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First-person mode (experimental)

Walk around (and inside) a model like a first-person game. Experimental. Also reachable from the command palette ("Toggle FPS Mode (experimental)") and the View menu.

bearcad.ui.first_person()          -- toggle; first_person(true) / first_person(false) forces it

Looking and moving​

bearcad.ui.first_person_look(20, 5)              -- turn the head: degrees right, degrees up
bearcad.ui.first_person_move{ forward = 1000 }   -- walk along the ground, millimetres
bearcad.ui.first_person_move{ strafe = -200 }    -- forward/strafe combine in one call
bearcad.ui.first_person_jump()                   -- press the jump key once

first_person_move is an instant, absolute offset along the current heading — not integrated physics, so it positions the player precisely without frame timing.

Flying​

Double-tapping Space toggles flying interactively; from a script:

bearcad.ui.first_person_fly(true)    -- start flying: no gravity, Space/Shift ascend/descend interactively
bearcad.ui.first_person_fly()        -- toggle
bearcad.ui.first_person_fly(false)   -- stop flying (resumes gravity from rest)

first_person_move only offsets along the ground; ascending/descending while flying is interactive-only.

Advancing physics​

first_person_advance(seconds) integrates gravity/jump physics with no keys held:

bearcad.ui.first_person()
bearcad.ui.first_person_jump()
bearcad.ui.first_person_advance(3)   -- enough time for gravity to bring the jump back down

Scale​

[/] shrink/grow the player interactively. Eye height, speeds, jump, and gravity scale together — a smaller/larger person, not a world zoom. Look sensitivity and first_person_move's millimetre offsets are unaffected.

bearcad.ui.first_person_scale(0.1)   -- 1/10th human scale: eye height 170mm
bearcad.ui.first_person_scale(10)    -- 10x human scale: eye height 17m

Scale clamps to 1/100×–100× human scale.

Weapon-style tool switching​

In first-person mode, number keys 1–9 pick tool slots and the wheel cycles tools (the wheel doesn't zoom and right-drag doesn't orbit). Interactive-only; scripts call bearcad.ui.tool(...) directly.

Errors outside first-person mode​

Every first_person_* function except first_person() raises a catchable error if first-person mode isn't active:

local ok, err = pcall(function() bearcad.ui.first_person_jump() end)
assert(not ok, "first_person_jump should require first-person mode")

Reading state back​

The player's eye/look writes the ordinary orbit camera every frame (target = eye + look), so assert via bearcad.ui.camera{}:

bearcad.ui.first_person()
local before = bearcad.ui.camera{}
bearcad.ui.first_person_move{ forward = 500 }
local after = bearcad.ui.camera{}
assert(after.target.x ~= before.target.x or after.target.y ~= before.target.y)