Question Continue to update virtual cameras that are on standby

What I'm trying to achieve

I wanted to explain this just in case what I'm trying to do can already be achieved more easily.

I want to pull the camera forward when it is occluded. When the camera gets too close to the player, I want to switch to a virtual camera that is at more of a top down view (but with almost identical settings, just different rig heights and radius), so the camera is not occluded. If the player is back in a position where the previously live virtual camera's camera position would be far enough away from the player, I want to switch back to the first virtual camera and continue like normal. Basically adding a little more power to the CinemachineCollider and not allowing the camera to get too close to the player.

Note - I don't want to set "minimum distance from target" to solve the issue. When it gets too close, it gives up and clips through cliffs which isn't what I want (although I understand this is the expected behavior).

My attempt so far

I have 1 actual camera, and one object that is a "fake" camera (basically an empty game object with a camera brain). The camera and the fake camera have the same positions at all times, which is great.

When I put the current virtual camera on standby and begin updating another virtual camera, the newly live virtual camera begins applying updates to the fake camera. I'd like the fake camera to continue receiving updates from the virtual camera that is on standby (I planned on applying the axis control values manually, as the virtual cameras are identical other than their height and radius).

The problem is, the fake camera is taken over by the currently live virtual camera no matter what. I tried setting the fake camera's update method to "Manually Update", but then it simply doesn't update (obviously). Is there a way to simply continue to update the position without transitioning to the live virtual camera (possibly using ManualUpdate), even if it's on standby without transitioning to a different virtual camera? Maybe I'm completely overlooking something and there's a simpler way to achieve my desired results?

Thank you!

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer this @Gregoryl

Unfortunately, there is still the issue of knowing where the camera would be to send it back, since the new camera distance from the player would be where the second vcam was. So, checking the distance won't work in this situation. Forgive me for the messy explanation, it's a fairly common things games do but it's difficult to explain.

I was able to come up with sort of a hacky solution by calling

Code (CSharp):

1. SetCameraOverride

Not really ideal, but with a combination of this and updating the fake camera position all the time, It switches between the cameras well. There is a slight "hitch" when switching back to the regular camera. I'm guessing this is a result of me manually updating the fake camera position.

It would be neat if the CinemachineColllider had an option to switch cameras when it got too close to the player, or even better, was approaching the player at a certain velocity. Then when it switched cameras, a checkbox to have it intelligently switch back to the first camera when it was going to be far enough away from the player again.

 

Cool, I was unaware of vcam.State.CorrectedPosition.

Just tried it out. Works great, but it only takes into account position when you actually move the target, and not when you move the camera (It's a FreeLook camera - I probably should have mentioned that previously).

Almost there though - maybe I'm overlooking something?

 

For me, the x y and z positions only update when I move the target, not when I move the camera around the target.

For example - I'm using the left joystick to move the player, and the right joystick to move the free camera around the player. When it enters the second vcam, I can see the values of the previous camera using CorrectedPosition when I move the player, but when I used the right joystick to move the camera the CorrectedPosition value doesn't change.

Edit:

If this isn't intended, it's possible I've done something with overriding controls on the new input system causing it to not get the additional position from moving around the target.

Edit 2:

Ah! Just saw your edit. I'll give that a shot.

 

That worked!

Thank you again for your time Gregoryl.