Flight Path User Guide
A flight path is an animated camera fly-through of your scene. You capture a series of viewpoints (keyframes) from the 3D view, VRGS interpolates a smooth camera path between them, and you can then play it back, fine-tune the timing on a dedicated timeline editor, choreograph which objects are visible at each moment, and record the result to a movie. Flight paths are ideal for presentations, virtual field trips, and rendering polished fly-over videos of an outcrop.
Flight paths run in both the OpenGL and Vulkan 3D views. A few features are currently OpenGL-only (movie recording, gamepad recording, and the slide/presentation overlay) — these are called out below.
Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Viewpoint (control point / keyframe) | A captured camera pose — position, orientation (pitch/roll/yaw), zoom and clip planes. These are the keyframes you edit. |
| Interpolated path | The dense per-frame camera poses VRGS computes between your viewpoints. This is what plays back and records; it is rebuilt automatically whenever you change a viewpoint. |
| Segment | The span between two consecutive viewpoints. Each viewpoint stores a frame count that sets how long the segment takes. |
| Scene | A saved snapshot of object visibility that can be triggered along the path, so objects appear or disappear as the camera flies (see Scenes). |
The camera uses the same drone-style convention as the rest of VRGS: pitch (look up/down), yaw (heading) and roll. Orientation values in the viewpoint properties are shown in radians.
Creating a flight path
- Open the Interpretation tree (the project tree that holds interpretation objects).
- Right-click the Flight Paths branch and create a new flight path. It appears in the tree with empty Viewpoints and Scenes sub-branches.
- Select the flight path. The Flight Path contextual tab appears on the ribbon, and the Flight Path Timeline panel auto-opens at the bottom of the window.
A flight path needs at least two viewpoints before it can be interpolated.
Capturing viewpoints
Navigate the 3D view to the shot you want, then add a viewpoint:
- On the Flight Path ribbon tab, choose Add Viewpoint. The current camera pose (position, orientation, zoom and near/far clip planes) is captured as a new keyframe and added to the path.
- Repeat for each shot. Viewpoints are listed under the flight path's Viewpoints branch and drawn as small camera glyphs in the 3D view.
Toggle Record from Gamepad to capture viewpoints automatically as you fly with a gamepad. A new viewpoint is dropped whenever the camera has moved more than a set distance or rotated more than a set angle since the last one. Tune Record Distance (m) and Record Angle (deg) in the flight path's properties under Gamepad Recording.
Viewpoint properties
Select a viewpoint in the tree to edit it in the properties panel:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| View Position | The camera's X/Y/Z location. |
| Direction/Yaw, Angle/Pitch, Rotation/Roll | Camera orientation, in radians. |
| Zoom Factor | Lens zoom / field-of-view at this viewpoint. |
| Frames | How many frames the segment leaving this viewpoint takes — the primary timing control. |
| SmoothStep | Ease the motion in and out of this viewpoint (for the per-segment interpolation methods). |
You can also update a viewpoint to the current camera (right-click it, or use the timeline — see below), and copy / paste / duplicate viewpoints from the tree context menu.
Building the path
Once you have two or more viewpoints, build the interpolated path from the ribbon:
- Create Path — an open path from the first viewpoint to the last.
- Create Closed Path — a loop that returns from the last viewpoint back to the first.
Interpolation method
The method is set in the flight path properties. Smooth (the default) is recommended for camera work:
| Method | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Smooth | A time-aware spline with continuous velocity and rotation across every keyframe. Best general-purpose choice; produces natural, glide-free motion. |
| Linear | Straight-line constant-velocity segments. |
| Cosine | Eased segments (slow in/out). |
| Cubic / CatmullRom | Classic interpolating splines through the viewpoints. |
| Hermite | Spline with adjustable Tension and Bias (set in the properties) for tighter or looser curves. |
Orientation is always interpolated through quaternions, so the camera takes the shortest rotational path and never flips, even between widely separated headings.
Smoothing
The Smooth Path command runs an additional smoothing filter over the interpolated frames, damping out any residual jitter. The number of passes is set by Smooth Iterations in the properties.
Playing back
Use the player on the Flight Path ribbon tab, or right-click the flight path in the tree and choose Play:
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Play / Stop | Start or stop continuous playback (~60 fps preview). |
| Start | Jump to the first frame. |
| End | Jump to the last frame. |
| Step Forward / Back | Advance or rewind one frame. |
During playback the camera follows the interpolated path. Clicking in the 3D view (or pressing Stop) interrupts playback.
The timeline editor
The Flight Path Timeline panel is the heart of flight-path editing. It shows the path as stacked time-vs-value tracks with a keyframe strip and a time axis along the bottom. It opens automatically when a flight path is active.
Tracks
| Track | Shows |
|---|---|
| Speed | Camera speed per frame (always shown). Spikes and dips reveal where the camera rushes or stalls. |
| Acceleration | Change in speed — where the camera is speeding up (above the line) or slowing down (below). Toggle via right-click. |
| Orientation | Pitch, roll and yaw curves. Toggle via right-click. |
| Scenes | One coloured bar per scene, showing when each is active (see Scenes). Shown when the path has scenes. |
The left axis shows raw values; the right axis shows them in intuitive units (degrees for orientation, per-second for speed/acceleration) at the project frame rate. The bottom axis reads out time in seconds.
Working in the timeline
| Interaction | Result |
|---|---|
| Click in the timeline area | Move the playhead to that frame and snap the camera there (scrubbing). |
| Drag in the timeline area | Scrub continuously — the 3D view follows the playhead. |
| Click a keyframe tick (bottom strip) | Select it and snap the camera to that viewpoint. |
| Drag a keyframe tick left/right | Change that segment's duration (its frame count). The path rebuilds live. |
| Mouse wheel | Zoom the time axis, anchored under the cursor. Use the scrollbar to pan when zoomed in. |
| Drag a track boundary | Resize the tracks to give a curve more room. |
| Right-click the keyframe strip | Add, Update from 3D view, or Delete a keyframe at that point. |
| Right-click a track | Toggle the Acceleration, Orientation and Scenes tracks. |
Right-clicking an empty part of the keyframe strip lets you add a keyframe at that exact time (capturing the current camera), and right-clicking an existing keyframe lets you update it to the live camera without leaving the timeline. The path, the 3D view and the tree all stay in sync.
Every timeline edit is a single undo step — press Ctrl+Z to revert a drag, add, delete or scene change.
Timing and duration
A path's length is the sum of its per-segment frame counts, converted to seconds at the project frame rate (set in the project / display options). Several tree commands help you set timing in bulk:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| Set Frames | Set the frame count on the selected viewpoint(s). |
| Set Frames per Metre | Set frame counts proportional to each segment's length, for constant ground speed. |
| Set Duration | Scale the whole path to a target total duration in seconds. |
| Set Duration (Selected) | Distribute a duration across the selected viewpoints. |
| Scale Duration | Multiply all frame counts by a factor to speed up or slow down the whole path. |
Durations are computed using the project frame rate, so a 60-second path really is 60 seconds in the recorded movie. Make sure the project frame rate matches your intended output.
Scenes: visibility choreography
Scenes let you change what is visible as the camera flies — for example, revealing an interpretation layer as you approach it, or hiding clutter during a wide shot.
- Set up the object visibility you want in the 3D view.
- On the Flight Path ribbon tab, choose Add Scene. The current visibility state is captured as a scene under the flight path's Scenes branch.
A scene becomes active in one of two ways:
- Spatial trigger (ROI) — the scene activates whenever the camera comes within the scene's Region of Interest radius of the point where it was captured.
- Temporal trigger — the scene activates over an explicit frame range you set on the timeline.
Editing scene timing on the timeline
With the Scenes track visible, each scene is a coloured bar:
| Interaction | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag a bar's edge | Adjust the scene's start or end frame. |
| Drag the bar body | Move the whole active range. |
| Right-click a scene | Set start / end from playhead, convert to a spatial (ROI) trigger, or snap the range to wherever the camera enters/leaves the ROI. |
If you drag a keyframe, add/delete a viewpoint, or toggle motion blur — anything that changes the path's length — temporal scene triggers are rescaled proportionally, so a scene keeps firing at the same point along the path rather than drifting off.
Presentation mode and slides (OpenGL only)
A flight path can carry a slide deck (the Slides branch in the tree). Add images to it, then link individual slides to viewpoints so that the relevant slide is shown as a billboard overlay as the camera reaches each viewpoint. Step through viewpoints with Next / Previous Viewpoint, and toggle the overlay with the presentation controls. This is useful for guided, narrated tours.
Motion blur
Toggle Motion Blur on the ribbon for cinematic 180° shutter blur in the recorded movie. Turning it on or off rebuilds the path so the timeline and preview immediately reflect the change.
Motion blur adds sub-frames internally, which increases render time. It is off by default and only affects the recorded movie, not interactive preview.
Recording a movie (OpenGL only)
With the flight path active, choose Record Movie to capture playback to an AVI file. Frame rate, resolution and motion-blur settings come from the project's movie settings. Recording renders every frame (optionally with motion-blur sub-frames) and writes the video as the path plays through to the end.
Merging and splitting paths
From the tree context menu:
- Merge Flight Paths — select two or more flight paths and merge them into one. Their viewpoints are concatenated end to end into a single editable path.
- Split Flight Path — split the selected path into two at its midpoint. The boundary viewpoint is shared by both halves so they join seamlessly.
Both operations preserve the viewpoints (keyframes), so the resulting paths remain fully editable, re-timeable and saveable. Splitting needs at least three viewpoints.
Exporting
Export to ASCII writes the path's viewpoints to a comma-separated text file (name, X, Y, Z, yaw, pitch, roll, near/far clip, and frame count, one row per viewpoint) for use in external tools.
Tips and troubleshooting
- Path won't build / "At least 2 view points needed". Capture at least two viewpoints before using Create Path.
- Motion looks jerky. Use the Smooth interpolation method, run Smooth Path a few times, and check the Speed track for sudden spikes — even out the segment frame counts where the camera rushes.
- The camera rushes one segment and crawls another. Use Set Frames per Metre to make the speed proportional to distance, or drag the keyframes on the timeline to balance the segment durations.
- A scene isn't appearing when expected. Check whether it uses a spatial (ROI) or temporal trigger; on the Scenes track, right-click and snap the range from the ROI sweep, or set the start/end from the playhead.
- The recorded movie is the wrong length. The duration is computed at the project frame rate — confirm it matches the frame rate you are recording at.
- A feature is greyed out. Movie recording, gamepad recording and the presentation overlay are currently OpenGL-only. Switch to the OpenGL renderer if you need them.
See also
- VR / Headset User Guide — explore and present outcrops in virtual reality.
- Display Properties — control how objects are drawn in the 3D view.