CharacterCamera

Manages a character's Cinemachine camera — activation/deactivation, look direction, IK-driven head look-at, and raycasting for the object the character is looking at.

Definition

Namespace: Paragon.Townskeep.CharacterSystem Assembly: Townskeep.dll

[Serializable]
public class CharacterCamera : CharacterComponent

Inheritance: ParagonObject → ParagonComponent<Character> → CharacterComponent → CharacterCamera

Remarks

CharacterCamera wraps a CinemachineCamera (Unity Cinemachine v3) attached to the character prefab. It serves multiple roles:

1. Camera control — Activate/deactivate camera priority for this character (used when possessing/unpossessing characters)

2. Look direction — Provides Position, Rotation, Direction for other systems to query where the character is looking

3. Head IK — Hooks into the Animator's IK pass to orient the character's head toward the camera's forward direction

4. Look object detection — Performs a raycast each frame to detect what the character is looking at (used by the interaction system)

Camera Activation

When a character is possessed by a player, Activate() sets the Cinemachine camera priority to 99 and enables the CinemachineInputAxisController. When unpossessed, Deactivate() resets priority to 0 and disables input.

Quick Lookup

Goal	How
Activate camera for this character	camera.Activate()
Deactivate camera	camera.Deactivate()
Get camera forward direction	camera.Direction
Get camera world position	camera.Position
Get camera rotation	camera.Rotation
Force look at a point	camera.LookAt(worldPosition)
Force look in a direction	camera.LookTowards(direction)
Check if looking at something	camera.HasLookObject
Get what the camera sees	camera.LookObject
Access input controller	camera.InputAxisController

Properties

GameObject

The GameObject hosting the Cinemachine camera.

public GameObject GameObject { get; }

Position

The camera's corrected world-space position from the Cinemachine state.

public Vector3 Position { get; }

Rotation

The camera's corrected world-space orientation from the Cinemachine state.

public Quaternion Rotation { get; }

InputAxisController

The CinemachineInputAxisController for reading player look input.

public CinemachineInputAxisController InputAxisController { get; }

Direction

The camera's forward direction vector (Rotation * Vector3.forward).

public Vector3 Direction { get; }

HasLookObject

Whether the camera's forward raycast is hitting a GameObject.

public bool HasLookObject { get; }

LookObject

The GameObject currently under the camera's center raycast, or null if nothing is hit.

[ShowInInspector]
public GameObject LookObject { get; }

Methods

OnInitialize (override)

Caches the Animator, CinemachineCamera, and CinemachineInputAxisController from the character prefab. Registers the OnAnimatorIK callback on the Animator.

protected override void OnInitialize()

The CinemachineCamera is found with includeInactive = true, so disabled camera GameObjects will be discovered during initialization.

Activate

Sets the camera priority to 99 and enables the input axis controller. Call this when the player possesses this character.

public void Activate()

Deactivate

Resets the camera priority to 0 and disables the input axis controller. Call this when the player unpossesses this character.

public void Deactivate()

LookAt

Forces the camera to look at a specific world-space position.

public void LookAt(Vector3 target)

Parameter	Type	Description
target	Vector3	World-space position to look at

LookTowards

Forces the camera to face a specific direction. No-ops if the direction is approximately zero.

public void LookTowards(Vector3 direction)

Parameter	Type	Description
direction	Vector3	World-space direction to face

OnAnimatorIK

IK callback registered on the character's Animator. Sets full look-at weight and directs the character's head toward the camera's forward point.

public void OnAnimatorIK()

Tick (override)

Called per-frame. Performs the forward raycast to detect the LookObject.

protected override void Tick(float dt)

OnDebug (override)

Draws a debug ray from the camera position along the camera direction (10 units) when the character is spawned.

public override void OnDebug()

Common Pitfalls

CinemachineCamera must be a child of the character prefab OnInitialize() searches via GetComponentInChildren<CinemachineCamera>(true). If the camera is not a child of the character hierarchy, initialization will fail with a NullReferenceException.

CinemachineInputAxisController required on camera GameObject The input controller is fetched from the same GameObject as the CinemachineCamera. If it's missing, inputAxisController will be null and Activate()/Deactivate() will throw.

Raycast hits all layers The Raycast() method uses a default Physics.Raycast with no layer mask or max distance. This may detect unintended objects (triggers, terrain, UI blockers). Consider whether layer filtering is needed for your use case.

See Also

• CharacterComponent — base class for all character services

• ParagonComponent<T> — generic component base class