Allow tool script to alter transform of node 3d editor viewport camera

[Geekotron]

I'd like my plugin/tool script to be able to move the 3d editor's camera. Same as some comments in several issues, e.g.
godotengine/godot-proposals#1302 (comment)
godotengine/godot-proposals#3287 (comment)
godotengine/godot-proposals#3164 (comment)

As others have found, moving/rotating the camera only works temporarily, it springs back to original transform as soon as you pan or navigate.

Cause:
Looking at node_3d_editor_plugin I see it's because camera is updated from a "cursor" and cursor is not exposed to tool script.

Proposed approach:
Rather than expose new methods or properties to script, I thought it would be simplest to have node_3d_editor_plugin look for external changes to the camera transform, and if any occur, to update its cursor to match the manually updated camera position. Seems to work fine.

Before:

After:

Repro project:
cam-move-test.zip

[rossunger]

This looks awesome! Have the godot devs had a chance to discuss / look at this?

[Download]

I'm also keeping a keen eye on this issue. I am planning a terrain system of sorts that should allow for very large terrain and I would like to create some sort of mini-map tool and allow the user to click on the map to move the camera to the relevant part of the terrain. Not being able to control the camera was a showstopper for that.

It would also be great if the zoom level could be controlled in the same way but if I read the comments correctly that is also included in this PR right? I can't wait for this to land. Also I think there are a few people working on terrain stuff for Godot that would also welcome this! 👍

EDIT:
I glossed over this but it seems to be a very elegant solution. The editor tool just maintains a cursor position and instead of always force-updating the camera it first checks if the camera was updated externally and if so, first applies that update to the cursor before using the cursor to synch the editor camera. Very focused patch that adds only the small bit of code to make this work and should be relatively easy to review.

@akien-mga Or other reviewers, did this maybe fall of your radar? Looks like this could be merged quickly as it does not have conflicts, all tests passing and very humble scope / few changes.

[rossunger]

Check out this terrain plugin. It's pretty awesome. Ive made a minimap plugin for it... There's a hack you can use to apply the camera position in editor...it involves injecting a key press for the hotkey for focus_on_selected (f by default). https://github.com/mohsenph69/Godot-MTerrain-plugin This is a draft of my minimap add-on: https://github.com/rossunger/mterrain_minimap

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On Mon, Sept 9, 2024, 2:01 a.m. Stijn de Witt ***@***.***> wrote: I'm also keeping a keen eye on this issue. I am planning a terrain system of sorts that should allow for very large terrain and I would like to create some sort of mini-map tool and allow the user to click on the map to move the camera to the relevant part of the terrain. Not being able to control the camera was a showstopper for that. It would also be great if the zoom level could be controlled in the same way but if I read the comments correctly that is also included in this PR right? I can't wait for this to land. Also I think there are a few people working on terrain stuff for Godot that would also welcome this! 👍 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#93503 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACGZ2R5PBQS2NVIVCCMOPG3ZVVBT5AVCNFSM6AAAAABJYDDECKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDGMZXGI4DKOJRG4> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Calinou]

Tested locally (rebased on top of master 9e60984), it works as expected.

Code looks good to me.

Note that #99499 will likely need to integrate into this, so that externally-set transforms make it exit the follow mode automatically.