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Party Look

PartyLook adds right-mouse free-look to the party camera. Hold the right mouse button to pan and tilt the view freely within configurable limits. Release to snap back to center — or, if you dragged far enough horizontally, to trigger an automatic 90° snap turn that actually rotates the party and updates the grid.

Requires PartyVisuals on the same GameObject.

Setup

  1. Select the party root (the GameObject with PartyVisuals).
  2. Add Component → Party Look.
  3. Adjust sensitivity and angle limits in the Inspector.

The component auto-detects the child Camera transform. No wiring needed.

Inspector reference

Look Settings

Field Default What it does
Look Sensitivity 0.12 How many degrees the camera rotates per pixel of mouse drag. Higher = snappier.
Max Vertical Angle 30° Maximum up/down tilt.
Max Horizontal Angle 80° Maximum left/right pan before a snap-turn takes over (see below).
Return Time 0.2 s How long the camera takes to ease back to center after releasing RMB.

Snap Turn

Field Default What it does
Snap Turn Threshold 30 px Horizontal drag distance (in screen pixels) that triggers an automatic 90° turn instead of a free-look return.
Snap Turn Curve EaseInOut Easing for the snap-turn animation.
Return Curve EaseInOut Easing for the return-to-center animation.

How it works

Free-look

While the right mouse button is held, PartyLook offsets the camera's localRotation using the raw pixel delta from the start of the drag:

rotation.x = -deltaY * sensitivity   (clamped to ±maxVerticalAngle)
rotation.y =  deltaX * sensitivity   (clamped to ±maxHorizontalAngle)

The cursor is hidden during free-look and restored on release. Free-look is suppressed while the party is animating or an animation is playing, and when the pointer is over a UI element.

On release — return or snap

When RMB is released, PartyLook checks the accumulated horizontal drag:

  • |rotation.y| < snapTurnThreshold → ReturnToNeutral: the camera eases back to Quaternion.identity over returnTime seconds.
  • |rotation.y| ≥ snapTurnThreshold → DoSnapTurn: the component calls TurnRight() or TurnLeft() on GridCoreBridge, cancels PartyVisuals's pending turn animation, and plays its own smooth arc-pivot that simultaneously rotates the party root and sweeps the camera to neutral.
flowchart LR
    RMB_release{RMB released}
    RMB_release -- "drag < threshold" --> ReturnToNeutral
    RMB_release -- "drag ≥ threshold" --> DoSnapTurn
    DoSnapTurn --> TurnParty[TurnLeft / TurnRight in GridCoreBridge]
    DoSnapTurn --> ArcPivot[Arc-pivot animation]
    ArcPivot --> Neutral[Camera returns to center]

Snap-turn arc pivot

The snap-turn is more than a simple lerp. The camera position is swept along an arc around the party root:

  1. Record the world position and rotation of the camera at the moment RMB is released.
  2. Rotate the camera position around the party root pivot by the turn angle over returnTime.
  3. Simultaneously slerp the camera rotation from its current free-look orientation to the new neutral (post-turn) forward.

This prevents the camera from cutting through geometry and keeps the view centred on the pivot point.

Interaction with other components

Component Interaction
PartyVisuals PartyLook calls CancelCurrentAnimation() at the start of a snap-turn to prevent two conflicting rotation coroutines running at once.
PartyInputHandler No direct coupling. Both read from the same GridCoreBridge, so a snap-turn from PartyLook registers as a normal turn for input purposes.
PartyBobbing No coupling. Both use LateUpdate; bobbing applies only during IsAnimating which is false during snap-turn.
EventSystem Free-look is suppressed when EventSystem.IsPointerOverGameObject() is true, so UI clicks don't start a look drag.

Troubleshooting

Right-click free-look doesn't work

Check that PartyLook is on the same GameObject as PartyVisuals and that a Camera exists in the children. The component logs nothing when disabled; if it's inactive, the camera GetComponentInChildren<Camera>() returned null.

Snap-turn fires when I just wanted to look

Lower Snap Turn Threshold is more aggressive; raise it to require a longer drag. The default (30 px) works well at 1080p; on high-DPI displays you may want to increase it.

Camera snaps to a wrong angle after a snap-turn

Make sure only one PartyLook is in the scene. If PartyVisuals is also playing a turn animation simultaneously, CancelCurrentAnimation() stops it — but if you have a custom component that also drives the party root rotation, they will fight. Use Script Execution Order to ensure PartyLook runs after any other rotation writers.

Cursor stays hidden after releasing RMB

isFreeLooking is set to false and Cursor.visible = true in the same frame RMB is released. If the game loses focus mid-drag, the flag can get stuck. Add a fallback in your pause/unfocus handler: Cursor.visible = true.

Dungeon Crawler Framework — Mantis3de