cameras

Cameras

Camera system in Phaser 4 -- CameraManager, main camera, viewport vs scroll, zoom, bounds, following sprites, camera effects (fade, flash, shake, pan, zoomTo, rotateTo), ignore lists, filters, and keyboard controls.

Key source paths: src/cameras/2d/CameraManager.js, src/cameras/2d/BaseCamera.js, src/cameras/2d/Camera.js, src/cameras/2d/effects/, src/cameras/controls/ Related skills: ../game-setup-and-config/SKILL.md, ../sprites-and-images/SKILL.md, ../filters-and-postfx/SKILL.md

Quick Start

// In a Scene's create() method:

// Access the default camera (created automatically)
const cam = this.cameras.main;

// Scroll the camera to look at a different part of the world
cam.setScroll(200, 100);

// Center camera on a world coordinate
cam.centerOn(400, 300);

// Zoom in (2x) -- values < 1 zoom out, > 1 zoom in
cam.setZoom(2);

// Follow a sprite with smooth lerp
cam.startFollow(player, false, 0.1, 0.1);

// Constrain the camera to the world bounds
cam.setBounds(0, 0, 2048, 2048);

// Fade in from black over 1 second
cam.fadeIn(1000);

// Add a filter to the camera (v4 feature)
cam.filters.external.addBlur(1, 2);

Core Concepts

CameraManager

Every Scene has a CameraManager accessible via this.cameras. It manages all cameras for that Scene and is registered as a plugin under the key 'CameraManager'.

// The manager is at this.cameras (not this.camera)
this.cameras              // CameraManager instance
this.cameras.cameras      // Array of Camera objects (render order)
this.cameras.main         // Reference to the "main" camera (first one by default)
this.cameras.default      // Un-transformed utility camera (not in the cameras array)

Key methods on CameraManager:

Method	Signature	Description
add	(x?, y?, width?, height?, makeMain?, name?)	Create a new Camera. Defaults to full game size at 0,0. Returns Camera.
addExisting	(camera, makeMain?)	Add a pre-built Camera instance. Returns the Camera or null if it already exists.
remove	(camera, runDestroy?)	Remove and optionally destroy a Camera or array of Cameras. If main is removed, resets to cameras[0].
getCamera	(name)	Find a Camera by its name string. Returns Camera or null.
getTotal	(isVisible?)	Count cameras. Pass true to count only visible ones.
fromJSON	(config)	Create cameras from a config object or array. Used for scene-level camera config.
resetAll	()	Destroy all cameras and create one fresh default camera.
resize	(width, height)	Resize all cameras to given dimensions.