Smooth Platforming Camera (SmoothDamp Creating Choppy Visuals)

Unity Engine
1

Hi Friends,

I’m trying to script the camera so that as the main character moves (in a 2.5d platformer) the camera shifts forward so more of the oncoming level is visible to the player. If the player runs, the camera shifts forward even more.

I have it implemented and working, however there’s a choppy sort of visual effect going on.
I’m using SmoothDamp (Lerp didn’t help much).

Here’s the code for the camera:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class CameraMovement : MonoBehaviour {

public PlayerMovement playerMove;
private Transform player;
private Vector3 camPos;
private Vector3 tempPos;
private Vector3 velocity = Vector3.zero;

// Use this for initialization
void Awake() {
camPos = this.transform.position;
playerMove = GetComponent ();
player = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag (“Player”).transform;
}

// Update is called once per frame
void FixedUpdate () {

Vector3 playerpos = player.position;
Vector3 curPos = transform.position;
if (playerMove.movingLeft) {
if (playerMove.running) {
tempPos = camPos + (playerpos - new Vector3 (8.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f));
}else{
tempPos = camPos + (playerpos - new Vector3 (4.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f));
}
} else if (playerMove.movingRight) {
if (playerMove.running) {
tempPos = camPos + (playerpos - new Vector3 (-8.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f));
}else{
tempPos = camPos + (playerpos - new Vector3 (-4.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f));
}
} else {
tempPos = camPos + playerpos;
}

transform.position = Vector3.SmoothDamp (curPos, tempPos, ref velocity, 0.25f);
}
}

Does anyone know how I can get rid of the choppy side effect?

2

Why is it in fixedupdate? If you could, put it in lateupdate (or atleast try it in lateupdate).

3

Good suggestion, however after trying lateupdate, update, and fixedupdate it appeared that fixedupdate yielded the least amount of choppiness (I don’t really understand why that is… seems kind of counter-intuitive).

I solved the choppiness simply by increasing the float value in SmoothDamp and increasing the amount the camera shifts by to offset that (the 8 and 4 values).

Thanks!