SOCAMERA(3iv)

✨ NAME ✨

okay so SoCamera is the abstract base class for camera nodes, and that's the whole name vibe. 💅

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🧬 INHERITS FROM 🧬

It inherits from SoBase > SoFieldContainer > SoNode > SoCamera. Like, that's its whole ancestry, bestie. 🧬

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📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

First, the include and the iconic defines:

#include <Inventor/nodes/SoCamera.h>

#define SO_ASPECT_SQUARE        1.00
#define SO_ASPECT_VIDEO         1.333333333
#define SO_ASPECT_35mm_ACADEMY  1.371
#define SO_ASPECT_16mm          1.369
#define SO_ASPECT_35mm_FULL     1.33333
#define SO_ASPECT_70mm          2.287
#define SO_ASPECT_CINEMASCOPE   2.35
#define SO_ASPECT_HDTV          1.777777777
#define SO_ASPECT_PANAVISION    2.361
#define SO_ASPECT_35mm          1.5
#define SO_ASPECT_VISTAVISION   2.301

Then there's this enum ViewportMapping with these iconic options:

• SoCamera::CROP_VIEWPORT_FILL_FRAME — Crops the viewport within the current window, so that the aspect ratio matches that of the camera. As the window size changes, the aspect ratio remains unchanged. The cropped region is drawn as a filled gray area. ✨
• SoCamera::CROP_VIEWPORT_LINE_FRAME — Crops the viewport, but draws a thin frame around the viewport. 🎀
• SoCamera::CROP_VIEWPORT_NO_FRAME — Crops the viewport, but gives no visual feedback as to the viewport dimensions within the window. 🙈
• SoCamera::ADJUST_CAMERA — Adjusts the camera aspect ratio and height to make it fit within the given window. (The camera's fields are not affected, just the values sent to the graphics library.) 💅
• SoCamera::LEAVE_ALONE — Do nothing. Camera image may become stretched out of proportion. 💀

Fields from class SoCamera:

SoSFEnum            viewportMapping
SoSFVec3f           position
SoSFRotation        orientation
SoSFFloat           aspectRatio
SoSFFloat           nearDistance
SoSFFloat           farDistance
SoSFFloat           focalDistance

Methods from class SoCamera:

void                  pointAt(const SbVec3f &targetPoint)
virtual void          scaleHeight(float scaleFactor)
virtual SbViewVolume  getViewVolume(float useAspectRatio = 0.0) const
void                  viewAll(SoNode *sceneRoot, const SbViewportRegion
                            &vpRegion, float slack = 1.0)
void                  viewAll(SoPath *path, const SbViewportRegion
                            &vpRegion, float slack = 1.0)
SbViewportRegion      getViewportBounds(const SbViewportRegion &region)
                            const
static SoType         getClassTypeId()

Methods from class SoNode:

void                setOverride(SbBool state)
SbBool              isOverride() const
SoNode *            copy(SbBool copyConnections = FALSE) const
virtual SbBool      affectsState() const
static SoNode *     getByName(const SbName &name)
static int          getByName(const SbName &name, SoNodeList &list)

Methods from class SoFieldContainer:

void                setToDefaults()
SbBool              hasDefaultValues() const
SbBool              fieldsAreEqual(const SoFieldContainer *fc) const
void                copyFieldValues(const SoFieldContainer *fc, SbBool
                          copyConnections = FALSE)
SbBool              set(const char *fieldDataString)
void                get(SbString &fieldDataString)
virtual int         getFields(SoFieldList &resultList) const
virtual SoField *   getField(const SbName &fieldName) const
SbBool              getFieldName(const SoField *field, SbName &fieldName)
                          const
SbBool              isNotifyEnabled() const
SbBool              enableNotify(SbBool flag)

Methods from class SoBase:

void                ref()
void                unref() const
void                unrefNoDelete() const
void                touch()
virtual SoType      getTypeId() const
SbBool              isOfType(SoType type) const
virtual void        setName(const SbName &name)
virtual SbName      getName() const

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so this is the abstract base class for ALL camera nodes. It's the blueprint that defines the common methods and fields every camera has. Cameras are literally how you view a scene. When a camera shows up during rendering, it sets the projection and viewing matrices and the viewport appropriately — it does NOT draw geometry. Not its job. 🚫

Cameras should be placed before any shape nodes or light nodes in a scene graph; otherwise those shapes or lights cannot be rendered properly. That's a warning, bestie. Also cameras are affected by the current transformation, so you can position a camera by placing a transformation node before it in the scene graph. The default position and orientation of a camera is at (0,0,1) looking along the negative z-axis. Periodt.

You can also use a node kit to create a camera; see the reference page for SoCameraKit. 🎀

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🌸 FIELDS 🌸

• SoSFEnum viewportMapping — Defines how to map the rendered image into the current viewport, when the aspect ratio of the camera differs from that of the viewport. 💅
• SoSFVec3f position — The location of the camera viewpoint. 📍
• SoSFRotation orientation — The orientation of the camera viewpoint, defined as a rotation of the viewing direction from its default (0,0,-1) vector. 🌀
• SoSFFloat aspectRatio — The ratio of camera viewing width to height. This value must be greater than 0.0. There are several standard camera aspect ratios defined in SoCamera.h. 📐
• SoSFFloat nearDistance and SoSFFloat farDistance — The distance from the camera viewpoint to the near and far clipping planes. ✂️
• SoSFFloat focalDistance — The distance from the viewpoint to the point of focus. This is typically ignored during rendering, but may be used by some viewers to define a point of interest. 👀

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🦋 METHODS 🦋

• void pointAt(const SbVec3f &targetPoint) — Sets the orientation of the camera so that it points toward the given target point while keeping the "up" direction of the camera parallel to the positive y-axis. If this is not possible, it uses the positive z-axis as "up." 🎯
• virtual void scaleHeight(float scaleFactor) — Scales the height of the camera. Perspective cameras scale their heightAngle fields, and orthographic cameras scale their height fields. 📏
• virtual SbViewVolume getViewVolume(float useAspectRatio = 0.0) const — Returns a view volume structure, based on the camera's viewing parameters. If the useAspectRatio argument is not 0.0 (the default), the camera uses that ratio instead of the one it has. 🔍
• void viewAll(SoNode *sceneRoot, const SbViewportRegion &vpRegion, float slack = 1.0) and void viewAll(SoPath *path, const SbViewportRegion &vpRegion, float slack = 1.0) — Sets the camera to view the scene rooted by the given node or defined by the given path. The near and far clipping planes will be positioned slack bounding sphere radii away from the bounding box's center. A value of 1.0 will make the clipping planes the tightest around the bounding sphere. 🌍
• SbViewportRegion getViewportBounds(const SbViewportRegion &region) const — Returns the viewport region this camera would use to render into the given viewport region, accounting for cropping. 🖼️
• static SoType getClassTypeId() — Returns type identifier for this class. 🆔

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📁 FILE FORMAT/DEFAULTS 📁

This is an abstract class, so there's no format or default values here. Check the reference page of a derived class for that, bestie. 💅

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

SoOrthographicCamera, SoPerspectiveCamera, SoCameraKit — go check them out, they're iconic. ✨

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and that's the whole manual page for SoCamera(3IV)(). The footer says SoCamera(3IV)() so you know it's official. byeee 💖