Camera Pitch Rotation problem

[Maaco]

I'm working on a controller system for a small 'spacecraft' that has two flightmodes: a 'hover' mode that works fine (steering somewhat like a drone) and a 'normal'  flightmode that allows you to rotate around pitch, yaw and bank axis. That works ok too, but when I make a looping (rotating around the pitch axis) the camera seems to get 'left behind' when passing a certain amount of pitch (90 degrees up or down).

Here's a link with a video of the issue, it'll show at 0:26 (and at 0:33 again) when pitching nose down:

 The ship (a Rigid Body with Prop physics wiht a mass of 30) is controlled by applying AddForce and AddTorque. I noted that it also happens when colliding with scenery objects.

Any suggestions on what is causing this?

Thanks,

Maaco

[Maaco]

This is quitte a showstopper for this project? I'm beginning to suspect it's a bug...

[Thirsty Panther]

Without an example of your code its hard to guess what is wrong with your project.

 

[gamecreator]

As Thirsty Panther said... but it might have to do with gimbal lock.  Don't know why but Leadwerks doesn't handle this for you.

[Maaco]

Ah yes gimbal lock...I didn't think of that.

I've simplified/extracted part of the code (to clarify) that seems to cause the issue.

When I attach this simple script to an entity it shows the same behavior/issue when exceeding +90 or -90 degrees of rotation  around the X-Axis:

 

 

function Script:Start()
    
    self.entity:SetGravityMode(false)
    -- Create a camera
    self.camera = Camera:Create()
        
end

--Adjust the camera orientation relative to entity
function Script:UpdateCamera()
    self.camera:SetRotation(self.entity:GetRotation())
    self.camera:SetPosition(self.entity:GetPosition())
    self.camera:Move(0,1,0)
end

function Script:UpdatePhysics()
    --Get the game window
    local window = Window:GetCurrent()

    --Keyboard input 
        if window:KeyDown(Key.W) then self.entity:AddTorque(130,0,0,false) end
        if window:KeyDown(Key.A) then self.entity:AddTorque(0,-130,0,false) end
        if window:KeyDown(Key.D) then self.entity:AddTorque(0,130,0,false) end
        if window:KeyDown(Key.S) then self.entity:AddTorque(-130,0,0,false) end
        if window:KeyDown(Key.Q) then self.entity:AddForce(0,15,0,false) end
        if window:KeyDown(Key.E) then self.entity:AddForce(0, 0, 50,false) end
        if window:KeyDown(Key.Z) then self.entity:AddTorque(0, 0, 100,false) end
        if window:KeyDown(Key.C) then self.entity:AddTorque(0, 0, -100,false) end
            
 end

function Script:UpdateWorld()

  --Update the camera each frame
    self:UpdateCamera()

end
 

 

[Josh]

The problem is that the Euler rotation returned by GetRotation in your UpdateCamera function is ambiguous. Try SetMatrix to replace SetRotation and SetPosition.

--Adjust the camera orientation relative to entity
function Script:UpdateCamera()
    self.camera:SetMatrix(self.entity:GetMatrix(true),true)
    self.camera:Move(0,1,0)
end

 

[Maaco]

Thanks Josh: using SetMatrix instead of SetRotation/SetPosition indeed solved the problem!