top-down camera looking straight down at the player

Camera mode is CameraComponent geometry, not a new component. Top-down and isometric are a fixed camera angle with projection perspective or orthographic plus orthoSize; a side-scroller locks one axis and follows on the others. Switch cameras at runtime by patching active and priority: the highest-priority active camera wins in Play. There is no setCamera host op.

fixed-angle isometric camera

Camera mode is CameraComponent geometry, not a new component. Top-down and isometric are a fixed camera angle with projection perspective or orthographic plus orthoSize; a side-scroller locks one axis and follows on the others. Switch cameras at runtime by patching active and priority: the highest-priority active camera wins in Play. There is no setCamera host op.

side-scroller 2d camera that follows the player

Camera mode is CameraComponent geometry, not a new component. Top-down and isometric are a fixed camera angle with projection perspective or orthographic plus orthoSize; a side-scroller locks one axis and follows on the others. Switch cameras at runtime by patching active and priority: the highest-priority active camera wins in Play. There is no setCamera host op.

switch between multiple cameras at runtime

Camera mode is CameraComponent geometry, not a new component. Top-down and isometric are a fixed camera angle with projection perspective or orthographic plus orthoSize; a side-scroller locks one axis and follows on the others. Switch cameras at runtime by patching active and priority: the highest-priority active camera wins in Play. There is no setCamera host op.

Camera modes top-down isometric side-scroller and switching

The recipe

The camera lives on a separate entity from the avatar (see third-person-and-platformer-movement); tune fields with project_add_component carrying the full { "type":"CameraComponent", ... } value.

Top-down (3d overhead): place the camera entity above the play area, rotate its TransformComponent to look straight down, set followEntityId to the avatar and a high followOffset { "x":0, "y":20, "z":0 }. Keep projection:"perspective" for depth.
Orthographic top-down or isometric: set projection:"orthographic" and orthoSize for the zoom; for isometric, rotate the camera entity to the fixed iso angle (for example yaw 45, pitch 30) and keep it there.
Side-scroller (2d): put the camera to the side with projection:"orthographic" (or a narrow fov perspective), set followEntityId to the avatar, and zero the follow on the locked axis via followOffset so it tracks only horizontal and vertical.
Runtime switching: give each camera a CameraComponent with active:true and a distinct priority. The highest-priority active camera is used in Play. To cut to another camera from a script, ctx.entity.patchComponent the target camera to a higher priority (or flip active) in a GessaScript body.
Follow feel per mode: tune followSmoothing (0 to 1) so an overhead camera glides and a side-scroller stays tight; add lookAtEntityId to keep the avatar centered.

Pitfalls

Two active cameras at the SAME priority are ambiguous; give the intended camera a strictly higher priority.
orthoSize only applies when projection:"orthographic"; setting it on a perspective camera does nothing.
A top-down or isometric camera still needs the entity rotated to the view angle; projection alone does not tilt the view.
Switching by priority is instant. For a smooth move between viewpoints, animate one camera's transform rather than snapping priorities.

Verify

qa_capture_renderer_viewport (qa.renderer.viewport.capture) to confirm the framing and angle read for each mode.
project_get_graph_snapshot to confirm which camera is highest-priority active.

The recipe

Pitfalls

Verify

On this page