Bevy Cameras

Bevy 0.18 — 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 or pan controller without writing your own.
• Configuring multiple cameras with different order for overlays.
• Setting ambient brightness on a per-camera basis (new in 0.18).

Canonical pattern

FreeCamera/PanCamera are gated behind Cargo features. In Cargo.toml:

bevy = { version = "0.18", features = ["free_camera", "pan_camera"] }

use bevy::asset::RenderAssetUsages;
use bevy::camera::RenderTarget;
use bevy::camera_controller::free_camera::{FreeCamera, FreeCameraPlugin};
use bevy::prelude::*;

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>) {
    // 1. Main camera with the built-in free-look controller.
    commands.spawn((
        Camera3d::default(),
        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 = bevy::render::render_resource::Extent3d {
        width: 512,
        height: 512,
        depth_or_array_layers: 1,
    };
    let mut image = Image::new_fill(
        size,
        bevy::render::render_resource::TextureDimension::D2,
        &[0; 4],
        bevy::render::render_resource::TextureFormat::Bgra8UnormSrgb,
        RenderAssetUsages::default(),
    );
    image.texture_descriptor.usage =
        bevy::render::render_resource::TextureUsages::TEXTURE_BINDING
            | bevy::render::render_resource::TextureUsages::COPY_DST
            | bevy::render::render_resource::TextureUsages::RENDER_ATTACHMENT;
    let image_handle = images.add(image);

    // 3. A second camera that draws into the texture.
    //    RenderTarget is now a *separate* component, not Camera.target.
    commands.spawn((
        Camera3d::default(),
        Camera { order: -1, ..default() }, // -1 = render before the main camera
        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::*;
use bevy::camera::Projection;

# fn _proj(mut commands: Commands) {
// Default perspective (90° FOV is the Bevy default).
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()
    }),
));
# }

Ambient light: world default vs per-camera

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

# 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 (new in 0.18 — `AmbientLight` is now a Component).
commands.spawn((Camera3d::default(), AmbientLight { brightness: 1000.0, ..default() }));
# }

Gotchas (0.18)

• RenderTarget is a separate component. Camera { target: RenderTarget::Image(...) } is gone — wrong shape in 0.18. Spawn it alongside Camera3d / Camera.
• AmbientLight is no longer a Resource. It's a per-camera component. The world default lives in the GlobalAmbientLight resource.
• ImageRenderTarget::scale_factor is f32 (used to be wrapped in FloatOrd).
• Camera order is signed. Lower values render first. Use order: -1 for off-screen passes you'll sample in the main pass.
• FreeCamera / PanCamera need their plugin AND their Cargo feature. They're feature-gated in 0.18: add features = ["free_camera", "pan_camera"] to the bevy dep. Spawning the component without FreeCameraPlugin / PanCameraPlugin does nothing — the input systems live in the plugin.
• Imports: bevy::camera::RenderTarget, bevy::camera_controller::{free_camera::*, pan_camera::*}, bevy::light::GlobalAmbientLight. None are in the prelude.

See also

• bevy-pbr-materials — what cameras render through.
• bevy-migration-0-17-to-0-18 — full Camera.target and AmbientLight rename.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: chrisgliddon
• Source: chrisgliddon/bevy-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.