Prince of Persia (2008) Camera Analysis 01

This camera system is relatively well-documented and gives a glimpse of Ubisoft's attempt to make a sustainable camera system for use on multiple projects. No further sources I found have indicated whether this system was actually used again after Prince of Persia (2008), or if that was an ideal vision that did not come to pass.

As a result, my analysis is based on my experience of the game as viewed through a lens that is heavily influenced by Jonathan Bard's talk "Directing the Prince Of Persia." I attempt to provide information to fill in the holes left by this presentation, but some details may be inaccurate.

Camera Mechanics

The first six of 17 camera mechanics are described in the talk. I will list them, but refer you to the link above for more details. The ones that follow were observed during my playthrough of the game and are accompanied by screenshots from the 2016 WR Speedrun by samabam14.

1. Fixed camera
2. Spline Camera
3. Free-Roaming Camera
4. Animated Free-Roaming Camera
5. Movement Compensation Camera
6. Dueling/Boss Camera

Ledge Camera

7. Ledge Camera
        likely also used in Wall Jump and Wall Climb gameplay
8. Player Death Camera
        shows the player avatar being rescued by the Princess

Forward Slide Camera

9. Forward Slide Camera
        certain areas of the level are inclined and tagged as sliding areas, triggering a         specialized camera when the player avatar enters, to follow their motion better
        (sometimes these cameras are overridden by a modified side view camera)

Gripslide Camera

10. Gripslide Camera
        when the camera is directly facing the wall and the player begins to slide down
11. Ceiling Camera
        when the player avatar is swinging from rings to run across the ceiling
12. Fertile Ground Camera
        focuses on the princess, who becomes the player avatar briefly in this moment
13. Hand/Step of Ormazd Flying Camera
        these simple camera pans could be done with transition between static                     cameras, but likely required more control to get the desired artistic effects

Wings/Breath of Ormazd Flying Camera

14. Wings/Breath of Ormazd Flying Camera
        this camera follows the orientation and path of the player avatar as they fly             predetermined paths through the level, could be post-processed spline camera
15. Parallel Wall Camera
        the camera pulls to the side view as the player avatar leaps between two walls
16. Conversation Camera
        these conversations are done as in-game cines using a unique camera
17. Controller Idle Camera
        the nearby scenery is shown from a cinematic perspective that takes corrupted         status into account, but its possible this is a collection of pre-baked cinematics

Example Modifiers for Free Roaming Camera

There are 34 modifiers total for all cameras in this game, with 14 mentioned in the talk and listed below. Of those 34, Jonathan Bard mentioned that 8 were unlikely to be reused in a future game. This leaves a pool of 26 modifiers for any camera that Ubisoft thought would be sustainable between projects. I hope this section serves as a useful, if incomplete, list of important tuning properties for camera designers.

Note that the Free Roaming Camera is discussed in depth in Bard's talk. See that for context and descriptions for some of these modifiers.

1. Main Damping Modifier
2. Pop Mario Mode Attenuation Modifier
3. Vertical Compensation Modifier
4. Free Roaming Modifier
5. Extreme Azimuth Modifier
6. Polar Controls Modifier
7. Polar Curve Modifier
8. Free Roaming Collision Modifier
9. Camera Target Modifier
10. Exploration Modifier
11. Screen Framing Modifier
12. Roll Modifier
13. Target Framing Attenuation Modifier
14. Target Framing Modifier