Sometimes when you are designing a map you would like the player to be aware of something on the map that might be essential to the play or something that is just special. You can force the camera to move to a certain spot ..This is referred to as "Camera Scrolling". 

There are several things that must be taken into account when you scroll the camera in a multiplayer game. You want to stop the action when you do this so that all things will remain fair for all players. In other words you don't want to scroll the camera and still let the player have control of his keyboard, so that he can attack his opponent, who might be looking at what it is that you are trying to reveal. This may or may not be a problem depending on when and where you plant the trigger.

In single player maps, the decision also has to be made as to whether you will let the player keep control of his keyboard, but for different reasons. If you lock the keyboard while the player is in a combat mode or just in a really tense moment, it might affect the outcome of the mission. He might even lose. On the other hand, when used at the beginning of the mission, you can get the idea of the objective across much better if you "GUIDE" him through it. Locking his input and scrolling the camera are useful tools when used in this fashion. It creates excitement and helps to enhance the playing experience.

After the "locking /camera scrolling" sequence is over you must make sure that you UNLOCK control of the input and let the player back into the game .It is most unpleasant to realize that you have no control over the game and that [alt] [tab] will not work either. So in review we will actually be setting up two different triggers to make our camera move to where we want it to.

Trigger #1 will have three different ACTIONS, (46) "Lock Input", (48) "Moves Camera at a Specific Speed to a Specific Waypoint", and (17) "Reveal Around Waypoint." Trigger #2 will have one Action, (47) "Unlock Input." 

Before we start we need to place a waypoint. This has been covered already in the "SOUND'S" section of Basic Triggers. Refer to that section if need be. Essentially what you need to do is place a "Special Waypoint" where you would like the camera to swing, or scroll to. See the screen shot to your right.  First click on EDIT and then on WAYPOINT and then on CREATE WAYPOINT WITH SPECIAL ID. You are now ready to place the waypoint. In this tutorial we'll use a Tech Oil Derrick as our waypoint. So you would simply place your waypoint in the general area of the Oil Derrick. It doesn't have to be an Oil Derrick. You can place the waypoint anywhere on the map where you want the camera to point to. For example, if you wanted it to reveal where a field of gems were at, you could do that too. Very simple to do. In our next steps we'll be creating our actual trigger that will set the parameters for the camera.

Next click EDIT. A dropdown menu will appear. Click Trigger Editor, a trigger form will appear. Click NEW TRIGGER and then type in the name you want to use for this Trigger. Again, lets stay with the Oil Derrick as our example for this tutorial. Lets assume that you want to scroll and reveal the OIL DERRICK, so you could name it "Show Oil Derrick number one." You can name it what ever you want. That is only an example. Now select neutral for the "HOUSE" box. 

Next click on EVENT and then NEW EVENT. There are several events that can be used for this trigger but, we will use a time delay of 10 seconds. So we will select "13, Time Elapsed" and our parameter will be 10 for 10seconds..easy huh. This will start our trigger 10 seconds after the game has started. 

Next click ACTIONS, then click New Action and select number (46) "Lock input." This disables the players control over the game. In other words, it makes the players mouse and keyboard useless till the trigger gives the player back his control. 

Now click New Action again and select (48) " Moves Camera at a Specific Speed to a Specific Waypoint". Go to the parameters box and enter the waypoint number that you want the camera to go to and the speed you wish it to travel at. The slowest speed is 0 and the fastest speed is 4.

We now have a trigger that will lock the the players control and will move the camera. But we can't see anything because the shroud is still there ..we need to reveal around the waypoint. So we select New Action once again and then "17, Reveal Around Waypoint". Click on "Special Waypoint" and then enter the waypoint that you entered for the camera scroll. Now click on "waypoint" and enter it again. This will "tighten " up the reveal area. You can open it up by placing another waypoint near, but not to far from the first waypoint and the game will try to compromise or average between the two.

We have almost completed this trigger. What we have so far is the player starting the game, ten seconds into the game the keyboard and mouse will be disabled, and the camera will move to our waypoint, which in this tutorial is the Tech Oil Derrick. We have to complete one more step. After the camera has scrolled to where you have designated it to go, we must give the player back his controls of the keyboard and mouse (input devices). If you miss this final step, the game would of course be over...very important step!

Make a New Trigger and label it Unlock. Make the house "Neutral." If you get stuck anywhere, make sure you keep referring to all the picture diagrams included with this tutorial. They show you exactly what to do. Also, the reason you need to make the house "Neutral" is so anyone playing your mission map will be able to see your trigger at work. If you selected a different house other than "Neutral", then only the specific house would have the Oil Derrick revealed to them. So it is important get the house selection correct.

The EVENT can be several different things, but for this tutorial we will use the (13) "Time Elapsed" event once again. The time we enter as a parameter, starts from the beginning of the game. Our original trigger started after 10 seconds into the game, remember. And we want to keep control for 10 seconds more, so we need to enter 20 seconds for the parameter. Basic math 10 + 10 =20 ....easy. 

You have just made two triggers (one of which was a complex trigger) congratulations! If you did this correctly your game will start, and 10 seconds later you will lose control of your keyboard and mouse, the camera will swing to a specific area you designated by setting your waypoint, and the area around the waypoint will be revealed to you. Then 10 seconds after that you will gain control again!!

Study the screen shots to see where to enter your events, actions and parameters, etc. If you get stuck, just send an email to the address below and we'll see if we can help you out.

For questions concerning this tutorial, please contact rvmech@cncgames.com