GameCam Configuration

GameCam should work just fine without any special configuration, but may look and behave much better with it. The following first two sections explain how to tweak the CHASE camera and the ACTION camera target selection. The third section deals with fixed cameras (how to define and use them), and the last section is a description of the simple script language used for programming the GameCam ticker tape.

CHASE Camera Target Selection

 The GameCam CHASE camera has two modes of operation: Obviously, in order to get the best results, GameCam has to figure out who are the chased player's opponents and who are his team mates. The problem is that different mods use different ways to distinguish between teams.

By default GameCam detects teams by following the next rules:

But not all CTF games use skins for teams, and other mods use other methods (e.g. HeadHunters uses disks). GameCam can be configured to distinguish between teams by looking at their model, skin, gun, and auxiliary models 2, 3 and 4 (e.g. HeadHunters disks). To do that just set the flag GCF_TEAMS (8192) in gc_flags, and set gc_teams to one of the following values: "skin", "model", "gun", "model2", "model3" or "model4".

Long explanation, short solution ...

ACTION Camera Target Selection

The ACTION camera may be configured to focus on specific types of players, based on a priority list.

By default, the ACTION camera focuses on the player that can see the maximum number of players (favoring players with larger frag counts). This behavior may not suit some mods - e.g. in CTF the camera should favor flag carriers, and in HeadHunters the camera should focus on players carrying the largest number of heads.

When using the priority based target selection scheme, GameCam first attempts to find a player that matches one of the potential targets specified in gamecam.ini. If a match is found, GameCam focuses on that player (favoring players that see the most players and have the most frags). If a match is not found, GameCam reverts to the default selection scheme, and attempts to find the spot where most of the players are located.

Each game folder should have its own gamecam.ini (if needed). This file holds a list of potential targets, grouped by priority. Each target is specified as "<type> <value>", where <type> is one of the following:

Several example configuration files are available for download.

Note that gamecam.ini contains the target list only and is not used for anything else. Any console variable setting should be placed in your server's configuration script (autoexec.cfg, server.cfg etc.).

Fixed Cameras

The ACTION camera can find its way around the map without any help. The dynamic behavior of the camera generates very cool shots most of the time. However, sometimes it looks better if the camera always films the action from the same position in certain areas of the map.

To enable this you can define fixed cameras for each area in each map that you think would be best covered from specific positions. GameCam uses fixed cameras as long as the player being filmed is visible by some camera. When the player goes out of sight GameCam reverts to the free moving ACTION camera, until another camera has the player in view.

So here's what you should do:

The new camera file will be auto-loaded by GameCam the next time you load that map, so that the above procedure can be used to edit an existing camera file. To test your work I recommend you run the map with bots, to see whether the resulting camera behavior looks good.

IMO it's not a good idea to cover all the map with cameras - a better approach seems to use fixed cameras to cover large (open) areas or strategic spots, and let the free moving camera have control over the rest of the map.

Ticker Tape Scripts

The GameCam ticker tape can be programmed with a simple script language which is a subset of the script language used to program the Java LEDSign Applet.

Script Commands
Commands Parameters
All script commands have parameters:

Note that some parameters have no effect on some commands so they are simply ignored if encountered.

Text Codes
The ticker text may include the following escape sequences and codes: These escape sequences are also available for the General Admission MOTD.
Using The Script
After writing down your script save it to the current game folder with extension ".led". Set gc_ticker to be the name of this script file without the extension (e.g. "myscript" for "myscript.led"). The script will be loaded as soon as someone becomes a spectator.
Example Script
The following script is the internal script used by GameCam when gc_ticker doesn't point to any valid script file. 

Do
   Appear center=true text=\!GameCam\! v1.02
   Sleep delay=10
   ScrollLeft center=true text=\x90\x80\x91 1998-99, Avi \"\!Zung!\!\" Rozen
   Sleep delay=10
   ScrollRight center=true text=http://www.telefragged.com/\!zungbang\!
   Do
      Sleep delay=3
      Appear center=true text=http://www.telefragged.com/zungbang
      Sleep delay=3
      Appear center=true text=http://www.telefragged.com/\!zungbang\!
   Repeat times=3
   Sleep delay=10
   ScrollLeft center=true text=\!TOP SCORES\! . . .
   ScrollLeft endspace=39 text=\{sb}
   Sleep delay=10
   Appear center=true text=type '\!camera\!' to see the menu
   Sleep delay=10
   ScrollRight center=true text=\!GameCam\! v1.02
Repeat times=-1