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Unity Drag and Drop x and z position

I try to make a Drag and Drop function in Unity3D.
How it should work:
I have an Object on a ground and i want to be able to just drag it around the ground.
I only want to change the x and the z position.
Sadly no Tutorial could help me out with this problem.
I tried raycasting and it worked to 'select' the Object but i could not change the position.
I managed to write a script to show me the mouse position in world Space but it isnt working really.
Can someone help me out with this and explain me how the code works?
What steps do i need to do so it works?

You can use raycast here and use the hit point as you position when dragging.
void MoveObject()
{
RaycastHit hit;
float movetarget;
//startPoint = hit.point;
ray = GetComponent<Camera> ().ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
Debug.DrawRay(ray.origin, ray.direction * 100, Color.yellow);
if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit))
{
movetarget = hit.distance;
if (activated == false)
{
wall = Instantiate(prefab, hit.point, prefab.transform.rotation);
activated = true;
}
startPoint = hit.point;
}
wall.transform.position = hit.point;
}

Unity3D - Using Raycasting to detect Game Objects. Top-down view

I'm making a top down space resource-gathering game, with 3D models.
I'm trying to cast a ray towards my mouse position, to detect collisions with the objects in my game,
for my little spaceship to know which direction to head to find resources.
The resources are in the form of asteroids the player has to break to gather.
In the code, I use the "center" vector to find the middle of the screen/player position, as the camera follows the player around. All movement happens along the X,Y axis. center.Z is set to 15 simply to counteract the -15Z position of the main camera in worldspace.
So far, the code "works" to the extent that it can detect a hit, but the ray doesn't travel in the direction of the mouse. I have to hold it way off for it to hit, and it's difficult to replicate, to the point where it almost seems random. Might the ray not be able to make sense of the mouse position?
In case I've worded myself poorly, this search ability is not meant to break the asteroid, simply locate it. The breaking ability is a separate script.
Code:
public class AbilitySearch : MonoBehaviour
{
Vector3 center;
Vector3 mousePos;
Vector3 direction;
private float range = 100f;
void Update()
{
center = Camera.main.ViewportToWorldPoint(new Vector3(0.5f, 0.5f, 15.0f));
mousePos = Input.mousePosition;
direction = mousePos - transform.position;
if (Input.GetMouseButton(1))
{
Search();
}
}
void Search()
{
RaycastHit hit;
if (Physics.Raycast(center, direction, out hit, range))
{
Debug.Log("You hit " + hit.transform.name);
}
}
}
Thanks in advance

When using Input.mousePosition the position is a pixel coordinate on your screen, so if your mouse was in the bottom left corner of your screen it would be 0,0. This causes the direction to be inaccurate. When what you need is to use the game space coordinates, which is done by using Camera.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition), as an example.
This solution allows you to click on a gameObject (provided it has a collider attached), move the current gameObject towards the clicked object, as well as gather an array of possible gameObjects (RaycastHit[s]) in the direction of the clicked one.
Vector3 destination;
RaycastHit[] possibleTargets;
bool isTravelling;
float searchDistance = 5f;
private void Update()
{
//If right mouse button has been pressed down
if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(1))
{
RaycastHit hit;
Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit)) //If ray collides with something
{
Search(hit);
}
}
//If going to destination
if (isTravelling)
{
float step = 2f * Time.deltaTime;
transform.position = Vector3.MoveTowards(transform.position, destination, step);
//If approx arrived
if (Vector3.Distance(transform.position, destination) < 0.1f)
{
isTravelling = false; //Stop moving to destination
Debug.Log("You've arrived");
}
}
}
private void Search(RaycastHit _hit)
{
//Normalise directional vectors, so (if needed) they can be multipled as expected
Vector3 direction = (_hit.point - transform.position).Normalized();
RaycastHit secondHit;
//Grab objects in direction of clicked object (including the one clicked)
possibleTargets = Physics.RaycastAll(transform.position, direction, searchDistance);
Debug.Log($"There are {possibleTargets.Length} possible targets ahead");
Debug.Log($"You hit {_hit.transform.name}");
//Set destination, and set to move
destination = _hit.point;
isTravelling = true;
}

You used the ViewportToWorldPoint method, which expects normalized viewport coordinates in range 0 to 1, but you supplied what seems to me as world coordinates of your camera as its parameter.
You only need to cast a ray from camera to mouse pointer world position (see first line of code in method FindAsteroid) to check for collision with asteroid. The returned RaycastHit provides you with information about the collision - hit position, gameobject, collider - which you can use for other game logic, e.g. shooting a projectile from spaceship to asteroid hit point.
I edited your class and included a screenshot from my simple scene below, which shows the two different "rays":
The yellow ray goes from camera to asteroid hit point
The magenta ray goes from spaceship position to asteroid hit point.
I would also recommend filtering the raycast to affect only specific colliders -
see LayerMask (section Casting Rays Selectively)
public class AbilitySearch : MonoBehaviour
{
private float range = 100f;
private Camera mainCam;
private void Awake()
{
// TIP: Save reference to main camera - avoid internal FindGameObjectWithTag call
mainCam = Camera.main;
}
private void Update()
{
if (Input.GetMouseButton(1))
{
if (FindAsteroid(out var asteroidHit))
{
// Draw a line from spaceship to asteroid hit position
Debug.DrawLine(transform.position, asteroidHit.point, Color.magenta, Time.deltaTime);
Debug.Log($"You hit {asteroidHit.transform.name}");
}
}
}
private bool FindAsteroid(out RaycastHit hit)
{
// Create a ray going from camera position to mouse position in world space
var ray = mainCam.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit, range))
{
// Draw a line from camera to world mouse position
Debug.DrawLine(ray.origin, hit.point, Color.yellow, Time.deltaTime);
// An asteroid was found
return true;
}
// An asteroid was NOT found
return false;
}
}
Sample spaceship scene

How do I drag objects on the screen using `OnMouseDrag`?

Tried doing 2D and 3D. I want the player to click and drag objects to stack them. I tried copying and pasting code from a video and it still didn't work.
UPDATE! Now it kinda works but it teleports the object far off the screen. I want the player to be able to smoothly click and drag the object.
The code as of now:
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
public class DragObject : MonoBehaviour
{
private float deltax, deltay;
private void OnMouseDown()
{
deltax = 1f;//Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition).x - transform.position.x;
deltay = 1f; //Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition).y - transform.position.y;
}
private void OnMouseDrag()
{
Vector2 currentTouchPos = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition);
transform.position = new Vector2((Input.mousePosition).x - deltax, (Input.mousePosition.y) - deltay);
}
}

It's not clear at all what exact problem is for you, you obviously need to give more info and describe your issue better. But I'll try to help as I can.
To get mouse position you need to use:
Input.mousePosition
If you need mouse position in 2d coordinates you can use this:
Vector2 currentTouchPos = mainCamera.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition);

This method works regardless of your camera type or how the camera moves between frames
First, when the object is first clicked, get the plane at the object's position perpendicular to the direction of the camera:
Plane dragPlane = new Plane(Camera.main.transform.forward, transform.position);
Then, get the ray coming out of the camera from where the mouse is:
Ray camRay = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
Find out where that ray intersects using Plane.Raycast:
float enter = 0.0f;
if (dragPlane.Raycast(camRay, out enter))
{
Vector3 fingerPosition = camRay.GetPoint(enter);
This gives you a position in world space, which is where you can consider the finger to currently be at. Just put the object there:
transform.position = fingerPosition;
Altogether it might look like this:
void OnMouseDrag()
{
Plane dragPlane = new Plane(Camera.main.transform.forward, transform.position);
Ray camRay = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
float enter = 0.0f;
if (dragPlane.Raycast(camRay, out enter))
{
Vector3 fingerPosition = camRay.GetPoint(enter);
transform.position = fingerPosition;
}
}
No OnMouseDown necessary.
An alternative is to keep track of how fingerPosition changes over time, and Translate the transform based on that. Keeping as much math as possible in world units makes it easy:
Vector3 prevFingerPosition = Vector3.zero;
// Same code as before but we use it in different places so it goes in its own method.
// If the Raycast fails, return a decent guess.
private Vector3 GetMouseOnPositionInWorldSpace()
{
Plane dragPlane = new Plane(Camera.main.transform.forward, transform.position);
Ray camRay = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
float enter = 0.0f;
if (dragPlane.Raycast(camRay, out enter))
{
return camRay.GetPoint(enter);
}
return prevFingerPosition;
}
void OnMouseDown()
{
prevFingerPosition = GetMouseOnPositionInWorldSpace();
}
void OnMouseDrag()
{
Vector3 fingerPosition = GetMouseOnPositionInWorldSpace();
transform.Translate(fingerPosition-prevFingerPosition);
prevFingerPosition = fingerPosition;
}
There is an issue behind using OnMouseDrag to handle dragging objects around is that if the cursor moves too quickly, it can move off the object in the span of a single frame, and it will "drop" the object.
If that's not desirable, you might want to set a bool to be true in OnMouseDown that remembers that the object was clicked and a move the logic out of OnMouseDrag and into Update where it can do its thing if that bool is true. And when the mouse is released, set that bool back to false.

Player rotation and camera rotation

i want the player to look into the direction, the camera is looking.
The camera follows the player (3rd person game style).
I've tried it with
transform.localRotation = new Quaternion(transform.localRotation.x,
cameraMain.transform.localRotation.y,
transform.localRotation.z,
transform.localRotation.w);
but it doesn't work.
Sometimes the player starts rotating the other direction.

the following code will make the object (specified in the parameter) face in the direction of where the main camera is looking:
public void lookInDirectionOfCamera(Transform object) {
RayCastHit hit;
if (Physics.raycast(cameraMain.transform.position, cameraMain.transform.forward, out hit)) {
object.forward = hit.point - object.position;
}else { //if the raycast didnt hit anything, make the object face 100 units in front of the camera
Vector3 point = Camera.main.transform.position + Camera.main.transform.forward * 100;
object.forward = point - object.position;
}
}
This will make the player face the point that is forward to the camera. If you just want them to have the same rotation in the y-axis don't use Quaternions!
Instead, you can just do it with Euler angles:
transform.eulerAngles = new Vector3(transform.eulerAngles.x,
cameraMain.transform.eulerAngles.y,
transform.eulerAngles.y);
The reason not to use transform.localRotation is because that is a Quaternion. The y component in a Quaternion is not the same as the y-axis in a Euler angle (what you are used to seeing), Quaternions are very confusing so you should almost never set individual values in them. If you want to edit them only use the built-in methods.

Get the direction the camera is looking with cameraMain.transform.forward, make a copy with a y value of zero, then use Quaternion.SetLookRotation to look in that direction with the global up direction.:
Vector3 cameraDirection = cameraMain.transform.forward;
Vector3 characterLookDirection = new Vector3(cameraDirection.x,
0f,
cameraDirection.z);
Quaternion newRotation = new Quaternion();
newRotation.SetLookRotation(characterLookDirection, Vector3.up);
transform.rotation = newRotation;

Calculate distance between Mesh Edges

I've the point of origin readily available where my mouse is on screen like so,
ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
Now imagine a cube. Anywhere you click on this cube, a line is drawn from the edge clicked on, through the object, and stops at the other end. Orientation, vertical or horizontal, is determined by which side is clicked on, one of the 4 sides, or top or bottom.
How does one determine the distance (from one edge of a mesh to the other), and orientation (vertical or horizontal)?
Thoughts?
Only idea I have so far is to use collision detection and using CollisionEnter as the start point and somehow draw a line that reaches the opposite end of the mesh and using CollisionExit to determine the destination (or exit) point. Then doing some calculation to determine the distance between the Enter and Exit methods.

The only way I can think of approaching this would be to cast a ray back in the other direction....
Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
RaycastHit hit;
if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit))
{
//offset the ray, keeping it along the XZ plane of the hit
Vector3 offsetDirection = -hit.normal;
offsetDirection.y = 0;
//offset a long way, minimum thickness of the object
ray.origin = hit.point + offsetDirection * 100;
//point the ray back at the first hit point
ray.direction = (hit.point - ray.origin).normalized;
//raycast all, because there might be other objects in the way
RaycastHit[] hits = Physics.RaycastAll(ray);
foreach (RaycastHit h in hits)
{
if (h.collider == hit.collider)
{
h.point; //this is the point you're interested in
}
}
}
This offsets the ray to a new location so that it retains the same XZ coordinates of the original hit, so the resulting endpoints form a line that is perpendicular with the world / scene Y axis. To do this we use the camera's Forward direction (as we want to get a point farther away from the view point). If we wanted to get a point for a line that is perpendicular to the hit surface (parallel to the surface normal) we could create an offset using the hit.normal instead.
You will probably want to put a layermask or maxdist parameter into the two raycast methods (so it checks fewer things and is faster), but that's on you.
Original code: which finds the two endpoints of a "single" ray cast through the object.
Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
RaycastHit hit;
if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit))
{
//offset the ray along its own direction by A LOT
//at a minimum, this would be the maximum thickness of any object we care about,
//PLUS the distance away from the camera that it is
ray.origin += ray.direction * 100;
//reverse the direction of the ray so it points towards the camera
ray.direction *= -1;
//raycast all, because there might be other objects in the way
RaycastHit[] hits = Physics.RaycastAll(ray);
foreach(RaycastHit h in hits)
{
if(h.collider == hit.collider)
{
h.point; //this is the point you're interested in
}
}
}