Camera Collision Question

You know the Camera-to-Target line goes from the camera to your player. So, test this line for collision against the world, or more likely against a simplified version of it (the collision hull, not the rendered hull).

For an obstacle to be in the way, the CtT line must intersect two or more polygons; if you set the normals correctly, these normals point out, away from the "solid" of the world. Take the average of all these normals, or perhaps a weighted one (higher weights to those polygons closer to the camera), and push the camera in that direction. Or, unless the player is ascending/descending a slope or ladder, project that direction into the ground plane, and move the camera along that.

Using that offset vector as an acceleration of the camera's movement, and doing a temporal damp on the camera's velocity, will provide much smoother movement of the camera than applying it directly to the camera's position will.

I hope that helps. If it works like the vector math in my head tells me it will, it would be smooth, intuitive, and nifty.

If you're having trouble picturing that, drop me a line at ( tiog shi @ g ma il.co m, drop the spaces ).

ok thanks a lot! i pretty much got that system running you described.
i am rotating the camera depending on the type of collision with a cell.

the only problem that remains is with corners, where the camera can not escape.
rotating left would lead to a collision AND rotating right would lead to a collision.
in this situation that cameraposition should stay where it is, until the character moves away again, and the camera can be rotated.

the problem i have, is that i can not detect such a type of collision.

thanks