blog:2023:0221_nervland_simple_camera [NervTech's Wiki]

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====== NervLand: A simple camera implementation ======

{{tag>dev cpp vulkan nervland}}

Hello world! Continuing our journey with vulkan I feel I'm now ready to build a dedicated "camera" class, and then figure out how to send user inputs to that camera: after all, all we really need here are the mouse events from the SDL window, right ? So, can't be that terrible to implement 🤣 Let's get started!

====== ======

===== Initial Camera class =====

  * Continuing with the previous article on this topic, what I need here is a "Camera class" from which I could just retrieve the view matrix and the projection matrix, or the combination of both (with the view matrix inverted).
  * Naturally I will simply call this class "Camera" and here is the initial version of it: <sxh cpp; highlight: []>class NVVULKAN_EXPORT Camera : public nv::RefObject {
    NV_DECLARE_NO_COPY(Camera)
    NV_DECLARE_NO_MOVE(Camera)
  public:
    /** Camera constructor */
    explicit Camera();

    /** Camera destructor */
    ~Camera() override;

    /** Set the view matrix as a look at matrix */
    void set_look_at(const nv::Vec3f& eye, const nv::Vec3f& target,
                     const nv::Vec3f& up) {
        _view.make_look_at(eye, target, up);
        _viewInvDirty = true;
        _viewProjDirty = true;
    }

    /** Set the projection as a perspective */
    void set_perspective(float fovy, float aspect, float znear, float zfar) {
        _proj.make_perspective(fovy, aspect, znear, zfar);
        _projInvDirty = true;
        _viewProjDirty = true;
    }

    /** Get the view matrix */
    auto get_view() const -> const nv::Mat4f& { return _view; }

    /** Get the view inverse matrix */
    auto get_view_inverse() -> const nv::Mat4f&;

    /** Get the projection matrix */
    auto get_projection() const -> const nv::Mat4f& { return _proj; }

    /** Get the projection inverse matrix */
    auto get_projection_inverse() -> const nv::Mat4f&;

    /** Get view projection matrix: this is computed internally as
    proj*viewInv */
    auto get_view_projection() -> const nv::Mat4f&;

  protected:
    /** Storage for the view matrix */
    nv::Mat4f _view;
    bool _viewInvDirty{true};
    nv::Mat4f _viewInv;

    /** Storage for the projection matrix */
    nv::Mat4f _proj;
    bool _projInvDirty{true};
    nv::Mat4f _projInv;

    /** Storage for view projection matrix */
    nv::Mat4f _viewProj;
    bool _viewProjDirty{true};
};</sxh>


===== Using the camera class =====

  * Next, in our cube rotator updater, let's try to use this new camera class instead of providing the projection and view matrices manually.
  * => Here is the updated implementation for the SimpleCubeRotator: <sxh cpp; highlight: []>struct SimpleCubeRotator : public GraphUpdater {
    nv::RefPtr<PushConstants> pushc{nullptr};
    U32 offset{0};
    Vec3f axis;
    float speed;
    float startTime{-1.0F};
    nv::RefPtr<Camera> camera;

    SimpleCubeRotator(PushConstants* pushc, const Vec3f& axis, float speed,
                      Camera* cam, U32 offset)
        : pushc(pushc), offset(offset), axis(axis), speed(speed), camera(cam){};

    void update(FrameDesc& fdesc) override;
};

void SimpleCubeRotator::update(FrameDesc& fdesc) {
    auto& barr = pushc->get_bytearray();

    // compute the rotation angle:
    if (startTime < 0.0) {
        startTime = (float)fdesc.frameTime;
    }
    float elapsed = (float)fdesc.frameTime - startTime;
    float angle = toRad(elapsed * speed);

    // Create the rotation matrix:
    auto rot = Mat4f::rotate(angle, axis);

    // Compute the final transform matrix:
    auto mat = camera->get_view_projection() * rot;

    // Write the matrix into the push constant buffer:
    barr.write_mat4f(mat, offset);
}

auto create_simple_cube_rotator(PushConstants* pushc, const Vec3f& axis,
                                float speed, Camera* cam, U32 offset)
    -> nv::RefPtr<GraphUpdater> {
    return nv::create_ref_object<SimpleCubeRotator>(pushc, axis, speed, cam,
                                                    offset);
}</sxh>

  * Next we should create the camera object in lua and pass it to the updater: <sxh lua>    -- Create on simple cube rotator:
    local axis = nv.Vec3f(1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
    local speed = 30.0
    local view = nv.Mat4f.look_at(nv.Vec3f(0.0, 0.0, -50.0), nv.Vec3f(0.0, 0.0, 0.0), nv.Vec3f(0.0, -1.0, 0.0))
    local proj = nv.Mat4f.perspective(math.rad(60.0), 1.333, 1.0, 100.0)
    -- local proj = nv.Mat4f.ortho(-30, 30, -30, 30, 0.0, 100.0)

    -- Create our camera object:
    local cam = nvk.Camera()
    cam:set_view(view)
    cam:set_projection(proj)

    local updater = nvk.create_simple_cube_rotator(pushc, axis, speed, cam, 0)
    rgraph:add_updater(updater)</sxh>

  * And with that I should get the same visual results as before... checking... And no LOL... just a completely gray background 🤣 So I messed something up. Let's see...
  * **OK**: fixed now: this was a stupid typo in ''Camera::get_view_projection()''

===== Designing a camera controller =====

  * For our camear controller we need to intercept mouse events from the window, so the controller should accept the SDL window as parameter.
  * **Note**: currently our handlers in the window class are defined to be a simple ''std::function'': let's turn these into dedicated functors instead: I think this would be more flexible on the long run.
  
  * Okay so I got a bit side-tracked lately, but now let's try to focus on the camera controller again...
  * So here is the initial version of a TargetCamerController I created: <sxh cpp; highlight: []>namespace nvk {

TargetCameraController::TargetCameraController(Camera* cam, nv::Window* window,
                                               nv::Vec3f target, nv::Vec3f pos,
                                               float viewDist)
    : CameraController(cam), _targetPosition(target), _cameraPosition(pos),
      _viewDistance(viewDist) {
    logDEBUG("Creating TargetCameraController object.");
    connect_handlers(window);
}

TargetCameraController::~TargetCameraController() {
    logDEBUG("Deleting TargetCameraController object.");

    // Disconnect the event handlers:
    disconnect_handlers();
}

void TargetCameraController::disconnect_handlers() {
    if (_window == nullptr) {
        // nothing to do:
        return;
    }
    for (auto* h : _handlers) {
        _window->remove_event_handler(h);
    }
    _handlers.clear();
}

void TargetCameraController::connect_handlers(nv::Window* win) {

    if (win == _window) {
        // Nothing to do:
        return;
    }

    // Disconnect any previous handlers:
    disconnect_handlers();

    if (win == nullptr) {
        return;
    }

    // Connect the handlers:
    auto* h = win->add_mouse_motion_handler([this](int x, int y, int state) {
        // logDEBUG("Camera Controller: mouse motion event: {}, {}, {}", x, y,
        //          state);
        // if the state is 1, then our mouse button is pressed, and we want to
        // perform a rotation: use the position offset from the last time:
        if (!_dragging && state == 1) {
            _dragging = true;
            _mouseX = x;
            _mouseY = y;
        }
        if (_dragging && state == 0) {
            _dragging = false;
        }

        if (!_dragging) {
            return false;
        }

        I32 dx = x - _mouseX;
        I32 dy = y - _mouseY;
        _mouseX = x;
        _mouseY = y;

        // Update the theta/phi angles:
        _theta -= dx * 0.004;
        _phi -= dy * 0.004;

        return true;
    });

    _handlers.push_back(h);
}

void TargetCameraController::update() {
    // Update the camera matrix here:

    // We should update the camera position using the current orientation:
    auto att =
        nv::Quatd(_phi, nv::VEC3D_RIGHT) * nv::Quatd(_theta, nv::VEC3D_UP);
    ;
    nv::Vec3f forward(att * nv::VEC3D_FWD);
    // logDEBUG("Forward vector is: {}", forward);
    // logDEBUG("Forward vector length: {}", forward.length());

    _cameraPosition = _targetPosition - forward * _viewDistance;
    // logDEBUG("Updated camera position is: {}", _cameraPosition);

    _camera->set_look_at(_cameraPosition, _targetPosition, _upDirection);
}

} // namespace nvk</sxh> /*//*/


===== Conclusion =====

  * I then started to use this target camera controller in lua as follow: <sxh lua>    -- Create our camera object:
    local cam = nvk.Camera()
    cam:set_view(view)
    cam:set_projection(proj)

    local updater = nvk.create_simple_cube_rotator(pushc, axis, speed, cam, 0)
    rgraph:add_updater(updater)

    -- Also create a camera target controller here:
    local ctrl = nvk.TargetCameraController(cam, self:getMainWindow(), nv.Vec3f(0.0, 0.0, 0.0), nv.Vec3f(0.0, 0.0, -50.0)
        , 50.0)
    self.camController = ctrl

    local updater = nvk.create_lua_graph_updater(function(fdesc)
        -- logDEBUG("Current frame index is: ", fdesc.frameNumber)
        ctrl:update()
    end)
    rgraph:add_updater(updater)</sxh>

  * And with that change I can now control the camera orientation with the mouse:

{{ blog:2023:0221:target_cam_ctrl.gif?600 }}