UE4 Tutorial: Ingame Debug Camera (free camera)

[@BreakBackReality]

Thanks, man! I would like to add destroy actor on debug camera, when switch back on player character

[@MarvelMaster]

yes thats a good addition^^^

[@michaelkukula5926]

@BreakBackReality did you ever figure it out? I want to do this too.

[@BreakBackReality]

​@@michaelkukula5926 If you just want to flying the debugging camera while the game is running in editor, you can just press F8 and use the engine's flying camera. If you really need to create a camera object during the game, do as shown in this video, but after posses back to character, it is better to delete this created actor through the Destroy Actor node

[@michaelkukula5926]

@@BreakBackReality hehe I literally just found a solution. I want to do in game not in editor. I created a new spectator pawn and possessed that instead. Then in the event graph for the spectator pawn, I used get all actors of class to bp_firstpersoncharacter > get copy > possess > delay until next tick > destroy actor.

[@BreakBackReality]

@@michaelkukula5926 nice, bro) thats good, but not sure that delay is needed. Just destroy after possess isn't work?

[@Dejin1]

Your tutorials are always done with high quality and you make it very easy to understand great work sir as always! Thanks for the tutorial I will definitely use this!

[@semmehh]

This should be a basic feature, like after pressing f8 you could press like f7 to regain control of you character while the camera is still dispossessed

[@보리타작-x9s]

THX SO MUCH! This is What've most looking for

[@frankcastle2309]

clearly explained and simple, much appreciated :)

[@ISKLEMMI]

Thank you! This is exactly what I needed!

[@TorQueMoD]

This is a great tutorial for a free camera, however, just an FYI, if you press F8 while in PIE (Play in Editor) you can actually detach from the pawn and you've got a free debug camera without the need for any code. That said, this tutorial is great for creating spectator cameras :)

[@MarvelMaster]

Yes but F8 does not work with play in window 😬

[@GamingwithPortals]

@PRED4T0R yea, the pause command pauses all game code, so you cant really do it that way

[@draicor]

@pred4t0r97 you need to look for the blueprint actor that you want to "keep moving" while the game logic is paused, and in the settings, there should be an option that says "tick when paused"

[@bodamat]

Implementation is simple, but it's hard to guess :) Thank you very much!

[@NizioCole]

Very simple, thank you!

[@jerfi6592]

can we change camera FOV on debug camera?

[@AdamHKatona]

Perfect. Thank You!

[@bernardrouhi451]

5:55 there is an Unpossessed event in UE, use `Set Life Span` to auto destroy your pawn

[@Weckmuller]

this helped me a lot! thanks!

[@kenalpha3]

Thanks bro. I read the comments about AI debug camera command. But it didnt work in 4.27 or idk. Anyways, this works to freeze my player mid animation, which is what I want. Very good to zoom in and get diff angles.

[@mingyenwu9621]

Thanks a lot man! :D

[@facepalmedev]

Just be aware, doing this will spawn more debug cameras every time you press P. You can cache the debug camera and check if it already exists to get around it being spawned multiple times if it matters to you.

[@markbevan5771]

Thanks for the tip !

[@epicdudepersonman99]

hey, im trying to make this free camera into the game, not just debug, so how can i make line traces go into where i am looking at? currently they just go directly forward

[@marcfornas1031]

Why not just press f8?

[@MarvelMaster]

Haha this is actually why I made this video... to collect easier ways how other ppl do it

[@Vanderer11]

@@MarvelMaster When you press play in the editor, there we have pause, stop and eject buttons instead. How could you have missed it :D Anyway, your way is still good since it (should) work in packaged project and it can find some use.

[@MarvelMaster]

F8 does nothing for me are you using addon?

[@marcfornas1031]

@@MarvelMaster nop, just press f8 on a default editor ejects from player to move and see around without any addon docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/GettingStarted/HowTo/PIE/index.html Point 8. Is not too explainet but...

[@MarvelMaster]

@@marcfornas1031 well these only works when you are using viewport not standalone window

[@absentcassie]

my camera just teleports to the centre of the map and has no movement control

[@MarvelMaster]

Is you have a english keyboard try press ";"

[@vitgardon4896]

I think you can press ; (the key left of 1) and you can leave the actor with floating control. You can also freeze rendering with some key in this mode

[@MarvelMaster]

Doesnt this only work in viewport mode?

[@vitgardon4896]

@@MarvelMaster It should work everywhere except exported game I think but do not quote me on that :D

[@MarvelMaster]

@@vitgardon4896 hm indeed it works...problem is my native language german does not have this button on keyboard so I have to find a workaround for that...

[@vitgardon4896]

@@MarvelMaster That is a shame. I am from Czech republic and we have it :D I guess it can be change in editor config

[@SaschaRobitzki]

Something like that should be a built-in feature of the UE editor.

[@marcusdev]

You could just press ' for AI debug, then tab to move freely. Or you can use the enable debug camera command from ue4.

[@MarvelMaster]

Haha this is actually why I made this video... to collect easier ways how other ppl do it

[@marcusdev]

@@LuckyPause3d Yessir

[@marcusdev]

@@LuckyPause3d then TAB to get in freemode

[@rastamami]

This tutorial is amazing !! Thank you so much for showing this ! I have a question ... do you know how to move the character while free camera using the arrows or game pad buttons ?

[@MarvelMaster]

Would need another setup because the character is not possessed during debug camera

[@motianshi6364]

nice tutorial. How can I change the moving speed. would be nice for a massive open world level.

[@MarvelMaster]

Not at pc now. But I think you can cast to pawn movement or so and set its fly speed

[@sjru4eu4u45urjdrjrj]

Hi Marvel! Nice Turorial! My character is frozen when I jump from a height. how can i keep the time running for my character?

[@MarvelMaster]

Hm I think its because he gets unpossesed? Somebody said there is another debug mode when pressing ";"

[@realadnoh]

I would suggest using ToggleDebugCamera console command or enableGDT (in viewport play) which both has a lot of features and is not keyboard layout specific. also I would add the spawn default pawn and possess logic into the player controller, so you can save a reference to the original pawn first, spawn and posess the default pawn, and then be able to switch back to the old one. :-)

[@MarvelMaster]

Turns out there are 10 different ways^^

[@bernardrouhi451]

umm... there is such a feature in UE! Press Shift + ' and then Tab to switch to Spectator mode LOL...

[@xplorethings]

Thanks, that kinda works even when paused, although with visual glitches. Coming from Unity, it's hard to believe such essential feature isn't right there where you'd obviously expect it.

[@danielacosta6084]

Is it possible to set the location of the camera manually? I tried setting its transform but instead the pawn got sent to 0, 0, 0, and had no movement controls. Until then I guess I'll try to work with it spawning off of the player.

[@MarvelMaster]

hm usualy you can set camera location with the camera manager...maybe gve that a try

[@danielacosta6084]

@@MarvelMaster oh never mind there was just some other problem with the code it works now.

[@l_t_m_f]

Why does GetInstigator not give me the proper class in the c++ ? It gives me DebugPawn... Edit: Actually, you shouldn't use Instigator. It's not used for this. I went into the source. The comment left by Epic Games says the Insigator is the Pawn responsible for damage and other gameplay events caused by this actor. It cannot be used reliably. As you will discover, it does not work when spawning the Pawn from c++ source. I think it's safer/less cumbersome in the end to keep a reference to the original Character. It's less likely to interfere with Epic Games's systems.

[@MarvelMaster]

jeah its purely blueprint based and since its only a debug thing and nothing for gameplay I think it does not need to be that reliable until some better solutions are found

[@l_t_m_f]

@@MarvelMaster In the end, I was able to replicate the functionality by keeping the original object reference within the GameMode. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@patrikfigo]

UE4.26.2: "GetActorTransform" didn't spawn my DebugPawn in a moveable position. So, I used "GetWorldTransform" and as its target the root object of my player character! (If anyone else needs a workaround :)

[@chopstigdev]

or.. you press the f8 key to switch to simulation...

[@MarvelMaster]

Only in viewport mode

[@chopstigdev]

@@MarvelMaster still its way faster for testing

[@chopstigdev]

@@MarvelMaster but i like the concept of the ingame debug camera 👍

[@MarvelMaster]

@@chopstigdev actually there are multiple ways ";" also works on english keyboards

[@chopstigdev]

@@MarvelMaster true

[@Abhishekchhetri6774]

Just press f8 to possess unpossessed

[@MarvelMaster]

This works only in viewport mode

[@_pastras]

None of this works...

[@MarvelMaster]

Why

[@_pastras]

@@MarvelMaster my input just won’t register. I can switch to the pawn but then there is nothing regarding movement. I setup the logic in the event graph and everything

[@FoxoticTV]

Or you could just put a print string lmao - good tutorial tho

[@MarvelMaster]

Sure print string helps lot of times but does not tell you if a door opened or closed in the right direction

[@FoxoticTV]

@@MarvelMaster Direction as in up or down? I suppose that's how you implement it. you could always branch out different execs and just type in the string area which direction the functionality is supposed to be happening