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Taking Photos

(NEW) This feature is valid for Expeditions only.

Overview

The Taking Photos (or Camera) minigame allows the player to take photos of objects or views of the level.

To successfully take a photo, the player needs to locate a target object or a level point and match the target zoom and focus intervals while looking through the camera.

Setup

The general setup of a zone and a stage for this miningame is performed as described in Minigames: Overview.

For the Taking Photos minigame, the MinigameCamera settings should be selected in the setting field of the ZonePropertyMinigame prop.

These settings are the following:

  • uiWinHeader – (Not used) The UI text of the header is not displayed for the Taking Photos minigame.
  • uiWinDesc – (Not used) The main UI text is not displayed for the Taking Photos minigame.
  • delayWinMs – Delay of the win popup, in milliseconds.
  • showTryAgainPopup – Whether or not should the Try Again popup be shown if the player fails to pass the minigame.
  • exitSound – The sound that will be played when the player leaves the minigame. For details on specifying links to sound files, see Adding Sounds.
  • timeToSolve – The time limit for winning the minigame. If the player exceeds this limit while playing, the minigame is considered failed and closes. In the original game, this parameter is always set to -1, which corresponds to unlimited period of time.
  • name – The identifier of this minigame within this zone that is used by the corresponding stage of the objective. See Minigames: Overview for details.
  • inputWinMinigameLink – (Not customizable during modding).
  • requiredAbilities – (Should not be used).

  • setting – Settings of the minigame itself. You need to select the MinigameCameraSetting here, it is required.

    • cameraSubtitle – The name of the object that needs to be shot. Will be displayed to the player in the UI.

    • employerName – The internal identifier of the employer.

      NOTE: Currently, this field is not displayed when configuring this minigame. It is a known issue that will be fixed. (TBD)

    • employerTitle – The UI text that will be displayed in the lower right corner of the photo (bold text, 1st line). In the original game, typically, the same value as cameraSubtitle (name of the object) is used for this field.

    • employerSubtitle – The UI text that will be displayed in the lower right corner of the photo (regular text, 2nd line). In the original game, typically, the value of this field is based on the selected employer. E.g., "By Expeditions Inc".

    • maxFocusExpected – The upper limit of the target focus interval.

    • minFocusExpected – The lower limit of the target focus interval.

      NOTE: To take successful photo, the value of the focus should be less than maxFocusExpected and greater than minFocusExpected.

    • maxZoomExpected – The upper limit of the target zoom interval.

    • minZoomExpected – The lower limit of the target zoom interval.

      NOTE: To take successful photo, the value of the zoom should be less than maxZoomExpected and greater than minZoomExpected.

    • dirAngleExpected – The conventional precision with which the player should aim the camera at the target object. Even the value of 0.99 can be good for large objects.

    • positionSubjectForPhoto – The coordinates of the target object that the player needs to shoot/aim at.

    • startCameraPosition – The coordinates of the camera point from which the shooting will be made by the player.

    • startCameraDir – The initial direction of the camera at the beginning of the minigame. Typically, this direction should not be aiming at the target object, to allow players to find it by themselves.

      WARNING: If you leave startCameraDir with 0 values, the minigame will not work and there will be crash at the start of the minigame.

Tuning Procedure

You can tune the settings of this minigame as follows:

  1. In the Expeditions Editor, select the object that you want the player to shoot and view its coordinates (Position). These coordinates will go to the positionSubjectForPhoto field of the minigame settings.

    NOTE: The coordinates shown in the Position fields of the object are the coordinates of the pivot of the object, so you may still need to tune them in the case of the large object. If you want the player to take the photo not of the particular object, but of the particular view, you can add the small object to the scene, place it in the necessary location, write down its coordinates, and then remove the object.

  2. Now, we need to identify the startCameraPosition coordinates:

    • In the Editor, move the camera to the necessary point of the level and set its correct direction (roughly).
    • Show the exact values of the current camera position and direction, by pressing the Statistics () button on the toolbar or pressing CTRL + T.
    • Use the camera position values as the startCameraPosition coordinates.

    NOTE: See Tip on cameraPos and cameraDir values for details.

  3. Now, still in the Editor, we can set startCameraDir:

    • In the Editor, with the camera being in the same position, change the direction of the camera (to avoid direct aiming at the object).
    • As in the step 2 above, using the Statistics () shown for the camera, set the camera direction values as the startCameraDir values.

  4. Now, we need to set up correct focus and zoom values:

    1. Save your changes, pack the level and open it in the game itself, as a local mod.

      NOTE: Loading the level as the local mod means the regular loading of the level after packing, without uploading it to mod.io.

    2. Open the roughly configured minigame, and, within the minigame itself, locate the target object (the cameraSubtitle label at the top will become green) and set the zoom and focus values with which the object looks good and sharp.

      NOTE: The precision with which you will need to aim the camera at the target object is controlled by the dirAngleExpected parameter.

    3. If you have opened the map as the local mod (see above), then, while being in the minigame, the necessary cam zoom and cam focus values are displayed instead of the ZOOM and FOCUS labels.

    4. Based on the identified cam zoom and cam focus values, specify the minFocusExpected/maxFocusExpected and minZoomExpected/maxZoomExpected limits.
      For example, if the cam focus value was 68.51, you could set minFocusExpected as 66 and maxFocusExpected as 71. The process for the cam zoom value is similar.

  5. Save your changes to the minigame settings. Then, if necessary, restart the game and test the final settings of the minigame.