Documentation / v1.0.0

FPV Flight Line docs

Everything you need to turn a few clicked waypoints into a freestyle FPV drone flight: install, the first flight in one minute, routes, ready-made shots, following a subject, every move, the pilot, cameras and fixes. The add-on lives in the Flight Line tab of the 3D Viewport sidebar.

Blender 5.0+Extension zipRenders without the add-onby LarkLab

Install, update, remove

Download fpv_flightline-1.0.0.zip from your Superhive downloads. Don't unzip it.
In Blender open Edit › Preferences › Get Extensions, open the small arrow menu at the top right and choose Install from Disk…, then pick the zip. Dragging the zip onto the Blender window works too.
The add-on is enabled straight away. In the 3D Viewport press N and open the Flight Line tab.

Update: install the new zip the same way. Your flights are stored in the .blend as ordinary objects and keyframes, so they stay as they are.

Remove from a scene: Reset Flight Line at the bottom of the main panel deletes the drone, cameras, route and animation after you confirm. Uninstall in Preferences; your files keep rendering, because the flight is plain keyframes.

Command line, for example on a render node: blender --command extension install-file -r user_default -e fpv_flightline-1.0.0.zip. Render nodes don't need it at all: the file renders without the add-on.

Your first flight in one minute

New Flight. Press it in the Flight Line tab. The mouse pointer becomes a crosshair.
Click the start. Click on your scene where the drone should start. The drone, its FPV camera and a chase camera appear there.
Click where it flies. The drone flies the route straight away. Keep clicking to add more points.
Finish. Press Enter (Esc or right-click also finish). Ctrl+Z inside the tool removes the last point.
Watch. Under Watch, press FPV or Chase and play the timeline.

Everything updates live: move a waypoint, change its move or a pilot setting, and the flight is flown again a moment later. Turn off the refresh button next to Fly Route to stop that on very heavy scenes.

If you finish after only one click, a second point is added 15 m ahead in the direction you were looking.

Start a flight box in the Flight Line panel — Step 1: New Flight

The Flight Line panel with pilot style, Fly Route, Watch and Route — The Flight Line tab

Blender viewport with the live flight line threading two rings — The live flight line threading two rings

Building a route

Click to Place adds points with the mouse. While it's active, the header shows the keys.

Action	Adds
Click	A waypoint at Point Height over the clicked surface.
Shift + click	A race gate standing on the clicked spot, facing the direction of travel.
Ctrl + click	A proximity skim, 0.5 m from the surface, flown very close.
Alt + click	A gap: finds the opening near the click (a window, a doorway, the space between two buildings) and threads straight through it.
Backspace / Ctrl+Z	Removes the last waypoint you placed.
Enter, Esc, right-click	Done.

AHEAD

Next point along the arrow

Adds a waypoint after the active one. At the end of the route it goes 15 m along the waypoint's arrow, stopping short of walls. Rotate the arrow (R Z) to aim it. In the middle of a route it goes halfway to the next point.

GAP

Gap From Selection

Select one object with a hole in it, or two objects with a space between them. The waypoint is placed in the opening and flown straight through.

EDIT

Plain objects

Move waypoints with G and snapping. In the list, the arrows reorder, X deletes and the arrow-down button drops a point onto the surface below it.

Route From Curve (Route panel) turns the selected curve into a route with a waypoint every few meters. Draw the line with the curve tools or reuse a path you already have.

15 ready-made shots

Select an object and press Add Shot (welcome screen or Route panel). The shot is sized to the object and approached from your current view. It's built from normal waypoints and moves, so you can edit it, and it keeps clear of your scene like any route. This replaces the current route.

REVEALS

Rising Orbit

TRICKS

Power Loop Over

REVEALS

Crest Reveal

SPACES

Valley Run

Group	Shots
Reveals	Orbit Reveal (fly in, circle once, fly out), Rising Orbit (spiral up around it), Descending Vortex (spiral down from above), Punch-In Reveal (race in low, climb over it), Crest Reveal (climb the face and skim over the top edge), Dive Reveal (over the top and down the far side).
Fly-bys	Fly-By (pass alongside, turning to keep it in view), Parallax Fly-By (low and close, looking ahead), Roll Pass (a roll right beside it).
Tricks	Power Loop Over, Split-S Drop, Flip Over, Orbit Break-Out (circle it, then break away at speed).
Spaces	Doorway Entry (finds the door, window or arch in the object and flies through it), Valley Run (low and fast across terrain, following its surface).

Follow Subject

Film anything that moves: a car, a character, a bird. Open the Follow Subject panel, pick the Subject, a Follow Style and press Follow Subject.

Style	Where the drone flies
Tail Chase	Right behind the subject, a little above it.
Low Chase	Low and close behind, just above the ground.
High Follow	Higher and further back, showing the surroundings.
Side Pace	Alongside the subject, matching its speed.
Overtake	Starts behind, passes it and flies on ahead.

Behind, Side and Height set the distance. Behind is measured along the subject's path, so the gap holds through bends.
Point Every is the time between the waypoints made along the path. Shorter follows twisty motion more closely.
Each point is pinned to the subject's frame (Arrive at Frame) and the subject becomes a look target, so the camera stays on it.
If the subject is faster than the pilot's Top Speed, Top Speed is raised to keep up.
The subject and its children are not obstacles, so the drone doesn't dodge the car itself.

Moves

Select a waypoint and pick its move under Selected Point. Moves that need room are measured against your scene: if one doesn't fit it is flown smaller, and with no room at all the drone flies straight through and the panel tells you which waypoint it was.

The move menu: Fly Through, Loops and Dives, Throttle Cut, Circle — The move menu

Move	What the drone does	Size
Pass	Flies through the point.
Race Gate	Flies straight through a gate placed at the waypoint.
Gap	Threads straight through an opening along the waypoint's arrow.
Proximity Skim	Flies very close past the nearest surface.
Power Loop	A full vertical loop that starts at the waypoint and goes up and over.	Loop radius
Split-S	Rolls inverted and pulls down, coming back the other way lower.	Radius
Dive	Rolls over the edge, dives straight down, pulls out at the bottom.	Depth
Reversal	Half loop up and roll upright, coming back the other way higher.	Radius
Roll	Throttle cut, 360° roll, punch out.	Turns
Flip	Throttle cut, 360° flip (Right = backflip, Left = front flip).	Turns
Yaw Spin	Floating flat 360° spin.	Turns
Orbit	Circles the waypoint, optionally looking at it.	Radius, turns
Corkscrew	Spirals up around the waypoint, for trees, pillars and towers.	Radius, turns, climb

Every waypoint also has Speed (0 uses cruise speed), Direction: Use Arrow (gates and gaps always do) and Wall Distance (0 uses the pilot's).

Timing and aim

Arrive at Frame

Tick it on any waypoint and type a frame: the drone passes that point on exactly that frame, for music cues and edit points. The speeds before it are solved to fit, easing smoothly between pinned points. Pin the first point to choose the frame the flight starts on. If a pin needs more speed than Top Speed allows, the panel says which point and how fast.

Look Targets

The nose and FPV camera turn toward objects you choose: a statue on a fly-by, a car, a doorway. Add Look Target uses the selected objects, or adds a target at the 3D cursor. Several targets blend by strength; moving targets are followed frame by frame.

Look target setting	Meaning
Strength	1 keeps the camera on the target, 0.5 is a glance.
Notice Distance	The drone starts turning toward the target from this distance.
Lock Distance	Closer than this, the camera stays on the target at full strength.
Release Angle	Let go once the target is this far behind the flight direction.

Like a real quad: a drone can only turn its nose around its thrust, so a target turns the heading. The camera's height in the picture still comes from the tilt and the camera uptilt.

Pilot and physics

Pilot Style, the four buttons at the top of the panel, sets everything at once. Changing a setting below switches to Custom; press a style to go back. With the ? button on, each group explains itself.

Smooth

Flowing lines and soft, confident turns. The best all-round look.

Aggressive

A little faster and punchier, with harder banks.

Parkour

Slower and tight to every surface.

Cinematic

Slow and gentle, for reveals and walkthroughs.

Setting	Meaning	Group
Cruise / Top Speed	Speed between points; fastest the drone can fly, which also sets how far it leans forward.	Speed
Rates	Fastest rotation in °/s, also the speed of rolls and flips. Freestyle pilots use about 500–1000.	Handling
Stick Response	How quickly the drone follows the pilot; 0.05–0.1 s feels like a tuned quad.	Handling
Line Smoothing	Rounds off the line. Lower is sharper.	Handling
Look at Next Point	How much the nose and FPV camera aim at the next point or gate ahead of time.	Eyes
Look Ahead	How early the nose turns into the next part of the line.	Eyes
Motor Power	Thrust to weight. A typical 5-inch freestyle quad is 5 to 8.	Power
Turn Strength	How much power the pilot uses in turns, and how far it may bank outside tricks.	Power
Wall Distance	Distance kept from your scene.	Safety
Camera Shake / Propwash	Stick corrections and turbulence; the wobble when punching out through its own wash. Shake Variation gives a new shake on the same line.	Shake
Start / End	Already Flying or From Hover; Keep Flying or Stop. Fit Timeline sets the frame range to the flight.	Start & End

Tilt from thrust

A quad pushes only along its own up axis, so it leans into every acceleration, leans forward against drag, and goes inverted when the line pulls down harder than gravity.

Speed from the motors

Slower in tight corners and climbs, faster in dives, and it can't brake harder than its motors allow.

Stays clear

The route keeps its distance from your geometry and finds a way around walls between waypoints. The same settings always give the same flight.

Cameras and auto cuts

FPV

FPV camera

Camera Uptilt (pilots use 20–40°), FPV Field of View and Speed Widening, which opens the lens as the drone speeds up.

CHASE

Third person

Chase, Wide Follow or Top Chase, with Distance, Height, Lag, Speed Zoom and Bank. It backs off during tricks so the whole move stays in frame.

SPOTTERS

Spotters and cuts

Place Spotter Cameras puts a camera on the ground near each move. Auto Cuts switches between all cameras with timeline markers. Cuts does both in one click.

Under Watch, the FPV, Chase and Cuts buttons switch the camera you look through and render with.

Flight line and drone

Flight line display

Drawn in the viewport only, never rendered. It is the exact path of the drone's animation.
Color: Speed (blue slow, red fastest), Moves (orange tricks, pink throttle cut) or Plain.
Highlight Ahead: the next seconds are drawn bright, the part already flown is dimmed.
Second Marks: a dot for every second, handy for timing.
In Camera View: also draw it through a camera, like a racing line in FPV.

Drone

Built-in Drone: a 5-inch freestyle quad with props and prop blur that follow the throttle. Drone Size and Accent Color.
Use Selected as Drone: any object you choose. Front +Y, top +Z, origin at its center.
Your Props: objects in this collection spin around their own Z with the throttle.
The drone carries fl_speed, fl_throttle and fl_altitude, keyed every frame, for drivers.

Rendered flight path through nine rings with a power loop — The flown path, rendered as a line: nine rings, a power loop and a roll

Everything lives in the Flight Line collection: FL Drone, FL FPV Camera, FL Chase Camera, the FL Route collection with the waypoints and gates, and FL Spotters.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
No Flight Line tab	Press `N` in the 3D Viewport; check the add-on is enabled in Preferences.
A trick was flown straight through	There was no room for it. The panel names the waypoint; move it into open space or make the move smaller.
The flight doesn't update	The refresh button next to Fly Route is off; turn it on or press Fly Route.
The drone ignores a moved wall	Live updates reuse the last scan. Press Fly Route after big scene changes.
Far too fast or too slow	The scene isn't in meters. Scale the speeds and sizes with it.
"…needs about X km/h"	An Arrive at Frame pin is too early for Top Speed. Move the frame later or raise Top Speed.
The gap misses the opening	Select only the object with the hole (or the two objects around the space) before Gap From Selection.
Flight line not in the render	By design: it's a viewport guide. Render the FPV or chase camera.
Camera looks at the sky	Lower Camera Uptilt, or use Look Targets to aim the nose.
Want to start over	Reset Flight Line, confirm, then New Flight.

Known limits and support

One flight rig per scene.
Very large scenes (millions of faces) take a few seconds to scan on Fly Route.
Prop spin is limited to the built-in drone and the objects in Your Props.
Scenes are assumed to be in meters.
Ctrl+Z works on everything the add-on does. After an undo the restored flight is kept; if it doesn't match the waypoints, it is flown again a moment later.

Questions, bugs or a feature request? Contact LarkLab through Superhive. Include your Blender version, operating system and, if you can, the .blend.

superhivemarket.com/creators/larklab