Is there a "Rotate To" function to rotate an arc camera?

[JonVarner]

Hey all, I have a use case where I have two camera positions, A and B. I am currently using an arc camera. What I would like to do is rotate the camera from position A to position B using the shortest path over a period of frames. I am confident I could code this but wanted to double check there wasn't already a built in function somewhere that I was unaware of? Just seems like it would be a pretty common task. Anyway, I just did want to invent the wheel if it was already available somewhere.

[trevordev]

I'm not aware of this being built into the arcRotationCamera. You could use animations https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#QYFDDP#1 for this but personally I would manually move the position/rotation within an scene.onBeforeRenderFrame callback

[JonVarner]

Ok thanks. I will try and post whatever I and up with here for others that might run into something similar.

[Wingnut]

Hi Guys!  I once did some mesh "spin" and "spinTo" funcs, and they work for arcCams too.

https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#HH1U5#87

Lines 2-6 temporarily adds spinTo() onto this-scene-created arcCams.

Some demo calls are in lines 75-85.

I'm not a pro coder, so there could be tweaks needed.

I think there are 10 types of easing available in BJS.  I used CubicEase cuzzzz... it seemed to work nice. 

You might run into SOME issues... for camera.alpha... in regards to WHICH WAY TO SPIN to get to new target-alpha value.

Possibly, spinTo() needs a 4th parameter, a "positive" or "negative" to indicate which direction to rotate to new target.

Sorry if I ruined the adventure-fun of writing an arcCam spinTo() animator. 

Note:  Internet Explorer may dislike the ()=> usage in lines 75-85 demo calls. 
If problems in IE occur, use this format:   setTimeout(function(){camera.spinTo("beta", 1.2, 20), 1000});

[JonVarner]

Oh cool, thanks. I will check it out.

[Wingnut]

I think... you can also use your CURRENT SpinTo animator... to animate the camera.target.  Just change the whichProp to 'target'.

An ArcCam target is a vector3 value (like invisibleMesh.position).  An ArcCam lockedTarget is EITHER a mesh or a vector3.

Animating arcCam targets and lockedTargets... is often used for "click on mesh to make cam look at clicked mesh".

When user clicks a mesh, you can animate camera.target to clickedMesh.position.  It's not really a "spinTo" in the classic sense, but it still works.  It's more like moveTo(), eh?  *nod*