This may be a no-brainer to some, but it isn't documented clearly anywhere in the Litchi documentation that I could find, and from the standpoint of planning cinematoraphy, its critical.
So, I have confirmed that Litchi tries to fly a straight-line, shortest-route line segment between waypoints with different altitudes (good). This is in contrast to doing a right-angle path -- either travel to the next waypoint location at constant altitude and then ascend to waypoint altitude (or simply swap these two segments -- ascend first, then travel to waypoint).
However, keep in mind that Litchi can only smoothly travel this path within the speed and ascent/descent rate limits. If you configure two waypoints where distance and elevation differences exceed the performance characteristics of the aircraft, you will wind up with a path that may have a straight-up, vertical segment of the path at the next waypoint location.
Anyway, knowing how Litchi implements this, you can plan some very nice cinematic shots with altitude changes that make the shot. Also, you absolutely WILL NOT be able to control all this manually to achieve the same thing. One example is a slow, ascending spiraling orbit of a subject. I'll shoot one today and post it so you can see the idea.
Litchi is da bomb.
So, I have confirmed that Litchi tries to fly a straight-line, shortest-route line segment between waypoints with different altitudes (good). This is in contrast to doing a right-angle path -- either travel to the next waypoint location at constant altitude and then ascend to waypoint altitude (or simply swap these two segments -- ascend first, then travel to waypoint).
However, keep in mind that Litchi can only smoothly travel this path within the speed and ascent/descent rate limits. If you configure two waypoints where distance and elevation differences exceed the performance characteristics of the aircraft, you will wind up with a path that may have a straight-up, vertical segment of the path at the next waypoint location.
Anyway, knowing how Litchi implements this, you can plan some very nice cinematic shots with altitude changes that make the shot. Also, you absolutely WILL NOT be able to control all this manually to achieve the same thing. One example is a slow, ascending spiraling orbit of a subject. I'll shoot one today and post it so you can see the idea.
Litchi is da bomb.
