[SOLVED] Rotate camera on z-axis when x-axis rotation is 90 degrees

Unity Engine
1

I am making a little tilt marble labyrinth game as my first Unity project, and I am trying to get the camera to rotate simulating the act of tilting the game table. The camera is rotated at x = 90, y = 0, z = 0). This causes it to look directly at the center of the game board beneath.

Rotating along the x axis works as expected with vertical input, but rotating along the z-axis simply spins the camera rather than rotate on its relative z axis – and I understand why. Since the camera is already at 90 degrees, rotating on the z axis will produce the effect of spinning instead of rotating.

My problem is that I haven’t figured out how to solve this. I want to be able to rotate along the x and z axises given that x = 90 is center. I’ve been trying to hours to come up with the math that would solve this but have come up short. I must ask for your help!

Here is an example of my code that produces the issue I described:

Quaternion target = Quaternion.Euler (tiltAroundX+90, 0, tiltAroundZ);
cameraController.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(transform.rotation, target, tiltForce);

The cameraController is simply the component script of the camera object. TiltAroundX and tiltAroundZ are accelerometer input angles, Pretty basic, but here I struggle. tiltForce is just an argument to control tilt speed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

2

This is a basic problem of euler angles. Taking it out of local rotation and instead using world location, or putting the camera into a prefab should work

3

I’m not really sure how to do any of those things.

I found no way to differentiate euler angles between local and world. The syntax doesn’t seem to allow it. I don’t know what you mean by put the camera in a prefab – a prefab of what? To do what?

Believe me, I tried everything I could think of before I asked for help… These suggestions are far too vague for me. Thanks anyway, though.

4

Put the camera into a prefab then rotate that instead.

5

After tooling around for a half-hour trying to work with a prefab I was able to accomplish nothing. I have no idea what to do.

Can you walk me through this? I would appreciate it.

6

Create an empty gameObject, put the camera in it, rotate the gameObject, Done

7

gorbit99, thank you for your help! Because of your clear suggestion I was able to solve the problem by placing the camera on a parent dummy object with the camera itself pre-rotated, just like you said! I can now rotate the camera (by rotating the parent object) as desired.

Thanks for your patience and help as I learn to use Unity.