TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- 1. Track Saving & Loading
- 2. Group Edit Tab
- 3. Camera Edit Tab
- 4. Config Tab
- Other Useful & Related Features
Introduction
This is an introduction to the camera tool built into the iRacing simulator. You can enter the camera tool when in replay mode by hitting Ctrl-F12 at any time, and hitting escape will exit the tool.
The camera tool UI is broken down into four main areas:
The track saving and loading controls (along the bottom of the tool)
Group Edit tab (along the top)
Camera Edit tab (along the top)
Config tab (along the top)
This doc will cover these four areas in this order because that will be most effective for understanding the tool.
1. Track Saving & Loading
These controls, along the bottom of the tool, are used to save and load car and track camera data.
Changes made to the cockpit camera are applied to every car in the sim.
Nose, Gearbox, Roll Bar, F Susp, and R Susp are all on car cameras and will be saved to the car camera file for each car loaded in the sim. Everything else is a track camera and saved to the track camera file. There can only be one car camera in each OnCar group. You cannot add more Car Cameras that what are already there, only adjust existing ones.
2. Group Edit Tab
The Group Edit tab is where you setup cameras and camera groups to be used by the sim.
There are a large number of cameras set up by default in the simulator and in order to better organize the cameras they have been combined into groups, like the TV1 camera set. Each camera in a group has the potential to be used at any time.
There are two parts to the cameras; cameras and groups. A camera is a single camera placement, and a group is a collection of cameras, whose placements are all active and ready to be used. The popup lets you select the group of cameras to watch, and uses the Shot Range mechanism to automatically select the proper camera within the group.
Above is a screenshot of the group tab to help make the camera selection system easier to understand. The panel on the left represents all the cameras in the active group. The panel on the right represents all the cameras not in the active group. The white cameras have a valid shot, and the grey cameras do not. The red camera is the current active camera. The numbers under the ‘Q’ represent the shot quality for each camera.
Hitting insert copies the current camera and inserts it back into the same group but with a new name (usually camera_0). So when you insert a camera, the popup does not change because you only added an identical camera to the same group. If you go to the group tab, you will notice that you have added a new camera to the group. From there you are free to modify the new camera at will. You can also copy and add new groups. That is probably what you are really trying to do.
It is probably worthwhile to look at how the TV cameras work, watch them for a while with the group tab selected. You should be able to begin to understand the difference between a group and a camera.
Scenic Mode
When the car we are focusing on disappears from the world, the camera system will switch over to a scenic camera group to give the cameras a little life. Turning this On marks the current group as the scenic camera group.
When you first enter the sim, you will notice that the cameras just slowly pan across the track, or sometimes they bounce from one 'scenic' shot to another. The reason is that there is no car to look at, so we go to a 'scenic' mode. The scenic mode is just a camera group with the Scene Group setting turned On. The important point is that the camera editing tools do not work (reliably) when you don't have a car to look at.
3. Camera Edit Tab
This is the most complex section of the UI and it is where you configure all the properties of individual cameras. This doc will go through each group of features shown below, from top to bottom.
Camera Name
The name for the individual Camera being edited. This is separate from the Camera Group name, and is unable to use the same name as another iRacing Camera in use.
Placement & Aim
Position and Rotation Controls
Position
iRacing Cameras work on an X,Y,Z coordinate plane in the sim’s world, and that describes the coordinates in the Position Controls. X and Y will define your local latitude and local longitude, while Z will define your height.
Rotation
Rotation Controls affect the orientation of the camera. Y determines the Yaw of the Camera, and what direction side to side the camera is facing. P determines Pitch, and what direction up and down the camera is facing. R determines the roll of the camera, and how angled against the horizon it is. (NOTE: Not all Position Types as listed below will utilize this tab.)
Position Type Dropdown
There are several ways in which the cameras can be positioned. Statically placed in a fixed spot along the track, positioned relative to the center of the focus car, positioned relative to the car but not fixed to the chassis of the car (the chase and chopper cameras fit this description), or fixed on an independent motion like with the blimp camera. Let’s break each one down in turn.
Fixed
Fixed cameras are statically placed in the world, they do not move from frame to frame. Offset sets the position and height of the camera in meters, relative to the center point of the camera itself.
Blimp
Blimp cameras rotate in a circle around a point set by the user (Defined by the Position Coordinate). More functionality can be found in the Blimp Controls section, below.
Chopper
Chopper – A Chopper camera is dragged behind the car, using a spring/damper mechanism to allow it to wander a bit off course. Position sets the target height and distance from the car, but the Y axis is completely ignored, and the X axis is fixed to always be a negative offset. The chopper will try to maintain the requested distance and height but will drift from the target as the speed and direction of the target car changes.
Chase
A Chase camera orients itself a fixed distance (using the position coordinates) from the focus car. The direction the camera is oriented is relative to the direction of travel of the focus car (not the direction the chassis is aiming), and it is locked to a fixed height relative to the track surface. The Chase camera can be set to any angle relative to the focus car, and any height relative to the track surface. In addition, this camera forces the lens to always aim at a fixed point above the track, close to the center of the focus car. This allows the camera to visualize the vertical motion of the car since the track will remain stationary as the car bounces up and down.
Note: When the target car switches from a forward or neutral gear to a reverse gear, the Chase camera will snap 180 degrees to the opposite side, facing the X and Y position it previously sat.
On Car
The On Car cameras are fixed to the frame of the car, in the same way, the fixed cameras are fixed to the track. As the car moves, the On Car cameras move in perfect step with the car. The position is relative to the center of the car, so a position of {0,0,0} is the center of the car. On Car cameras force the aiming to be static relative to the chassis. This has to be the case since the camera is attached to the focus car and all other aiming styles require a focus car to aim at.
Note you cannot add more On Car cameras, you can only adjust the angles that of the On Car camera that are built-in to each car.
Driver
The Driver camera is from the driver perspective, in the cockpit of the car. It is a special camera that is the only one that can be used to drive. We separate it out because we insist on the customer driving from the cockpit, so it has a very limited range of where it can be placed (centered around the drivers head). This is the camera used exclusively in the “Cockpit” camera group.
Aim Type Dropdown
There are three aiming modes for the camera. Aim statically in a fixed direction, aim at a focus car, and aim at a group of cars. In addition, dampening can be turned on to add in some errors to the positioning and make things appear more natural like a human operator is controlling the camera. (Dampening can be found in the Properties Tab below the Lens & Exposure Section).
Static
The Camera is aimed in a static direction, regardless of the car it is targeted on. Position is based upon Position Type selected to the left, and then the coordinates above. Since static aiming does not vary in rotation, it ignores the dampening option.
At Car
This mode aims the camera directly at the focus car, so the car is always in the center of the display. This mode ignores the rotation coordinates. Dampening can be used to add a bit of variability to the shot, making it seem more human in its movement.
At Group
This mode attempts to focus on the car, but also the surrounding cars and environment in more a Broadcast composition. This setting should allow for a more interesting shot over the "At Car" Aim Type. This mode also ignores the rotation coordinates. Dampening can be used to smooth out the shot and add in some randomness. Note that this Aim Type in particular is very sensitive to cars disappearing from the world, and will freeze in an unsettling way if cars disappear and reappear, which the dampening setting can only attempt to stabilize.
View Type Dropdown
Camera view can be set to one of live, wide, front, side, top. It is a special mode used to visualize the location of the camera in the world. When set to any view besides live, all the static cameras will be drawn into the world using a simple camera model on a colored stick. Front/side/top forces the camera to look back at itself in order to accurately place the camera at a fixed track location. Note the notches on the pole mark 5 meter increments.
Lens and Exposure
Field of View / Zoom Level
When Auto is Toggled Off
In order to see more of the track, you can move the camera further away (with the Z axis) or you can widen the Field Of View (like a zoom lens on your camera). Changing the FOV adds distortion/fish-eye to the shot, but if you want to see something really wide (like the whole track) it is your only option. The rendering engine will not work properly if you move the camera too far away.
When Auto is Toggled On
In this mode, the slider represents the percentage of the car that will be visible on the display, and it will dynamically set its view to try and maintain that. At 100% the car will fill the display and at 25% the car will be one forth the width of the monitor. The automatic zoom is limited in range: if the car is too far away or too close the zoom will hit a lock and stop zooming until the car comes closer into view. This is usually an undesirable effect, it is a good idea to zoom the camera in more in order to stop it from occurring.
Focus Depth
Focus depth controls how far the camera’s lens focuses in the scene, creating a depth-of-field effect (depending on aperture setting) that can blur foreground and background elements while keeping your target in sharp focus.
When Auto is Toggled On
When the “Auto” toggle is enabled, the camera automatically focuses on the center point of the focus car, typically targeting the driver's helmet. Auto focus is particularly useful for dynamic shots where the distance between camera and car is constantly changing.
When Auto is Toggled Off
With the Auto toggle disabled, focus depth is controlled manually using either the slider in the interface or dedicated keybinds. In manual mode, you set a fixed focus distance from the camera lens. Objects at this distance will appear sharp, while objects closer or farther away will appear progressively more blurred.
Aperture
Aperture controls the depth of field in your shot, simulating the effect of an aperture settings on a real lens. The aperture range extends from f/1.0 to f/32, with lower f-numbers creating a shallower depth of field and higher f-numbers keeping more of the shot in sharp focus.
Exposure
Exposure controls the overall brightness of your shot, simulating how much light the camera sensor receives. By default, the sim automatically exposes scenes with balanced lighting at 0.00. Negative values darken the image while positive values brighten it.
Motion Blur
Motion blur simulates the effect of a slower shutter speed, creating streaking effects on moving objects like cars, wheels, and background elements as the camera pans. Higher values increase the blur effect, while lower values reduce it.
Properties
Gyro
Gyro settings apply exclusively to OnCar cameras and control how the camera responds to the vehicle's movements.
Pitch
Locks the camera's pitch to ignore vehicle movement. When enabled, the camera remains stable and won't tilt forward or backward with elevation changes, maintaining a consistent horizon even as the car goes over hills or crests.
Roll
Locks the camera's roll to ignore vehicle tilting. When enabled, the camera stays level even if the car rolls over curbs or leans into corners, preventing the horizon from rotating with the car's banking movements.
Location
Beyond Fence
Sets the sort order between the transparent objects on the car and the transparent sections of the fence, if you find that the fence is being drawn behind the windshield of a car, then toggle this flag.
In Cockpit
This setting turns up the detail inside the cockpit while removing unnecessary pieces of the car model. It is only available with on-car cameras.
Stabilization
Dampen Camera softens camera movements when the target car goes over bumps or changes direction. Dampening can be turned on to add in some errors and smoothing to the positioning and make things appear more natural like a human operator is controlling the camera. When disabled, the camera fully follows the car's motion, resulting in a more jittery but realistic view.
Advanced
Clip Distance
Clip distance controls the near-clipping plane for the 3D rendering engine, determining how close objects can be to the camera lens before they stop rendering. At lower values, the camera will see nearly everything in the world, including objects within a few inches of the lens. At higher values, objects closer to the camera won't be drawn.
This feature has two main uses: If objects close to the camera (like fencing) are disappearing unexpectedly, you can lower the clip distance to bring them back into view. Conversely, you can increase clip distance to deliberately see through obstacles like fences or barriers, allowing for dramatic shots that would otherwise be blocked.
Be careful when setting clip distance too low, as this can cause visual artifacts on distant objects due to z-fighting effects in the rendering engine. When possible, it's often better to reposition the camera rather than adjust clip distance to solve visibility issues.
Shake
Shake adds camera vibration that responds to the car's movements and engine characteristics. When the focus car hits bumps, rides over curbs, or experiences engine vibrations, the camera will shake accordingly. Lower values produce subtle movement, while higher values create more pronounced shaking effects.
Vanish X/Vanish Y
This offsets the view a bit either up and down or left and right. It is convenient to use if you want the car to appear a little lower on the display. Note that shadows will not change when Vanish is added to cameras, and that adding large amounts of vanish may cause issues in shadows being rendered.
On Cam Microphone
Mic Type
If Parabolic Mic is On, sets the microphone on the camera to be directional, so that the cars within the shot are louder than other cars.
Mic Gain
This sets the volume of the microphone in decibels. There is a small button next to the mic gain slider that will normalize the camera volume based on the current distance to the focus car. If you hold down this button while a car passes, it will set the peak volume for the camera to a reasonable level.
Levels
Current volume level of the simulator. Use this as a monitor for your Mic Gain.
Chase Cam Bias
This slider allows you to bias the microphone closer to the focus car. Essentially moving the mic on an invisible line between the camera and the car.
This was put in for things like the chase camera. The chase camera hovers over the cars behind the focus car, and so they tend to be louder in the mix than the focus car.
On top of that, it can often be moved far enough away from the car to get into the ‘far field’ sound effects, making the car sound thinner than it would if you were right behind it.
Min Mic Distance
Related to Chase Cam Bias, this sets a minimum distance for the mic from the focus car.
Distortion
This setting allows you to configure a camera's microphone to sound less clean and more crunchy like an over-stimulated microphone. The setting choices are: None, Light or Heavy.
The sounds need to be pretty loud to start getting into the distortion. For instance - very close to a track-side camera. Additionally, you can use the camera's mic gain setting to push the sounds up into even more distortion.
A Word of Caution: Pushing a camera's mic gain setting too far may distort the softer sounds and possibly drive your audio device too hard.
This setting will allow relatively clean audio until a vehicle reaches a threshold where it starts to saturate into a crunchy yet smooth distortion. It sounds most realistic when a loud car passes a camera very closely.
Blimp Controls
Blimp cameras have two unique controls that work together to create their circular flight pattern: Blimp Radius and Velocity.
Blimp Radius
Blimp Radius determines the distance from a center point that the camera will fly around. A smaller radius creates a tight circle close to the center, while a larger radius creates a wide sweeping arc that can encompass more of the track layout.
Velocity
Velocity controls how fast the blimp travels along its circular path. Higher values create faster movement around the arc, while lower values produce a slower pace.
Shot Range
Inside a group, camera placements have the ability to be strung together to form a cohesive camera set for an entire lap at a track. This is done by setting up each camera in a group to follow their "shot range".
Each track on iRacing has a numerical value tied to how far along a car is to completing one lap. The Shot Range function uses this position as a marker to determine when a camera could be active, or left inactive. Keep in mind that 0 is the origin point of a lap, so in theory, a camera covering an entire front stretch area might go from 5700 to 200.
Clicking "Set Start" or "Set End" will use the target car in-sim's position to set a marker, based on if the camera shot should be going active (Set Start) or going inactive (Set End). The iRacing Camera will generally stay on an active camera until it is inactive, so the best course of action when setting up a series of shots is to set the start point a few points early before the end point of the last cameras.
For example, to use 3 cameras on a lap, Camera A could be set to be active from 150 to 400, Camera B could be set as active from 395 to 650, and Camera C could be set as active from 645 to 155.ra Settings
In addition to the above features, there are several other settings in the camera tool that are of interest.
4. Config Tab
Preferences
Edit Mode
When Use Temporary Edits is On, all edits to a camera will be forgotten when the camera loses focus. This is useful in a live event when you want to manipulate a camera temporarily but do not want the changes to be made permanent.
Shot Selection
Turning this off will stop the camera system from switching cameras automatically when a car goes out of view. It gives the operator control over the shot selection.
Inputs & Acceleration
InputStep Size
This adjusts the default speed at which the camera controls move when using the keyboard. Increasing this number moves everything faster, decreasing this number moves everything slower. The defaults are set up in such a way that it should not be necessary to change this, but it can be useful for fine tuning cameras or doing live editing.
Acceleration
When toggled on, when editing the cameras with the keyboard an acceleration curve is applied to the control so the longer you hold down a button, the faster the camera will move in the world. This is desirable when placing a camera, but not when trying to edit a camera ‘live’. You can disable the key acceleration in order to have a smoother pan/zoom experience.
Turbo
You can toggle on a 10x acceleration by turning this On or with a hot key of ‘alt-p’. This is useful for rapidly moving a camera across the world without giving up the fine grain control in the process.
Keybinds
Here you will find all of the keyboard mappings for the camera controls. Almost every control can be edited with a keyboard short cut. The position (lat, lon, alt), Aiming (yaw, pitch, roll) and zoom controls, we well as any other controls, can also be mapped to an analog joystick for finer grain control during live editing. If you want to remap a control simply click on the red button next to the control and type a key or press a button on your joystick. If you want to cancel a key remap hit escape. And in order to get back the default mappings, simply hit the reset button, this will not affect the calibration of your driving controls. In order to properly support analog devices, there is a calibrate button that will let you calibrate your joysticks. You must calibrate at least once before you can properly assign a joystick to a control.
Additional Key Bindings
In addition to the keys used by the camera tool, the following hot keys may be helpful when editing camera sets. Keys beginning with a kp_ are key pad keys (the number pad on the right side of your keyboard).
ctrl-f12 – Toggle camera tool on/off.
esc – exit camera tool.
kp_7 – Jump to start of replay.
ctrl-kp_4 – Jump to start of session.
shift-kp_4 – Rewind replay.
kp_4 – Move one frame back in replay.
kp_5 – Pause playback of replay.
kp_del – Stop playback of replay.
kp_8 – Replay toggle slow motion.
kp_6 – Move one frame forward in replay.
shift-kp_6 – Fast forward replay.
ctrl-kp_6 – Jump to start of next session.
shift-kp_3 – Jump to next lap crossing for focus car.
shift-kp_1 – Jump to previous lap crossing for focus car.
ctrl-kp_3 – Jump to next incident in replay tape (may change focus car).
ctrl-kp_1 – Jump to previous incident in replay tape.
kp_1 – Jump to end of replay.
b – Select next camera in current camera group.
shift-b – Select previous camera in current camera group.
c – Select next camera group.
shift-c – Select previous camera group.
v – Focus on next car.
shift-v – Focus on previous car.
ctrl-v – Focus on the players car (your car).
ctrl-c – copy text from the active edit box.
ctrl-x – cut text from the active edit box.
ctrl-v – paste text in to the active edit box.
space – Toggle the session UI on/off.
ctrl-pgup – scale ui bigger.
ctrl- pgdn – scale ui smaller.
p – Toggle speed and gear display.
f – Toggle system Meter display.
l – Report Latency.
In addition, you can key in a sequence of keys to select both the focus car and the camera group. This is particularly useful when doing video work. To select the car based on car number use the following sequence: *<car number>*<camera number><enter> . To select the focus car based on car position use: /<car pos>*<camera number><enter>. In both cases you can omit either the camera number or car number by simply hitting * or enter instead. This would leave the focus car or camera unchanged while changing the other. Both the * and / keys are located on the top of the number pad.
Other Useful & Related Features
Mouse Aim Mode
There is a special navigation mode that allows you to use the mouse to aim and fly a camera around the track. You can enable it (once the camera tool is up) by hitting ‘ctrl-z’. Once activated, moving the mouse will aim the camera, and hitting the mouse buttons will move you forward and back. You can hit ‘ESC’ at any time to reset the camera back to its default location. Or, if you hit ‘ctrl-z’ again, the camera tool will attempt to update the camera location and orientation if possible for the camera type selected. You can continue to use the keyboard to control the camera while in mouse aim mode. This can result in very complex motions without much effort from the operator.
Director Mode
In the lower left-hand corner of the session screen, there is a helmet and name of the current driver that the camera system is following. Clicking on this helmet brings up a list of all the drivers and lets you select what driver to follow. In addition, at the top of the list are three choices that will enable an automatic director mode. This mode lets the camera system decide who to focus on. The choices are ‘focus on crashes’, ‘focus on leader’, and ‘most exciting’. Most exiting tries to find the cars in the tightest race and focus on them, focus on crashes is similar to most exciting, but if a wreck occurs it will try to jump to that instead. Focus on leader will follow the lead car, or other cars near the leader that are interesting to watch.
Driver’s View
There are a series of sliders in the options dialog that control how the driving camera operates. Below is a summary of those sliders.
Field of view controls how zoomed in the view is. Ideally this would be set via the FOV calculator on the graphics screen, but you need your monitor to be close to your face for the calculated FOV to be worth using. If you get this 1:1 with reality the view will change just like it does in a real car, if you set it much wider than reality then everything will feel faster, not in a good way. You can adjust this in car via the [ and ] keys
Driver height moves the driving camera up or down the same amount in all cars. Adjust this if you feel short or tall in all cars. You can adjust it on a per car basis in the camera tool by editing the z-offset. You are limited to just a few inches of adjustment here, we don't want you moving your head outside of the car body. You can adjust this in car via the ctrl-[ and ctrl-] keys
Shift horizon is a funky one. It moves the horizon up and down relative to the center of your monitor but does not change the camera geometry in any way. You can use this to shift the dash up into view, or ideally you would use it to move the horizon up to eye level to reduce distortion. You can adjust this in car via the shift-[ and shift-] keys.
Roll chassis blends between your head rolling side to side with the car body or staying level with the ground. At 100% your head moves in sync with the body of the car, and at 0% your head is locked to the horizon and never rolls. Try bringing this down just a bit, say 80% to give the body of your car a bit of motion in a bank.
Pitch chassis blends between your head pitching up and down with the car body or staying level with the ground. At 100% your head moves in sync with the body of the car, and at 0% your head is locked to the horizon and never pitches. Try bringing this down just a bit, say 80% to give the body of your car a bit of motion on a hill.
Neck motion controls a spring in your neck that smooths out the bumps, just like your real head will roll back and forth as you go over a bump in your car. At 100% the neck spring is fully enabled, and at 0% your head is just locked to the chassis (or horizon depending on the above parameters). Try dialing this down a bit if you get motion sick in VR, or if you have a motion platform since it already moves your head around.
Rotate with velocity will point your head in the direction the car is traveling. By default this is off and your head rotates in sync with the chassis of the car. Try adding in a bit, say 20% and you will see the body of the car move around a bit when you go into an under steer or over steer situation.