#Camera System

#Overview

The Camera system provides both a runtime ECS camera component and an editor fly/orbit camera. During edit mode, the editor camera controls the viewport. During play mode, the engine switches to the entity camera marked as the main camera.

#Editor Camera

The editor viewport has a built-in camera with the following controls:

#Adding a Camera Component

To define a runtime camera for your game:

1. Select an entity in the Scene Hierarchy (or create a new one)
2. In the Inspector, click Add Component > Camera
3. Configure the camera properties
4. Check isMain to make it the active play-mode camera

#Camera Properties

#Runtime Camera System

When you press Play, the engine activates a CameraSystem that:

1. Queries all entities with both Camera and Transform components
2. Finds the entity with isMain == true
3. Computes view and projection matrices from that entity's Transform and Camera properties
4. Feeds those matrices to the renderer

When you press Stop, the editor camera resumes control.

#Multiple Cameras

You can have multiple camera entities in a scene. Only one should have isMain = true at a time. Switch between them in code using engine.SetMainCamera():

auto cam = engine.GetWorld().lookup("CinematicCamera");
engine.SetMainCamera(cam); // clears isMain on all others, sets it on this one

For detailed scripting examples, see Camera Scripting.

#Frustum Gizmo

In edit mode, every camera entity displays a wireframe frustum in the viewport showing:

• Near and far clipping planes
• Field of view cone (or orthographic box)
• Forward direction indicator (blue line)
• Up direction triangle at the top

This helps you position and orient cameras in the scene without entering play mode.

#Inspector Preview

When you select a camera entity in the editor, the Inspector panel shows a live preview thumbnail at the top of the Camera component. This renders the scene from the camera's perspective in real-time, updating as you adjust the Transform or camera properties.

#Integration Notes

• The editor viewport uses its own EditorCamera, completely separate from any Camera components
• During play mode, the CameraSystem runs at PreUpdate phase, setting view/projection before the render pass
• Camera components support both Perspective and Orthographic projection
• The gizmo and preview are only visible in edit mode
• Gizmo manipulation (translate/rotate/scale) is disabled during play mode