Keep the Camera Inside

Part of the Worlds section of Coddy's Pygame journey. Lesson 22 of 35.

A camera that always centres the player shows sky left of the level at the start, and the same past the end. Keep it between the level's edges.

The smallest camera is 0: the window starts at the level's left edge. The largest is level_width - WIDTH: the window's right edge is the level's right edge. Clamp after following:

camera_x = player.centerx - WIDTH // 2
camera_x = max(0, min(camera_x, level_width - WIDTH))

min lowers a camera that is too far right; max raises one that is too far left. In the middle of the level neither changes anything and the camera follows as before. Near the ends the camera stops and the player walks towards the window's edge, which is how most side-scrolling games behave.

Challenge

Easy

After camera_x = player.centerx - WIDTH // 2, clamp it: camera_x = max(0, min(camera_x, level_width - WIDTH)).

Try it yourself

import pygame

TILE = 36
WIDTH = 576
SPEED = 4
GRAVITY = 1
JUMP = -15
MAX_FALL = 12

LEVEL = [
    "................................................",
    "................................................",
    "#...........###..........####..........###.....#",
    "#..............................................#",
    "#.....####.........###.........###.............#",
    "#..............................................#",
    "#.P........#####.........######.........####...#",
    "#..............................................#",
    "#..............................................#",
    "################################################",
]

pygame.init()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((WIDTH, 360))
pygame.display.set_caption("Camera")
clock = pygame.time.Clock()

block_img = pygame.image.load("assets/images/block.png").convert_alpha()
player_img = pygame.image.load("assets/images/player.png").convert_alpha()

walls = []
for row, line in enumerate(LEVEL):
    for col, char in enumerate(line):
        if char == "#":
            walls.append(pygame.Rect(col * TILE, row * TILE, TILE, TILE))
        elif char == "P":
            start = (col * TILE + TILE // 2, row * TILE + TILE)

level_width = len(LEVEL[0]) * TILE
player = player_img.get_rect(midbottom=start)
vel_y = 0
on_ground = False
camera_x = 0

running = True
while running:
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN and event.key in (pygame.K_SPACE, pygame.K_UP):
            if on_ground:
                vel_y = JUMP
        elif event.type == pygame.KEYUP and event.key in (pygame.K_SPACE, pygame.K_UP):
            if vel_y < -4:
                vel_y = -4

    keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
    dx = 0
    if keys[pygame.K_LEFT]:
        dx -= SPEED
    if keys[pygame.K_RIGHT]:
        dx += SPEED

    player.x += dx
    for wall in walls:
        if player.colliderect(wall):
            if dx > 0:
                player.right = wall.left
            elif dx < 0:
                player.left = wall.right

    vel_y = min(vel_y + GRAVITY, MAX_FALL)
    player.y += vel_y
    on_ground = False
    for wall in walls:
        if player.colliderect(wall):
            if vel_y > 0:
                player.bottom = wall.top
                on_ground = True
            elif vel_y < 0:
                player.top = wall.bottom
            vel_y = 0

    camera_x = player.centerx - WIDTH // 2

    screen.fill((140, 200, 240))
    for wall in walls:
        screen.blit(block_img, (wall.x - camera_x, wall.y))
    screen.blit(player_img, (player.x - camera_x, player.y))
    pygame.display.flip()
    clock.tick(60)

pygame.quit()