Camera

Camera


Category:	Functional
Function:	see from a grid's POV

Fits small grid
Mass:	0 kg
Power:	0.00003 MW
PCU:	25
Size:	1x1x1
Time to Build:	6 sec

Fits large grid
Mass:	0 kg
Power:	0.00003 MW
PCU:	25
Size:	1x1x1
Time to Build:	6 sec

Data Controls:	[edit] [purge] (?)

The Camera is a block that lets engineers view the scene from a different point of view. The Automatons Pack DLC contains a Top Mounted Camera variant.

Usage

Cameras are affordable from early game. Find spots to place helpful cameras as "rear-view mirrors" so you don't need to switch to third-person view. Use them, for example, as parking or docking aid, as remote surveillance cameras in vast bases and factories, as fixed-gun aiming aid in fightercraft, or it can be a spy drone's "eyes".

How to view through the camera

To activate the camera, you have two options:

(one-off viewing) Either select it on the Control Panel Screen or Remote Access Screen and press the View button.
(regular use) Or assign the camera block's View action to the toolbar and activate it by pressing the associated number.

While viewing, the camera and grid names are visible in the top left corner to remind you which point of view you have. This is important if you are remote controlling a grid: While you have activated the camera view from a cockpit or RC, you pilot the ship using WASD and the mouse. The steering directions are interpreted based upon your cockpit's/RC's orientation, not the camera's orientation. This can be disorienting for the pilot if the camera is pointed in a different direction, for example, while parking or docking backwards.

Finally, press F key to exit the camera view.

How to name cameras

Give cameras distinctive names that remind you on which ship or station they are, which direction they are facing, which weapon or tool they are aligned with, and so on. You may have many Cameras on a large station or mothership and you will quickly lose track of which is which in the Control Panel Screen.

To help you name cameras:

Switch on a broadcasting Antenna on the same grid.
Enable "Show on HUD" for one unnamed camera in the Control Panel Screen. The camera is now a signal on your HUD.
Identify where on the ship it is and what purpose it serves, and name it accordingly.
Disable "Show on HUD" for the newly named camera and enable it for the next, and so on.

Now you can identify Cameras by name on the Toolbar and in the Terminal.

How to zoom in and out

While viewing through the camera, use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

Zooming in can be helpful...

For explorers to evaluate planets and asteroids for ores.
For scouts, to analyse passing enemy grids from a safe distance.
For fighters, to aim your static Block Weaponss that face in the same direction as the camera.

Control Panel Screen

Block On/Off - Toggle
Name - Give the camera a meaningful name.
Show on HUD - Together with a broadcasting Antenna on the same grid, this setting highlights the camera location on your HUD.
View - Changes your characters's view to the camera view. Press F key to exit the view.

Trivia

Many ask how to display what the camera sees on an LCD panel. This is not possible in vanilla Space Engineers. Currently the only way to do this would be a custom Plugin.

Construction

You can build the camera on large and small grids. It takes up a 1x1x1 block (but its hitbox is much smaller). It has only one mount point on its backside.

Pay attention to the camera block's rotation when you build it, your later view rotation depends on it: When placing the camera block, make sure that the "CAMERA" text is readable along the upper edge, and the little light is in the bottom left.

Cameras are not stand-alone blocks, that means, if you grind off the block they are mounted on, they are ground off as well.