Controlling arc axis with Vector3.Slerp - c#

I'm using Vector3.Lerp() to instantiate some prefabs at a set distance from each other. This works, but I've just started playing with Vector3.Slerp.
This creates a nice arc, however I'd like the arc to happen on either the X or Z axis, not the Y. So rather than arcing up into the air, the prefabs remain in contact with the ground at all times.
I've been reading up on euler local transforms however I'm not entirely sure if that's the right thing.
If anyone could offer some advice, or input, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I did a little tinkering (and can't claim to fully understand the reasoning as of now, or whether this is the only solution) but it seems as long as the y-component of the start and end input Slerp Vectors are zero, the object will only travel in the xz plane. Below is an example:
Vector3 startpos;
Vector3 endpos;
Vector3 yoffset;
float t;
void Start()
{
startpos = new Vector3(-5, 2, 0);
endpos = new Vector3(3, 2, 2);
yoffset = new Vector3(0, 2, 0);
}
void Update()
{
t = (t+Time.deltaTime);
transform.position = Vector3.Slerp(startpos - yoffset, endpos - yoffset, t/5f);
transform.position += yoffset;
}

Related

Unity - Rotation Animation through code? [duplicate]

I a new here and i try to start working with Unity Engine.
Could somebody explain me, how works Quaternion.Slerp? Because I want to rotate some object in different angles 90, 180 and 270. My code you can see below. Unfortunately when I add 180 degrees, object make crazy things and than put rotation to (0, 180, 180) for this game object. I would like to get (180,0,0)
public float speed = 0.1F;
private float rotation_x;
void Update()
{
if (Input.GetButtonDown("Fire1"))
{
rotation_x = transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x;
rotation_x += 180;
}
transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, Quaternion.Euler(rotation_x, transform.eulerAngles.y, transform.eulerAngles.z), Time.time * speed);
}
Most examples out there including Unity examples from their official website are using Lerp in the wrong way. They didn't even bother to describe how it works in the API documentation. They just starch it in the Update() function and call it a day.
Mathf.Lerp, Vector3.Lerp, and Quaternion.Slerp work by changing from one position/rotation to another with the t value(last parameter) being passed in.That t value is also know as time.
The min of the t value is 0f and the max is 1f.
I will explain this with Mathf.Lerp to make it easier to understand. The Lerp functions are all the-same for both Mathf.Lerp, Vector and Quaternion.
Remember that Lerp takes two values and returns values between them. If we have a value of 1 and 10 and we do Lerp on them:
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 0f); will return 1.
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 0.5f); will return 5.5
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 1f); will return 10
As you can see, the t(0) returns the min of the number passed in, t(1) returns the max value passed in and t(0.5) will return mid point between the min and the max value. You are doing it wrong when you pass any t value that is < 0 or > 1. That code in you Update() function is doing just that. Time.time will increase every second and will be > 1 in a second, so you have problems with that.
It recommended to use Lerp in another function/Coroutine instead of the Updated function.
Note:
Using Lerp has a bad side of it when it comes to rotation. Lerp does not know how to rotate Object with the shortest path. So bear that in mind. For example, you have an Object with 0,0,90 position. Lets say you want to move the rotation from that to 0,0,120 Lerp can sometimes rotate left instead of right to reach that new position which means it take longer to reach that distance.
Let's say we want to make the rotation (0,0,90) from whatever the current rotation is. The code below will change the rotation to 0,0,90 in 3 seconds.
ROTATION OVER TIME:
void Start()
{
Quaternion rotation2 = Quaternion.Euler(new Vector3(0, 0, 90));
StartCoroutine(rotateObject(objectToRotate, rotation2, 3f));
}
bool rotating = false;
public GameObject objectToRotate;
IEnumerator rotateObject(GameObject gameObjectToMove, Quaternion newRot, float duration)
{
if (rotating)
{
yield break;
}
rotating = true;
Quaternion currentRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.rotation;
float counter = 0;
while (counter < duration)
{
counter += Time.deltaTime;
gameObjectToMove.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(currentRot, newRot, counter / duration);
yield return null;
}
rotating = false;
}
INCREMENTAL ANGULAR ROTATION OVER TIME:
And to just rotate the Object to 90 in z axis, the code below is a great example of that. Please understand there is a difference between moving Object to new rotational point and just rotating it.
void Start()
{
StartCoroutine(rotateObject(objectToRotate, new Vector3(0, 0, 90), 3f));
}
bool rotating = false;
public GameObject objectToRotate;
IEnumerator rotateObject(GameObject gameObjectToMove, Vector3 eulerAngles, float duration)
{
if (rotating)
{
yield break;
}
rotating = true;
Vector3 newRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles + eulerAngles;
Vector3 currentRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles;
float counter = 0;
while (counter < duration)
{
counter += Time.deltaTime;
gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles = Vector3.Lerp(currentRot, newRot, counter / duration);
yield return null;
}
rotating = false;
}
All my examples are based on frame-rate of the device. You can use real-time by replacing Time.deltaTime with Time.delta but more calculation is required.
Before anything, you can't add 180 on euler angles like that, and that's mainly what is causing your problem. You'd better use quaternion directly instead, or work on the transform itself.
You can think of a quaternion as an orientation in space. In contrary to what have been said, I do recommend learning how to use them if you can. However, I don't recommend using euler angles at all... as they're suject to different writing conventions, and will fail sometimes. You can look at 'gimbal lock' if you want details about that.
Simply a slerp or lerp (standing for spherical linear interpolation, or linear interpolation respectively) is a way to interpolate (go from one orientation to another, by increasing t from 0 to 1, in a coroutine or anywhere else) between orientation A and B. The difference between the two is that the slerp is giving you the shortest path from A to B.
In the end, when t = 1, lerp(A,B,t) and slerp(A,B,t) will give you B.
In your case, if you want to instantly rotate an object in space to a specific orientation, I suggest you use Quaternion.AngleAxis which is the most forward way to describe mathematically a quaternion.
If you want to add a rotation, say 90° to you actual orientation (without animation between the two), you can do something like this :
transform.rotation *= Quaternion.AngleAxis(axis_of_rotation, angle)
or use transform.rotate (depending on the parameters, it can be a right multiply, or left : local, or world transform).
Programmers' answer is detailling how to animate your transform. But I do suggest you to investigate quaternion themselves, as it will give you global understanding of space transforms.

Why doesn't my IEnumerator function loop? [duplicate]

I a new here and i try to start working with Unity Engine.
Could somebody explain me, how works Quaternion.Slerp? Because I want to rotate some object in different angles 90, 180 and 270. My code you can see below. Unfortunately when I add 180 degrees, object make crazy things and than put rotation to (0, 180, 180) for this game object. I would like to get (180,0,0)
public float speed = 0.1F;
private float rotation_x;
void Update()
{
if (Input.GetButtonDown("Fire1"))
{
rotation_x = transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x;
rotation_x += 180;
}
transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, Quaternion.Euler(rotation_x, transform.eulerAngles.y, transform.eulerAngles.z), Time.time * speed);
}
Most examples out there including Unity examples from their official website are using Lerp in the wrong way. They didn't even bother to describe how it works in the API documentation. They just starch it in the Update() function and call it a day.
Mathf.Lerp, Vector3.Lerp, and Quaternion.Slerp work by changing from one position/rotation to another with the t value(last parameter) being passed in.That t value is also know as time.
The min of the t value is 0f and the max is 1f.
I will explain this with Mathf.Lerp to make it easier to understand. The Lerp functions are all the-same for both Mathf.Lerp, Vector and Quaternion.
Remember that Lerp takes two values and returns values between them. If we have a value of 1 and 10 and we do Lerp on them:
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 0f); will return 1.
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 0.5f); will return 5.5
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 1f); will return 10
As you can see, the t(0) returns the min of the number passed in, t(1) returns the max value passed in and t(0.5) will return mid point between the min and the max value. You are doing it wrong when you pass any t value that is < 0 or > 1. That code in you Update() function is doing just that. Time.time will increase every second and will be > 1 in a second, so you have problems with that.
It recommended to use Lerp in another function/Coroutine instead of the Updated function.
Note:
Using Lerp has a bad side of it when it comes to rotation. Lerp does not know how to rotate Object with the shortest path. So bear that in mind. For example, you have an Object with 0,0,90 position. Lets say you want to move the rotation from that to 0,0,120 Lerp can sometimes rotate left instead of right to reach that new position which means it take longer to reach that distance.
Let's say we want to make the rotation (0,0,90) from whatever the current rotation is. The code below will change the rotation to 0,0,90 in 3 seconds.
ROTATION OVER TIME:
void Start()
{
Quaternion rotation2 = Quaternion.Euler(new Vector3(0, 0, 90));
StartCoroutine(rotateObject(objectToRotate, rotation2, 3f));
}
bool rotating = false;
public GameObject objectToRotate;
IEnumerator rotateObject(GameObject gameObjectToMove, Quaternion newRot, float duration)
{
if (rotating)
{
yield break;
}
rotating = true;
Quaternion currentRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.rotation;
float counter = 0;
while (counter < duration)
{
counter += Time.deltaTime;
gameObjectToMove.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(currentRot, newRot, counter / duration);
yield return null;
}
rotating = false;
}
INCREMENTAL ANGULAR ROTATION OVER TIME:
And to just rotate the Object to 90 in z axis, the code below is a great example of that. Please understand there is a difference between moving Object to new rotational point and just rotating it.
void Start()
{
StartCoroutine(rotateObject(objectToRotate, new Vector3(0, 0, 90), 3f));
}
bool rotating = false;
public GameObject objectToRotate;
IEnumerator rotateObject(GameObject gameObjectToMove, Vector3 eulerAngles, float duration)
{
if (rotating)
{
yield break;
}
rotating = true;
Vector3 newRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles + eulerAngles;
Vector3 currentRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles;
float counter = 0;
while (counter < duration)
{
counter += Time.deltaTime;
gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles = Vector3.Lerp(currentRot, newRot, counter / duration);
yield return null;
}
rotating = false;
}
All my examples are based on frame-rate of the device. You can use real-time by replacing Time.deltaTime with Time.delta but more calculation is required.
Before anything, you can't add 180 on euler angles like that, and that's mainly what is causing your problem. You'd better use quaternion directly instead, or work on the transform itself.
You can think of a quaternion as an orientation in space. In contrary to what have been said, I do recommend learning how to use them if you can. However, I don't recommend using euler angles at all... as they're suject to different writing conventions, and will fail sometimes. You can look at 'gimbal lock' if you want details about that.
Simply a slerp or lerp (standing for spherical linear interpolation, or linear interpolation respectively) is a way to interpolate (go from one orientation to another, by increasing t from 0 to 1, in a coroutine or anywhere else) between orientation A and B. The difference between the two is that the slerp is giving you the shortest path from A to B.
In the end, when t = 1, lerp(A,B,t) and slerp(A,B,t) will give you B.
In your case, if you want to instantly rotate an object in space to a specific orientation, I suggest you use Quaternion.AngleAxis which is the most forward way to describe mathematically a quaternion.
If you want to add a rotation, say 90° to you actual orientation (without animation between the two), you can do something like this :
transform.rotation *= Quaternion.AngleAxis(axis_of_rotation, angle)
or use transform.rotate (depending on the parameters, it can be a right multiply, or left : local, or world transform).
Programmers' answer is detailling how to animate your transform. But I do suggest you to investigate quaternion themselves, as it will give you global understanding of space transforms.

How Quaternion gets multiplied with a vector?

I am working on a third person shooter. And I have found this code. But I cant make no sense with it. First it is multiplying Quaternion with "Vector3.forward" and compiler is showing nothing. And also can you make me clear about the main logic of this code. I know memorizing the code is not a good habit. So can you explain me the code. And what does that Quaternion.euler does, is that for changing euler to quaternion.
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public class CameraFollow : MonoBehaviour {
[SerializeField]
Transform target;
[SerializeField]
float distance;
[SerializeField]
float targetheight;
private float x = 0;
private float y = 0;
void LateUpdate()
{
y = target.eulerAngles.y;
Quaternion rotation = Quaternion.Euler(x, y, 0);
Debug.Log(rotation);
transform.rotation = rotation;
var postion = target.position - (rotation *Vector3.forward* distance + new Vector3(0, -targetheight, 0));
transform.position = postion;
}
}
Let's break it down:
y = target.eulerAngles.y;
This is Transform.eulerAngles() and gives you the current rotation of the target as Quaternion.
Then that rotation is reapplied to the target, but with the rotation around the Z-axis removed.
Quaternion rotation = Quaternion.Euler(x, y, 0);
Debug.Log(rotation);
transform.rotation = rotation;
This is Quaternion.Euler(x,y,z) and gives you a rotation from three degree values.
Last is the following calculation:
var postion = target.position - (rotation *Vector3.forward* distance + new Vector3(0, -targetheight, 0));
transform.position = postion;
Multiplying a Vector3 by a Quaternion means to apply the rotation to the vector. So in this case you'd rotate the forward vector based on the rotation of the target (without the Z-axis rotation, since we set that to 0 earlier). Then that resulting forward vector is multiplied by a certain distance to give us a point somewhere in front of the target's current facing direction and lowered according to the targetheight variable.
Lastly that calculation is subtracted from our own current position, basically performing a point reflection with the target being the point. The result is that we actually end up with a position that has a positive height (originally we were using a negative targetheight) and are behind the target's facing direction.

Rotate GameObject over time

I a new here and i try to start working with Unity Engine.
Could somebody explain me, how works Quaternion.Slerp? Because I want to rotate some object in different angles 90, 180 and 270. My code you can see below. Unfortunately when I add 180 degrees, object make crazy things and than put rotation to (0, 180, 180) for this game object. I would like to get (180,0,0)
public float speed = 0.1F;
private float rotation_x;
void Update()
{
if (Input.GetButtonDown("Fire1"))
{
rotation_x = transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x;
rotation_x += 180;
}
transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, Quaternion.Euler(rotation_x, transform.eulerAngles.y, transform.eulerAngles.z), Time.time * speed);
}
Most examples out there including Unity examples from their official website are using Lerp in the wrong way. They didn't even bother to describe how it works in the API documentation. They just starch it in the Update() function and call it a day.
Mathf.Lerp, Vector3.Lerp, and Quaternion.Slerp work by changing from one position/rotation to another with the t value(last parameter) being passed in.That t value is also know as time.
The min of the t value is 0f and the max is 1f.
I will explain this with Mathf.Lerp to make it easier to understand. The Lerp functions are all the-same for both Mathf.Lerp, Vector and Quaternion.
Remember that Lerp takes two values and returns values between them. If we have a value of 1 and 10 and we do Lerp on them:
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 0f); will return 1.
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 0.5f); will return 5.5
float x = Mathf.Lerp(1f, 10f, 1f); will return 10
As you can see, the t(0) returns the min of the number passed in, t(1) returns the max value passed in and t(0.5) will return mid point between the min and the max value. You are doing it wrong when you pass any t value that is < 0 or > 1. That code in you Update() function is doing just that. Time.time will increase every second and will be > 1 in a second, so you have problems with that.
It recommended to use Lerp in another function/Coroutine instead of the Updated function.
Note:
Using Lerp has a bad side of it when it comes to rotation. Lerp does not know how to rotate Object with the shortest path. So bear that in mind. For example, you have an Object with 0,0,90 position. Lets say you want to move the rotation from that to 0,0,120 Lerp can sometimes rotate left instead of right to reach that new position which means it take longer to reach that distance.
Let's say we want to make the rotation (0,0,90) from whatever the current rotation is. The code below will change the rotation to 0,0,90 in 3 seconds.
ROTATION OVER TIME:
void Start()
{
Quaternion rotation2 = Quaternion.Euler(new Vector3(0, 0, 90));
StartCoroutine(rotateObject(objectToRotate, rotation2, 3f));
}
bool rotating = false;
public GameObject objectToRotate;
IEnumerator rotateObject(GameObject gameObjectToMove, Quaternion newRot, float duration)
{
if (rotating)
{
yield break;
}
rotating = true;
Quaternion currentRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.rotation;
float counter = 0;
while (counter < duration)
{
counter += Time.deltaTime;
gameObjectToMove.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(currentRot, newRot, counter / duration);
yield return null;
}
rotating = false;
}
INCREMENTAL ANGULAR ROTATION OVER TIME:
And to just rotate the Object to 90 in z axis, the code below is a great example of that. Please understand there is a difference between moving Object to new rotational point and just rotating it.
void Start()
{
StartCoroutine(rotateObject(objectToRotate, new Vector3(0, 0, 90), 3f));
}
bool rotating = false;
public GameObject objectToRotate;
IEnumerator rotateObject(GameObject gameObjectToMove, Vector3 eulerAngles, float duration)
{
if (rotating)
{
yield break;
}
rotating = true;
Vector3 newRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles + eulerAngles;
Vector3 currentRot = gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles;
float counter = 0;
while (counter < duration)
{
counter += Time.deltaTime;
gameObjectToMove.transform.eulerAngles = Vector3.Lerp(currentRot, newRot, counter / duration);
yield return null;
}
rotating = false;
}
All my examples are based on frame-rate of the device. You can use real-time by replacing Time.deltaTime with Time.delta but more calculation is required.
Before anything, you can't add 180 on euler angles like that, and that's mainly what is causing your problem. You'd better use quaternion directly instead, or work on the transform itself.
You can think of a quaternion as an orientation in space. In contrary to what have been said, I do recommend learning how to use them if you can. However, I don't recommend using euler angles at all... as they're suject to different writing conventions, and will fail sometimes. You can look at 'gimbal lock' if you want details about that.
Simply a slerp or lerp (standing for spherical linear interpolation, or linear interpolation respectively) is a way to interpolate (go from one orientation to another, by increasing t from 0 to 1, in a coroutine or anywhere else) between orientation A and B. The difference between the two is that the slerp is giving you the shortest path from A to B.
In the end, when t = 1, lerp(A,B,t) and slerp(A,B,t) will give you B.
In your case, if you want to instantly rotate an object in space to a specific orientation, I suggest you use Quaternion.AngleAxis which is the most forward way to describe mathematically a quaternion.
If you want to add a rotation, say 90° to you actual orientation (without animation between the two), you can do something like this :
transform.rotation *= Quaternion.AngleAxis(axis_of_rotation, angle)
or use transform.rotate (depending on the parameters, it can be a right multiply, or left : local, or world transform).
Programmers' answer is detailling how to animate your transform. But I do suggest you to investigate quaternion themselves, as it will give you global understanding of space transforms.

C# XNA Mouse position projected to 3D plane

I'm working on a 3D XNA project, and I've been thinking about this problem for like 2 weeks.
So I just decided to ask you.
Basically I have a flat plane and i want to project the mouse position to that plane, but how?
I tried many ways to do it, calculated angles...
But i figured out, that the distance must effect on the X position, maybe some math is needed what I've never heard before.
I did some code few years ago which returns the position as Vector3(x,y,z), given mouse state:
private Vector3 FindWhereClicked(MouseState ms)
{
Vector3 nearScreenPoint = new Vector3(ms.X, ms.Y, 0);
Vector3 farScreenPoint = new Vector3(ms.X, ms.Y, 1);
Vector3 nearWorldPoint = device.Viewport.Unproject(nearScreenPoint, cam.projectionMatrix, cam.viewMatrix, Matrix.Identity);
Vector3 farWorldPoint = device.Viewport.Unproject(farScreenPoint, cam.projectionMatrix, cam.viewMatrix, Matrix.Identity);
Vector3 direction = farWorldPoint - nearWorldPoint;
float zFactor = -nearWorldPoint.Y / direction.Y;
Vector3 zeroWorldPoint = nearWorldPoint + direction * zFactor;
return zeroWorldPoint;
}
device is an instance of GraphicsDevice.
Hope it works for you.

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