Cinemachine -Target Follow an Initialize Prefab

Since my player gets initialized in runtime, I am trying to add cinemachine's target and follow through code. What I tried below is not working:

Inside the Cinemachine Virtual Camera Script I change

override public Transform LookAt
{
get { return ResolveLookAt(m_LookAt); }
set { m_LookAt = value; }
}

override public Transform Follow
{

get { return ResolveFollow(m_Follow); }
set { m_Follow = value; }
}

To this:

override public Transform LookAt
{
get { return ResolveLookAt(m_LookAt); }
set { m_LookAt = GameObject.Find("Player").transform; }
}

override public Transform Follow
{

get { return ResolveFollow(m_Follow); }
set { m_Follow = GameObject.Find("Player").transform; }
}

 

Thanks! I made another script (see below). It finds the initialize player as a target in the new FollowPlayer Script but doesn't do anything to Cinemachine. Seems I am missing something.

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using Cinemachine;
5.  
6. public class FollowPlayer : MonoBehaviour
7. {
8.  
9.  
10.     public GameObject tPlayer;
11.     public Transform tFollowTarget;
12.     private CinemachineVirtualCamera vcam;
13.  
14.     void Start()
15.     {
16.         var vcam = GetComponent<CinemachineVirtualCamera>();
17.     }
18.  
19.     void Update()
20.     {
21.         if (tPlayer == null)
22.         {
23.             tPlayer = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player");
24.         }
25.         tFollowTarget = tPlayer.transform;
26.         vcam.LookAt = tFollowTarget;
27.         vcam.Follow = tFollowTarget;
28.     }
29. }
30.  

 

I've attached the script to the CM vcam1 camera GameObject Cinemachine makes when you add a camera. I do not have any other cameras in the scene. If I manually add the player prefab at runtime, Cinemachine (follow target) does work.

It highlights 'vcam.LookAt = tFollowTarget;' as an error (which I'm guessing the previous line may be the problem) that reads:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
FollowPlayer.Update () (at Assets/FollowPlayer.cs:26)

 

tPlayer is found after the game starts as show on this new screenshot attached. I am sorry, I didn't have this showing before. The Player does not start in the scene- it gets initialized after. This is a multi player setup. Is this some overriding Cinemachine problem?

Oh, this camera component was created by Cinemachine's when I added a 'Create 2d Camera'. My virtual camera doesn't seem to work without it.

 

Thanks for all the help so far. I really appreciated. I updated the code as illustrated above which made things better by the console not throwing 100s of lines.

The connection to Cinemachine seems to still be missing. You were right that the camera with the brain doesn't have another camera. Only the vCM vcam1 GameObject has another camera. I've attached a screenshot for each.

The same error appears: NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
FollowPlayer.Update () (at Assets/FollowPlayer.cs:33)




.

 

Works now!

When I made a new fresh scene as you advised, I realized that the warnings were turn off in the other project that read 'vcam was assigned but not used' so that the error of 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' was not the only thing. Sorry about that, that would have been useful knowledge for troubleshooting.

In the code I accidentally wrote:

[B]var vcam = GetComponent<CinemachineVirtualCamera>(); [/B]

instead of just:

[B]vcam = GetComponent<CinemachineVirtualCamera>();[/B] 

From the new clean project I did see that my setup is a bit strange with an additional camera. Although its working, I'll correct that just in case of future problems. So the final code is now:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using Cinemachine;
3.  
4. public class FollowPlayer : MonoBehaviour
5. {
6.     public GameObject tPlayer;
7.     public Transform tFollowTarget;
8.     private CinemachineVirtualCamera vcam;
9.  
10.     // Use this for initialization
11.     void Start()
12.     {
13.         vcam = GetComponent<CinemachineVirtualCamera>();
14.     }
15.  
16.     // Update is called once per frame
17.     void Update()
18.     {
19.         if (tPlayer == null)
20.         {
21.             tPlayer = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player");
22.             if (tPlayer != null)
23.             {
24.                 tFollowTarget = tPlayer.transform;
25.                 vcam.LookAt = tFollowTarget;
26.                 vcam.Follow = tFollowTarget;
27.             }
28.         }
29.     }
30. }

Much thanks to you Greg!

 

There is another way to handle this problem. Combine the object that you want to follow (such as Player), and the virtual camera in one prefab. This can be done by making them children of an empty game object. Be sure set the Follow, and Look at targets before making the prefab. Also be sure the set the positions of the components to zero. Now you can Instantiate them all at once, and the v-cam will follow the object.

I hope this helps. All the best!

 

@duanegra works like a charm!

 

I cannot use var

 

my
public CinemachineVirtualCamera vcam;
line Gets An error CS0246 pls help

 

Good idea but you will have to also write code to instantiate a new version of cinemachine. I tried your idea it works except for the fact that when I instantiate my player it destroys previous players and adds an new one, this separates the prefab the cinemachine and player into two in the heirarchy.

 

So no matter what I try I cannot assign follow or lookat from code. It works fine if I drag them into inspector, is there something special I need to do to assign from code??

 

Sorry it was my own logic error, works now. Making cutscenes in cinemachine

 

thanks i can

 

Brooooo. You just saved my life. I love you.

 

Alright, I have a question.

I am trying to get this to work, I think I have got the script exactly as it is in this thread. But it won't work for me. If I play and pause, I can drag the instantiated clone into Follow/LookAt of the CM Vcam and when I unpause it will give me the behavior I am looking for. But not when I just hit play.

Don't know if this makes a difference but I am doing this in 2D. Using a 2D vcam (although I have tried Virtual Camera too, to no avail). Either I am doing something wrong in Unity itself or some of the scripting has changed? I do have using Cinemachine in there at the top as well.

Code (CSharp):

1. private CinemachineVirtualCamera vcam;
2.  
3.     // Start is called before the first frame update
4.     void Start()
5.     {
6.        //CinemachineVirtualCamera
7.        vcam = GetComponent<CinemachineVirtualCamera>();
8.     }
9.  
10.     // Update is called once per frame
11.     void Update()
12.     {
13.        if (tPlayer == null)
14.        {
15.         tPlayer = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player");
16.         if(tPlayer != null)
17.         {
18.             tFollowTarget = tPlayer.transform;
19.             vcam.LookAt = tFollowTarget;
20.             vcam.Follow = tFollowTarget;
21.         }
22.        }
23.     }
24. }
25.  

And I do have my prefab tagged as "Player".

The Instantiate code is as follows:

Code (CSharp):

1. public GameObject projectile;
2.     public float launchVelocity = 700.0f;
3.      
4.     // Start is called before the first frame update
5.     void Start()
6.     {
7.      
8.     }
9.  
10.     // Update is called once per frame
11.     void Update()
12.     {
13.       if (Input.GetButtonDown("Fire1"))
14.       {
15.         GameObject ball = Instantiate(projectile, transform.position, transform.rotation);
16.         ball.GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>().AddRelativeForce(new Vector3(0, launchVelocity, 0));
17.       }
18.     }

UPDATE: Changed the code above to what worked for me! I just had to change the GetComponent code, to only reference vcam and leave out CinemachineVirtualCam (although you need that when creating the variable).

It wasn't throwing me an error so I had no idea. Oh, I also changed all Follow and LookAts (on both the vcam and the script) to None, to start. Pretty sure it was the code change that did it though.

 

No one has any ideas?

 

Sphere is the name of the prefab I am instantiating and trying to get the camera to track/follow. When I play the scene, pause it, and drag the instantiated object into Follow/Look At, it works when I unpause. But it doesn't work if I drag the instantiated object into T Player or T Follow Target. Nor does it work just by playing the scene.

Edit: And this script is attached to the vcam.

I will upload the inspector for the Main Camera as well.

 

Main Camera inspector

 

The 'Player' tag is just the default Player tag, I did not create a new one named 'Player'.

 

Yes, my Sphere (Clone) also has the player tag.

 

Sorry I'm still quite new (started with tutorials about 3 weeks ago). How do I do that?

 

This is driving me nuts. Are there some other ways to get the camera to track a player/object with force applied? Is there a way to apply force to the camera, iow apply the same force to the camera as to the object?

Should I maybe just settle for hardcoding the transform on the camera, for better or for worse?

 

OK... So...

//CinemachineVirtualCamera
vcam = GetComponent<CinemachineVirtualCamera>();

That was the moneymaker! I almost couldn't believe my eyes when the camera started actually tracking the projectile!

 

I knew I was close, man. It's one of those things where you are afraid of breaking things further, and then you'll never find the 'one' thing that's wrong. So it was a case of taking a calculated risk, one at a time, learning to problem solve some code, use comments to change code the minimum amount possible at a time! And then I just had to think why was the Virtual Camera not receiving instructions/following orders!

Thanks for your help, because without your code (from years back) and your eyeballs on this, to assure me there wasn't anything wrong with the vast majority of what I was doing, I wouldn't have had the confidence or the required stubborn persistence to finally track down the issue!

 

I have a problem. Everything is fine, my virtual cam gets assigned what to look at and follow. But my camera is somewhere above where it should be and stuck there. Its not following my car...