bevy-cameras

Bevy 0.20 — Cameras

When to use this skill

• Spawning the main game camera.
• Rendering to a texture (mini-map, portal, post-process target).
• Wanting a drop-in free-look, pan, or CAD-style orbit controller.
• Configuring multiple cameras with different order for overlays.
• Glass/translucent materials render flat (0.20 made ScreenSpaceTransmission opt-in).
• Tonemapping::None suddenly looks different (0.20 made it a pure passthrough).

Canonical pattern

Controllers are feature-gated. In Cargo.toml:

bevy = { version = "0.20", features = ["free_camera", "pan_camera", "pan_orbit_camera"] }

use bevy::asset::RenderAssetUsages;
use bevy::camera::{Hdr, RenderTarget};
use bevy::camera_controller::free_camera::{FreeCamera, FreeCameraPlugin};
use bevy::core_pipeline::tonemapping::Tonemapping;
use bevy::prelude::*;
use bevy::render::render_resource::{Extent3d, TextureDimension, TextureFormat, TextureUsages};

fn main() {
    App::new()
        .add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)
        .add_plugins(FreeCameraPlugin) // adds the input wiring
        .add_systems(Startup, setup)
        .run();
}

fn setup(mut commands: Commands, mut images: ResMut<Assets<Image>>) {
    // 1. Main camera with the built-in free-look controller.
    commands.spawn((
        Camera3d::default(),
        Hdr,                  // `bevy::camera::Hdr` since 0.19
        Tonemapping::default(), // TonyMcMapface; `Linear` = no curve, keep grading
        FreeCamera::default(),
        Transform::from_xyz(0.0, 4.0, 8.0).looking_at(Vec3::ZERO, Vec3::Y),
    ));

    // 2. A texture target for an off-screen render pass (mini-map, portal).
    let size = Extent3d { width: 512, height: 512, depth_or_array_layers: 1 };
    let mut image = Image::new_fill(
        size,
        TextureDimension::D2,
        &[0; 4],
        TextureFormat::Bgra8UnormSrgb,
        RenderAssetUsages::default(),
    );
    image.texture_descriptor.usage = TextureUsages::TEXTURE_BINDING
        | TextureUsages::COPY_DST
        | TextureUsages::RENDER_ATTACHMENT;
    let image_handle = images.add(image);

    // 3. A second camera that draws into the texture.
    //    `RenderTarget` is a separate component, not a `Camera` field.
    commands.spawn((
        Camera3d::default(),
        Camera { order: -1, ..default() }, // lower order renders first
        RenderTarget::Image(image_handle.into()),
        Transform::from_xyz(10.0, 5.0, 0.0).looking_at(Vec3::ZERO, Vec3::Y),
    ));
}

Choosing a projection

use bevy::prelude::*;

fn _proj(mut commands: Commands) {
    // Default perspective.
    commands.spawn((Camera3d::default(), Projection::default()));

    // Orthographic for top-down or strategy views.
    commands.spawn((
        Camera3d::default(),
        Projection::Orthographic(OrthographicProjection {
            scale: 10.0,
            ..OrthographicProjection::default_3d()
        }),
    ));
}

Pan-orbit camera (new in 0.20)

bevy_editor_cam was upstreamed as PanOrbitCamera. It needs picking for depth-aware zoom, so add MeshPickingPlugin too.

use bevy::camera_controller::pan_orbit_camera::{DefaultPanOrbitCameraPlugins, PanOrbitCamera};
use bevy::prelude::*;

fn _orbit(app: &mut App, mut commands: Commands) {
    app.add_plugins((MeshPickingPlugin, DefaultPanOrbitCameraPlugins));
    commands.spawn((Camera3d::default(), PanOrbitCamera::default()));
}

Ambient light: world default vs per-camera

use bevy::light::GlobalAmbientLight;
use bevy::prelude::*;

fn _amb(app: &mut App, mut commands: Commands) {
    // World default — applies everywhere unless a camera overrides.
    app.insert_resource(GlobalAmbientLight { brightness: 200.0, ..default() });

    // Per-camera override — `AmbientLight` is a Component.
    commands.spawn((Camera3d::default(), AmbientLight { brightness: 1000.0, ..default() }));
}

Gotchas

0.19 → 0.20

• ScreenSpaceTransmission is opt-in. Camera3d no longer requires it. Add bevy::pbr::ScreenSpaceTransmission::default() to get refraction through transmissive StandardMaterials.
• Tonemapping::None is a full passthrough. No ColorGrading, no DebandDither, no clamp. Use the new Tonemapping::Linear for "no tone curve but keep the rest". Camera2d now defaults to Tonemapping::Linear.
• Tonemapping / DebandDither moved to bevy_render::view. The bevy::core_pipeline::tonemapping::Tonemapping import still works via re-export; reflected type paths in scene files changed.
• Mixed-Hdr camera stacks composite instead of overwrite. Set blend_state in CameraOutputMode::Write for the old replace behaviour. SortedCamera::hdr is gone.
• RenderDebugOverlay keybindings. RenderDebugOverlayPlugin joins DefaultPlugins (disabled by default) only with the bevy_dev_tools + render_dev_tools features.

0.18 → 0.19

• Hdr moved to bevy::camera::Hdr and is not extracted to the render world; read ExtractedCamera::hdr there.
• Camera3d::screen_space_specular_transmission_* fields are gone. They became ScreenSpaceTransmission { steps, quality } in bevy_pbr.
• Skybox moved to bevy::light and image is Option<Handle<Image>>.
• Atmosphere is an entity, not a camera component. The camera keeps AtmosphereSettings.
• PanCamera pans with the mouse by default. Set mouse_pan_settings.enabled = false for keyboard-only.
• ExtractedView::hdr moved to ExtractedCamera::hdr; TextureFormat::bevy_default() is deprecated — read ExtractedView::target_format.
• ViewTarget::out_texture() returns Option (None when the surface is occluded or CameraOutputMode::Skip).
• Render graph nodes are systems in the Core3d / Core2d schedules; RenderSystems::ManageViews split into CreateViews, Specialize, PrepareViews.

Still true

• RenderTarget is its own component; Camera { target: ... } does not exist. RenderTarget::None renders prepasses only.
• AmbientLight is a component; the resource is GlobalAmbientLight.
• Camera::order is signed. Lower renders first.
• Controllers need their Cargo feature and plugin: free_camera + FreeCameraPlugin, pan_camera + PanCameraPlugin, pan_orbit_camera + DefaultPanOrbitCameraPlugins.
• Imports: bevy::camera::{RenderTarget, Hdr}, bevy::camera_controller::{free_camera, pan_camera, pan_orbit_camera}, bevy::light::GlobalAmbientLight. None are in the prelude.

See also

• bevy-pbr-materials — materials, lights, ContactShadows, atmosphere.
• bevy-capture — recording a camera's RenderTarget::Image to video.
• bevy-migration-0-19-to-0-20 — Tonemapping::Linear, opt-in transmission.
• bevy-migration-0-18-to-0-19 — Hdr/Skybox/Atmosphere moves.