Jitter on objects following Cinemachine camera

Hey Scott,
Never seen that problem before. Could you upload a small project showing this so I can take a look?

 

Thanks for the upload. I was seeing your large jitters until I adjusted the script order to put SimpleFollow after CineachineBrain. To prove that the order was correct I added debug logs when the brain set the Camera's transform, and when the skySphere's transform was set. Order is correct: in LateUpdate: first Camera, then Sphere.

I'm still getting minor jitters here and there. My feeling is that this is normal, and is being unnaturally-emphasized by the high-contrast of the sky texture.

As an experiment, I took timeline out of the equation, replacing it with this script on the vcam:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using Cinemachine;
3.  
4. public class AnimatePathPos : MonoBehaviour
5. {
6.     public float startPos = 0;
7.     public float endPos = 3;
8.     public float cycleTime = 15;
9.  
10.     float current;
11.     CinemachineTrackedDolly dolly;
12.  
13.     void Start()
14.     {
15.         var vcam = GetComponent<CinemachineVirtualCamera>();
16.         if (vcam != null)
17.             dolly = vcam.GetCinemachineComponent<CinemachineTrackedDolly>();
18.         current = 0;
19.     }
20.    
21.     void LateUpdate()
22.     {
23.         if (dolly != null)
24.         {
25.             current = current + (Time.deltaTime / cycleTime);
26.             if (current > 1)
27.                 current = 0;
28.  
29.             float pos = 0.5f - (Mathf.Cos(current * Mathf.PI) / 2);
30.             pos = startPos + pos * (endPos - startPos);
31.             dolly.m_PathPosition = pos;
32.         }
33.     }
34. }
35.  

It changed nothing, the same minor jitters are there. To narrow it down, I changed the vcam's Aim method to DoNothing. Now the sphere moves with the camera, but camera does not rotate. Then, the jitters entirely disappeared.

So it seems that the culprit is camera rotation, not sphere displacement.

Narrowing it down still further, I removed CM and timeline entirely from the equation, and put this script directly on the main camera:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using Cinemachine;
3.  
4. public class AnimatePathPosNoCM : MonoBehaviour
5. {
6.     public float startPos = 0;
7.     public float endPos = 3;
8.     public float cycleTime = 15;
9.     public Transform target;
10.     public CinemachinePathBase path;
11.  
12.     float current;
13.  
14.     void Start()
15.     {
16.         current = 0;
17.     }
18.    
19.     void LateUpdate()
20.     {
21.         if (path != null)
22.         {
23.             current = current + (Time.deltaTime / cycleTime);
24.             if (current > 1)
25.                 current = 0;
26.  
27.             float pos = 0.5f - (Mathf.Cos(current * Mathf.PI) / 2);
28.             pos = startPos + pos * (endPos - startPos);
29.             transform.position = path.EvaluatePositionAtUnit(
30.                 pos, CinemachinePathBase.PositionUnits.PathUnits);
31.  
32.             if (target != null)
33.                 transform.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(
34.                     target.position - transform.position);
35.         }
36.     }
37. }
38.  

Minor jitters still there. If I take out the LookRotation, then it's perfectly smooth.

Bottom line: I don't think CM is the problem here.