Trackball Camera 9.2 3D Tools 4.0 Community

Submitted by user Goutte; MIT; 2024-01-05

A Trackball Camera that responds to input from actions, mouse, keyboard, joystick and touch, in order to rotate around its parent node while continuously facing it, kind of like a satellite in orbit.

- stays around its parent node, even if the latter moves
- no gimbal lock (quaternions ♥)
- optional camera inertia for a smoother experience
- keep the horizon stable if you want
- the parent node does not have to be centered in the camera's view
- can be used to look around itself
- analog camera control with joystick
- smooth and constrained zoom with PGUP / PGDOWN or your own custom action, if you want to use the mouse wheel for example
- constrain pitch, or handle headstands by inverting x
- a bunch of parameters to configure things as you want them
- has been around since Godot 2
- made to be extended

CONS:
- No panning (merge requests welcome)
- No promises (nor patrons)

USAGE
1. Add a TrackballCamera node as child of the node you want to trackball around.
2. Translate the camera along the +Z axis a little bit, so that it faces its parent.
3. Configure the camera.