - 10)

I think there needs more to be done like rotation of the camera etc. But maybe that points you in the right direction.

SceneKit Following Camera

1 Answers