Camera Tutorial

by Shin Rekkoha
created Dec 7, 2014
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3558 views | 958 downloads

Rating
/ 36 votes

Difficulty
/ 9 votes


map notes
This map is for teaching.  By design, it does not have super crazy awesome amazing gameplay.

I HAVE REMADE THIS MAP AND UPDATED IT WITH NEWER INFORMATION AND SOME BETTER EXAMPLES.  PLEASE PLAY THIS VERSION: http://atlas.dustforce.com/8441/camera-tutorial-z

     I'd always wanted to make this, and finally I did.  It is my hope that this will help people get into cameras in their maps.  Cameras are one of the most finnicky parts of a map but certainly not an unimportant one.  This map involves a lot of reading, and demonstrates the camera lessons in the section where the NPCs tell you about them.  By its very nature, this is for map-makers.

     If you make maps and don't like getting comments (complaints) about blind drops and other things: hopefully this helps you out.  If you are just looking for a fun map to play: this is not it (or maybe it is, fun is subjective).  If you don't care either way: good for you and here is your cookie.  I highly suggest opening this map in the editor so you can see the camera nodes yourself as you play it.  To do this, download the file to:

(Your Dustforce Directory)/dustforce/user/levels_src

If you have Dustmod you can enable Player Hitboxes and Show Cameras which give you a lot of extra visual information about how cameras work.  Highly recommended while learning.


EXAMPLES

http://atlas.dustforce.com/5818/machina
Machina is a map I made well after this one, when I had improved significantly and learned to use Force Nodes much more skillfully.  Observe the secret to the left of the start, the initial forks for SS and Any%, and the ability to switch between the routes quite easily without the player being able to "break" the camera.  Machina is a map with gold standard camerawork and very little I would change even now.

http://atlas.dustforce.com/7883/fecal-factory
Fecal Factory is a map I made that looks like a single screen map, and has a camera solution that hides the path to the left.  If you proceed left you'll uncover secrets ripe with several interesting camera solutions.  This map is great for understanding some of the finer points and proving that any camera problem can be solved.

http://atlas.dustforce.com/3910/pinky-toes
Pinky Toes is an example of a map that is the result of a lot of time and effort, but ultimately a near unplayable mess due to issues with the fog trigger and camera.  I myself have several early maps that are terrible despite a lot of time and effort as well.  Leaving the fog trigger completely out of it, the camera is way too zoomed in for most of the map combined with NEVER trying to assist the player with things like Interest Nodes or Force Nodes as discussed.  The map features several truly blind obstacles, many of which lead to death if not played expertly, and which are doubly hard to see due to the fog triggers.  Some camera improvements would have greatly lessened this.  All these factors contribute to a map people simply don't want to bother SS'ing.  As of this writing it only has 5 SS's, all by extremely skilled true masochists famous for SS'ing maps other people don't touch.
edited Mar 20, 2018

7 comments

Jvcpro
said Dec 7, 2014
Gameplay is fun :o
Shin Rekkoha
said Jan 7, 2015
Eye of the beholder I guess.  I made it for teaching first and playing second.
Antinumeric
said Dec 7, 2014
This is a really good tutorial. I way prefer this to your usual childish sarky comments.
Morelia
said Dec 8, 2014
You should post the transcript for this on the subreddit or something. :3
Tinker
said Dec 8, 2014
Hey, it's not "ironic"! Nice tutorial.
Shin Rekkoha
said Dec 8, 2014
...is your comment ironic?  I've lost the ability to tell the difference.

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