Make a Platformer in GameMaker! Part 3 (Smooth Camera)

[@NeonWidow]

By far the best tutorial series I've come across. Thank you!

[@Kai-0425]

Hey, just finished this episode, and I wanted to let you know that you are helping me learn game dev so much. I started with an old Shaun Spalding video, but things had changed in Gamemaker since then, and things were kind of buggy. Then i found your videos, and I started with your RPG series, with helped me learn a lot of things, then I decided to take a break from it and work on this! So, thank you for helping me, and so many other people. You're actually amazing. Oh, and FYI, f11 is normally the button to go fullscreen in games.

[@ryanb2633]

You're my new favorite tutorial dev for sure. Quick, informative and not boring!

[@poptartmools]

Its crazy how you even added a camera to this tutorial! Im so glad thought, Thanks a lot.

[@peytonburnham4316]

I figured it would be a fun quasi-bonus video to have in here somewhere!

[@True_Insomniac]

IMPORTANT!!!: If your fullscreen thing doesn't work, make sure three things happen: 1. You went into the options, then windows, then graphics, and Allow fullscreen switching is on 2. You deleted the camera after the buffering room which already has a camera (must be a persistent object!) 3. You typed: if keyboard_check_pressed(vk_f11) { window_set_fullscreen(!window_get_fullscreen()); } (You can use any vk key, I just preffer f11)

[@JoeKashuba]

Thank you!

[@True_Insomniac]

@@JoeKashuba No worries :)

[@CazthesillyWizard]

Thank you so much

[@True_Insomniac]

@@CazthesillyWizard Happy to help!

[@toyo8460]

Thanks!

[@bearwillow6108]

Just joined your Patreon! Thank you so much for this amazing series!

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thank you so much!!!

[@BoPro_]

Love the series!

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thank you!!

[@shadowSquall1]

Great video. You've got a clear and easy to follow teaching style. While I have some version of what you've shown in the camera, the smoothing techniques and how to start the camera where the player starts was really useful! If you're taking suggestions, I'd love to see q more indepth camera tutorial for things like zooming/switching targets/panning over a scene/changing resolution etc. Either way, great job!

[@peccunz]

and the master of GML who helped me on my coding journey is back again wahoo!!!

[@nevm5776]

For some reason, the camera trail doesnt work for me, i literally followed every step as shown :(

[@MasterHoshii]

drag the oCamera object in the room

[@o2arya104]

geforce notification : *pops up* Peyton : You !? I HATE U!

[@AlexBarrGameDev]

This is great! I'm loving this series. It's funny but the part about choosing a full screen button got me thinking. I ALWAYS use f4 as my full screen toggle button - I started using GameMaker 4.3 and a few weeks later 5.0 was released. Back then, all the function keys were hard coded and couldn't be changed. For every game project f5 was save game, f6 was load game and f4 was full screen. I can't remember what the other function keys did, but I was so used to pressing f4 to toggle full screen that when GameMaker Studio came out and you finally had the option to make it whatever you wanted, I just kept it out of habit.

[@peytonburnham4316]

Thats interesting because i also use f4! When i was first learning gamemaker, it was in the wake of undertale which is f4 also. And thats probably why haha! So in a roundabout way that’s most likely also the reason i do that!

[@AlexBarrGameDev]

@@peytonburnham4316 that’s awesome! Yeah I think undertale was started in GameMaker 7 or 8 so that definitely makes sense

[@RemainingAxis565]

Anyone else here watching tutorials For fun?

[@Dark_Peace]

Anyone else watching tutorials without even using this engine ?

[@KarlJAisthegoat]

The fullscreen isnt working for me and i dont know Why i followed the instructions

[@dethtreeorigin]

Hey don't know if you still need help but I saw that changing it to be like this allows it to work //Fullscreen toggle if keyboard_check_pressed(vk_f8) { if window_get_fullscreen() { window_set_fullscreen(false); } else { window_set_fullscreen(true); } }

[@KarlJAisthegoat]

@@dethtreeorigin thanks ill check it out in the morning

[@saphi20]

wouldnt having the buffer room on top cause problems later on if we add the main menu and stuff? or does the exit code prevent that?

[@peytonburnham4316]

No it should be totally fine! Again it just spits you out to the next room in your room order so it really is *just* a buffer. You can absolutely put a main menu room or even a startup splash screen right after it and itll be fine! Just make sure any persistent objects you create there check to make sure you player exists and stuff like that!

[@joshuadaugherty2267]

Make sure you put the camera code in the step event and not the create event. I was so confused why it wasn't following, but going to the players original position.

[@deanallen3047]

Can anyone help followed everything exactly as far as im aware but keep getting error GM1030 the identifier 'y' is reserved and cannot be used as a variable name..? Object: OCamera Event: step at line 9 : cannot redeclare a builtin variable ?

[@chaco-province]

This doesn't work for me, I drag the camera object into my room and it stays like theres none, it doesn't scroll, nor follow the player. What can I do to fix it?

[@raidenxmlfnf6664]

The camTrailSpd is still same speed even if I lower it

[@ZODDtheApostle]

You must've forgotten to change the last line of code in //set camera coordinates It should be: camera_set_view_pos(view_camera[0], finalCamX, finalCamY); I made that mistake too lol

[@nevm5776]

@@ZODDtheApostle i have the same problem as the other guy, i literally followed every step, its the same for me

[@happy_havok]

Hey! Love this series so far! Just had a question that I can't seem to find an answer for, and I can't tell if it's just me missing something or not. But when I pressed the button to go fullscreen, it just says Resizing Swap Chain in the Output, and that's it. It doesn't toggle in or out of fullscreen. Do you or anyone else in the comments know what is going on?

[@peytonburnham4316]

It sounds like you may have forgotten the ! before window_get_fullscreen()? so if you have window_set_fullscreen( window_get_fullscreen() ) instead of window_set_fullscreen( !window_get_fullscreen() ) then you would just be setting your fullscreen to be in the same state as it already is. If not you also may be accidentally using keyboard_check instead of keyboard_check_pressed? Otherwise I can't really think of anything! Sorry!

[@happy_havok]

@@peytonburnham4316 Thank you so much for the reply. I remembered both, but it still wasnt working. Then i literally just.... retyped it, and now it works. I... I don't know what changed, but you know what? I'll take it.

[@CookiePubblePum]

i'm also having this problem, and i've written the code exactly as shown in the video. i've tried it with different buttons and it still hasn't worked. i've copy pasted the code into this comment // fullscreen toggle if keyboard_check_pressed(vk_f8) { window_set_fullscreen( !window_get_fullscreen() ); } i'm not sure why it doesn't work :/

[@etogodoy]

I'm having this problem too, just finished the video. I tryed some game optios>windows>graphics options, like checked "Allow fullscreen switching", "Start fullscreen" and others, but still doesn't work. update: just testing stuff, if I leave it like window_set_fullscreen(true); it toggle the fullscreen all right (just doesn't toggle off, obviously)

[@siamemex1555]

Hi, I hope you managed to sort out the "Resizing Swap Chain" issue. I was having the same issue, it was due to me not deleting the camera from the rm_mainGame. I had one oCamera in rm_init and another oCamera in rm_gameMain. Deleting the oCamera from the rm_mainGame solved my issue.

[@CraigHodson-e8m]

I cant believe how long I spent looking for one typing error! it finally works though. on to the next

[@rekefisk4761]

Thank you! You gave me the solution to all my problems.

[@evilbot2099]

what would i do if i wanted the camera to keep the player lower on screen, if for example the room was big and it couldn't clamp to the bottom?

[@5-Volts]

my fullscreen dont work

[@KoolDude-lf9jh]

Same

[@KoolDude-lf9jh]

Keep scrolling down someone already explained

[@DanielFelistoque]

How can i do a splitscreen game with cameras follow each one of the players?

[@hyperdespite]

What happened to _camX and Y in Step event ? There is no var _camX ?

[@-Ton-]

For some reason my _camHeight is purple instead of yellow and the camera breaks because of it. How do you fix this?

[@chickenlover2345]

Did u declare it as a variable in a previous line of code? If it's yellow, it means for that code file (create, step, roomstart, etc.) that variable is only accesseble to that file, and it turns pruple. But if it's not declared as a variable with var, then it turns purple, and it's considered a local variable for the entire object. Hope this helps!

[@-Ton-]

​@@chickenlover2345 thanks!

[@twsamoht3165]

I did everything and this works just fine ! I just have this strange graphic bugs where the pixels of some platforms strangely zigzags when I'm on fullscreen and moving. I don't know if someone had the same problem or have the solution. I'll eventually try to deal with it later

[@ClockMaster_3100]

Hey is it possible you could extend the Top-Down RPG series with how to make a Party system?

[@nightshock906]

Full screen did not work for me. I followed everything and when I hit f8 it says resizing swap chain… Then nothing happens.

[@mutatedcode1056]

Try setting it to a different key.

[@toyo8460]

@@mutatedcode1056 I doubt that would change anything, make sure you have allow fullscreen switching on in settings under windows and then graphics and that there isn't a camera left in your main room.

[@dillondow8603]

@@toyo8460 This is the solution. If you're getting "resizing swap chain" it likely means you left your camera in your main room after creating the initialize room and putting a camera in there. Two camera objects will mess things up

[@Celcius3b]

@@dillondow8603 this was it after an hour of messing with tons of settings i forgot to remove the camera in the main room.

[@NanoDun]

Hey man I LOVE this series so much! I can't take you enough for doing this tutorial this is by far the best one i've seen. Also I know i'm late but i've got a question: my camera doesn't want to follow my player even though go at a low Y axis. (up) so my player will just get out of the camera's range and will continue to go up without the camera following. Got any ideas of what causes that?

[@o2arya104]

In ur //contrain cam to room, u must have clamped it 0 for the minimum value, but if ur player goes below 0 (in this case, above 0), the camera will stop following cause its not supposed to go above 0. Try changing the second value of the _camY = (a,b,c) to what fits ur game/ ur room size

[@crimsononyoutube01]

@@o2arya104 Thank you this fixed my issue

[@Questionable_Insights]

Hey, as long as it work with pixel art :)

[@berserk9147]

Not to be that guy but, did you teach how to make the characters run through lopes in the first 2 videos? because i watched those over and over and dont remember that.

[@toyo8460]

He said that this is the fiinished project, he recorded this afterwards.

[@Fire_Jacket]

getting somewhere

[@Chillbot17]

I've encountered an issue with my camera. It remains seemingly consistent, capturing the dimensions of the room in the scaled up window, however there is a weird interaction when moving from a menu I added to the actual level. The main menu does not have the player, but the very next room does. What I thought would happen is that the code would keep checking for the player and show things as normal, the set dimensions for the initial camera just with extra space left out of the camera. But when I enter the level, which I set the width to be twice as large as the initialize and menu rooms, the camera views the whole room in a squashed perspective. Not sure how to fix it as, before the menu room was added, everything worked fine. Also I did make sure the camera object is persistent.

[@chickenlover2345]

I'm pretty new to game design and coding and gamemaker in general. But maybe you could add the player secretly in the main menu, and just make it's code not work and his sprite not visible there? In theory it should be a cheap workaround, but like i said, I'm not the most experienced. Hope this helps!