While working through Cobra Code's Udemy course, I got sidetracked and implemented camera rotation functionality. If you're interested, here's the course: The Ultimate 2D Top Down Unreal Engine Course.

Special thanks to Cobra Code for creating the course and providing assets I can play with!

Reference Videos

In Octopath Traveler 2, camera rotation during cutscenes and battles creates dramatic visual effects. Example of a battle scene:

2024-12-08_09-04-58.mp4

2024-12-08_06-48-31.mp4

My Goal

To implement this functionality, I need to accomplish several key tasks:

• Rotate and position the camera freely
• Ensure sprites face the correct camera position
• Set proper character directions
• Minimize boilerplate code

Camera/Character Setup

The camera follows the same setup as the course tutorial. While it took time to understand how these components work together, these principles apply to third-person 3D games as well.

For all characters, I've configured these settings:

• Sprite/Flipbook
  • Use Absolute Rotation
• Movement Component
  • Orient Rotation to Movement: true
  • Use Controller Desired Rotation: false
  • Yaw Rotation Rate: -1.0f (P: 0.0, Y: -1.0, R: 0.0)
  • Use Controller Rotation Yaw: false

For the controlling character with a spring arm and camera:

• Spring Arm
  • Use Pawn Control Rotation: false
  • Using Absolute Rotation
  • For my example I'm using (P: -20, Y: -90.0, R: 0.0)
  • Do collision test: false (optional)
  • The camera is attached to the end of this