Cinemachine back to main camera help!

You've not set this up quite correctly.

You should have a single Unity Camera, with a single Brain on it.

Then, you create multiple VirtualCamera objects. Say you have one for the main gameplay, and a number of others referenced from the timeline. The CM timeline tracks are all bound to the single Brain, with individual clips on the tracks bound to the vcams.

Now, when you run the timeline, the vcams referenced from it will drive the main camera. When the timeline stops, control will be returned to the gameplay vcam.

So remember the paradigm: one Camera, one Brain, many vcams.

 

What you can do in this case is to replace the FPS controller's Camera component with a CinemachineVirtualCamera component with a higher-than-default priority. That will become the main gameplay camera.

So in summary:

1. Have a top-level gameobject with Camera and CinemachineBrain. This is your scene's one and only camera.
2. Replace the Camera component in the FPS controller with a CinemachineVirtualCamera component. Put "Do Nothing" in both Aim and Body. This turns off the procedural features and allows your vcam to be 100% driven by its trransform, which is controlled by your FPS script. Make this the default vcam by giving it higher priority. Now you have the equivalent of your original FPS system, but with the possibility to blend this camera with other vcams, add noise, impulse, etc.
3. Create timelines with other vcams to use in cutscene. For performance, you can disable those other vcam gameObjects, they will be force-enabled when invoked from the timeline.

 

I'm not familiar with those scripts. If they are depending on a Camera component, you might try either or both of:

• hacking them to use a vcam component instead
• just disable the Camera component instead of deleting it

 

I can't really tell you what's wrong without seeing the project.

Another possible approach for you is to keep 2 cameras: one with the FPS and another one, with the brain, for cutscenes only. When the timeline begins, disable the FPS camera and enable the CM camera. When the timeline ends, do the opposite. You won't get blending between them, but maybe that's ok for you.

 

I've seen the up and down thing before - some thread on this forum, in the last month or so, just can't find it. It's the way the controller is built. There is an easy fix, I just don't remember what offhand. Try putting the controller back to what it was before these experiments.

 

The solution in your blog can work, but there is a much easier and more powerful way.

Have a standalone Camera GameObject, with a Cinemachine Brain. This camera will always take instructions from the current active virtual camera.

For your in-game camera, replace the Camera component with a CinemachineVirtualCamera, with Do Nothing in Aim and Body. This is a passive vcam, and is 100% controllable from your camera controller script, just like a normal camera. When no Timeline vcam is active, then this vcam (and hence your camera controller script) will by default control the main camera.

When a CM Timeline track is active, it will override the default vcam and take control. When the timeline stops, control will automatically be returned to your main camera. You can make these transitions cuts or blends, as you wish.