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Detecting overlapping polygon2D colliders in Unity

I'm trying to program an isometric building placement script. Each building has a PolygonCollider2D component on it with a trigger. When placing a new building, I'm trying to check if the PolygonCollider2D of the placed building overlaps with anything else (to check if placement is valid). My code is as follows:
Adjust the points of the new placed building collider based on the mouse position
Vector2[] points = polygonCollider2D.points;
points.SetValue(polygonCollider2D.points[0] + (Vector2)mousePosition, 0);
points.SetValue(polygonCollider2D.points[1] + (Vector2)mousePosition, 1);
points.SetValue(polygonCollider2D.points[2] + (Vector2)mousePosition, 2);
points.SetValue(polygonCollider2D.points[3] + (Vector2)mousePosition, 3);
polygonCollider2D.points = points;
Set up contact filter:
ContactFilter2D contactFilter2D = new ContactFilter2D();
contactFilter2D.useTriggers = true;
contactFilter2D.SetLayerMask(polygonCollider2D.gameObject.layer);
Check for collisions
List<Collider2D> list = new List<Collider2D>();
Debug.Log(polygonCollider2D.OverlapCollider(contactFilter2D, list));
However if there is already a building there, it still does not register an overlap.
What am I missing / doing wrong ?
Thanks so much for the help!

Your code which sets the polygon collider points seems to be the issue here. If that code runs multiple times, it will repeatedly offset the collider further and further away from its original position. You probably don't want to be changing the actual collider; usually you should move object which has the collider. So you would replace those lines with something like this:
gameObject.transform.position = mousePosition;

When making the camera follow a ball, which one should control the camera position? The ball or the camera itself?

I am learning Unity3D and now creating a trivial (useless) game as follows.
The ball rolls down the inclined floor and the camera must follows the ball with the following relationship
x camera = x ball
y camera = y ball + 3
z camera = z - 10
There are two possible ways to control the camera position.
The ball controls the camera
In this scenario, I attach the following script to the ball.
public class Ball : MonoBehaviour
{
[SerializeField]
private Transform cameraTransform;
void Start() { }
void Update()
{
Vector3 newCameraPos = new Vector3
{
x = transform.position.x,
y = transform.position.y + 3f,
z = transform.position.z - 10f
};
cameraTransform.position = newCameraPos;
}
}
The camera controls itself
In this scenario, I attach the following script to the camera.
public class Camera : MonoBehaviour
{
[SerializeField]
private Transform ballTransform;
void Start() { }
void Update()
{
Vector3 newCameraPos = new Vector3
{
x = ballTransform.position.x,
y = ballTransform.position.y + 3f,
z = ballTransform.position.z - 10f
};
this.transform.position = newCameraPos;
}
}
Question
Even though both methods work as expected, I am wondering whether there are any pros and cons for each method. Which one should I use?

As you've already mentioned, both examples work as expected.
What I like to do though, is assign functionality to the object that is responsible for performing the 'action'. In this case the camera is 'following' something. At the moment, it is following the ball, but later if you wanted to make it follow something else, would it make sense to have to navigate to your ball gameobject to change that behaviour? I think not.
By assigning functionality to objects based on 'responsibilities' you will often find that your code ends up being much more modular in the long run.
Of course this sort of practice is nothing new to game development, or software development at all. It complements the Single Responsibility Principle and shares many of its qualities.
But, at the end of the day, if you're working on your code alone, then you will know the codebase inside out. So it's up to you really!
I would also suggest creating Components based off of those responsibilities whenever possible. So instead of having one generic Camera component, I would create a FollowTarget component and attach that to the camera. In doing so, you will have enabled the ability to use that very same Component to make some other, arbitrary object follow another arbitrary object in your game.
Happy learning!

Get the center point between many GameObjects in Unity

I have created a game in which you can control X characters at the same time in the same form and they can die at any time. My problem is when I want the game camera to include all these gameobjects.
I thought that a good option is to calculate the central point between the gameobjects in the scene and make the camera follow that point at a certain distance.
I already have the camera code, but I still need to know how to get that central point or another way of doing it. In addition, the camera does not follow any of the axes (X, Y, Z) linearly, since it is placed in such a way that is the view is isometric (the game is in 3D).
As a last important fact, it is that all gameobjects that are running in the game (that are alive), are stored in a public static List <GameObject> to be able to access the components of these gameobjects at any time. Also, if a character (gameobject) dies or is born, the list is updated without problems.
I leave you a graphic example with three different cases, being the black points, the characters that are in the scene (gameobjects) and the red points, the central point (vector) that I would like to find.
Also, I leave the camera code so you can test if you have any solution:
public class Camera_Movement : MonoBehaviour {
Vector3 newPos;
public static List<GameObject> playersInGame = new List<GameObject>();
void Update() {
// Get Central Vector
// Replace playersInGame[0].transform.position with central vector
//newPos = Vector3.Lerp(gameObject.transform.position, "central vector", Time.deltaTime);
newPos = Vector3.Lerp(gameObject.transform.position, playersInGame[0].transform.position, Time.deltaTime);
gameObject.transform.position = new Vector3(newPos.x, newPos.y, newPos.z);
}
}
Thank you very much in advance!

You need to take the average x and and average y.
That would look like the following:
var totalX = 0f;
var totalY = 0f;
foreach(var player in playersInGame)
{
totalX += player.transform.position.x;
totalY += player.transform.position.y;
}
var centerX = totalX / playersInGame.Count;
var centerY = totalY / playersInGame.Count;
Let me know if this works for you (don't have access to Unity at the moment), but I put together an example here: https://dotnetfiddle.net/jGd99I

To have a solution that your camera can be best positioned to see all of your objects, then try this:
public Vector3 FindCenterOfTransforms(List<Transform> transforms)
{
var bound = new Bounds(transforms[0].position, Vector3.zero);
for(int i = 1; i < transforms.Count; i++)
{
bound.Encapsulate(transforms[i].position);
}
return bound.center;
}

Make GameObject “attach” properly?

This script makes a cube "stick" to whatever it collided with. The problem is that when it's going at relatively high or medium speeds (or when the device itself is slow), the cube tends to "get a bit inside" what it collided with and then stick to it. What changes do I have to make to fix this?
In order for this script to work, one GameObject must have bool _sticksToObjects = true; and the other bool _sticksToObjects = false;
I have tried turning the Rigidbody's Collision Detection mode to either Continuous or Continuous Dynamic
I think my script depends on frame rate. That may be where the problem lies.
Normal "Attach":
Abnormal "Attach":
Rigidbody _rigidBody;
Transform _meshTransform;
bool _sticksToObjects = true;
public Transform _stuckTo = null;
protected Vector3 _offset = Vector3.zero;
void Awake()
{
GameObject CubeMesh = GameObject.FindWithTag ("CubeMesh");
GameObject Cube = GameObject.FindWithTag ("Cube");
_rigidBody = Cube.GetComponent<Rigidbody> ();
_meshTransform = CubeMesh.GetComponent<Transform> ();
}
void Update()
{
if (_stuckTo != null)
{
transform.position = _stuckTo.position - _offset;
}
}
void OnCollisionEnter(Collision collision)
{
if (!_sticksToObjects) {
return;
}
_rigidBody.isKinematic = true;
// Get the approximate collision point and normal, as there
// may be multipled collision points
Vector3 contactPoint = Vector3.zero;
Vector3 contactNormal = Vector3.zero;
for (int i = 0; i < collision.contacts.Length; i++) {
contactPoint += collision.contacts [i].point;
contactNormal += collision.contacts [i].normal;
}
// Get the final, approximate, point and normal of collision
contactPoint /= collision.contacts.Length;
contactNormal /= collision.contacts.Length;
// Move object to the collision point
// This acts as setting the pivot point of the cube mesh to the collision point
transform.position = contactPoint;
// Adjust the local position of the cube so it is flush with the pivot point
Vector3 meshLocalPosition = Vector3.zero;
// Move the child so the side is at the collision point.
// A x local position of 0 means the child is centered on the parent,
// a value of 0.5 means it's to the right, and a value of -0.5 means it to the left
meshLocalPosition.x = (0.5f * contactNormal.x);
_meshTransform.localPosition = meshLocalPosition;
if (_stuckTo == null || _stuckTo != collision.gameObject.transform) {
_offset = collision.gameObject.transform.position - transform.position;
}
_stuckTo = collision.gameObject.transform;
}
Here are some screenshots of the Unity editor:

This is a well-known category of problem in game engineering and you'll be pleased to know the solution is relatively simple. You'll be pleased to hear there are similar, but much more complicated, problems that are actually solved in the same way. I'll try to explain.
Now here's the thing. It's quite often that the following question comes up...
So I'm working on GTA. I have a humanoid, H, running around. She approaches vehicle V. She opens the door and gets in and drives off. After that everything goes to hell in Mecanim and all the code stops working. What to do?
Surprisingly, the way that is done in games is:
Surprisingly: you actually swap to totally different models at that point!!!!!
You have H and V in the game. But then you have an animation (say) for H climbing in to V. But then, you literally destroy the game objects of H and V, and you Instantiate (or just awake) a new, totally different, game object, which is D ("a car being driven around by a lady").
(If you think about it, you can see that when you do this, you carefully adjust all the stuff in D, so that it matches what was "just then happening" in the frame, in relation to both H and V. So for example, literally, you copy the transform, twist etc of the car V, to the new car-inside-D, if lady H has the SmearedMakeupEffect, you put the same SmearedMakeupEffect on the lady-within-D, you position all the bones identically, and so on.)
Another simple example of this is, you often get people asking, "my character C gets killed and I want it to become a ragdoll, how to?" In fact you just swap to a totally new game object you have all set up for that passage of the game. Indeed, if you have a character A ("Arnie") in a game, it's normal that you have 4 or 5 "different As" sitting offside the stage, so, there's "ragdoll A", "A who can dance" "A with weapon". And indeed many of these are combos, you know "A on the horse" "A in the car" and so on.
So interestingly, the "real" solution here is,
once they become a new connected thing, destroy them both and swap to a new game object altogether!
if you have made games "until you are blue in the face" from making games, this is just what you would do as a matter of course. Even though its' a simple situation, it's just easier in the long run. After all, consider all the stuff you have to do when this happens:
make hitting object child of the other
turn off physics on the child
change the way your physics works for the whole thing
turn off or change the collider on the hitting object, perhaps making it part of the overall object
you'll likely have some sort of new "separation" physics where it can be knocked-off - you'd have to turn all that on
likely change minor issues like sound effects, colors etc
As you can see it's a huge chore doing all this stuff, and indeed it's one of those things it's just "easier to do properly" and change to a new model.
All that being said, I know you want a Quick Script Solution you can Paste In :) Here it is...
Step 0, You'll create "YourScript" which goes on the "main" cube. it will "catch" another cube moving around.
YourScript will look basically like this ...
[System.NonSerialized] public bool isConnectedNow;
void OnCollisionEnter(Collision collision)
GameObject theThingWeCaught = collision.gameObject
Debug.Log("We caught this thing .. " + theThingWeCaught.name)
// make it a child of us......
theThingWeCaught.transform.parent = transform
theThingWeCaught ... set kinematic
theThingWeCaught ... probably disable the rigidbody
theThingWeCaught ... probably disable the collider
isConnectedNow = true;
That's really all you have to do.
Step 1, YOUR script must have a public bool like this
[System.NonSerialized] public bool isConnectedNow;
Step 2, Here's MyScript which goes on the hitting cube, first we'll unit-test that your isConnectedNow bool is working
public Class MyScript:MonoBehaviour // attach to the "child" cube
{
public float correctXDistance;
public float correctYDistance;
public Transform bigCube;
public YourScript yourScript;
void Update()
{
string message = yourScript.isConnectedNow ? "free" : "stuck";
Debug.Log("I am " + message);
}
}
attach, debug, and run. Make the little cube stick and unstick from the big cube .. Watch the console. it works? So add this to MyScript
private void DistanceCorrectionX()
{
float xDistance = bigCube.position.x - transform.position.x;
float xSign = Mathf.Sign(xDistance);
float xDelta = Mathf.Abs(xDistance);
float closenessPercentage = (xDelta/correctXDistance)*100f;
if ( closenessPercentage<90f || closenessPercentage>110f)
{
// they are not close enough to quantize on this axis
// this comes in to play when you have multiple axes
return; // do nothing.
}
float xShouldBe = bigCube.position.x + xSign * correctXDistance;
Vector3 p = transform;
p.x = xShouldBe; // be careful it's .y, .z etc for other axes
transform.position = p;
}
for now call that in Update() in MyScript like this
void Update()
{
Debug.Log("I am " yourScript.isConnectedNow ? "free" : "stuck");
if (yourScript.isConnectedNow) DistanceCorrectionX();
}
Now actually Play and make it stick. Now, since it's running in Update simply while Play look at the Inspector for MyScript and adjust the value of correctXDistance to get the exact look you want. When yo have decided on a value, unPlay and put that in as the final value you wish.
Next, in DistanceCorrectionX simply duplicate all the code and do it again for the Y axis DistanceCorrectionX. If you also do Z, do that.
Finally. Note you will have a lot of messy code, like this...
void Update()
{
// handle all the DistanceCorrectionX etc as seen above.
if (yourScript.isConnectedNow)
{
.. turn off the collider on me
}
else
{
.. turn on the collider on me
}
}
and so on, there's "many little things" you'll need to do.
Don't forget also, overwhelmingly you may want to make the hitting object a child of the big object, depending on your situation. (Then of course they would move around together as a unit.)
Note that in the positioning code above I just showed it as position, not local position, for pedagogic clarity. If you want to do them flinging around, and spinning and so on, you'd make the hitting object a child of the other and you would use localPosition in the same way. Enjoy.

One possible way that comes to my mind is:
Inside of the "collision enter" check the distance between these objects and move the one that should stick to the other one a bit away.
As you see in the picture the distance between A and B should be equal to the sum of the widths divided by 2 (with a small threshold of course).
If the distance is less than the sum of the widths / 2 then you have an abnormal "attach" and you have to move one of the objects away. Its not really difficult to accomplish that.

Calculating/Predicting a way

I'm just starting with physics, so I'm not always sure about what I'm doing. It's a 2D project but I'm using 3D physical objects like SphereCollider etc..
What I have:
Objects floating in space and affecting each other through gravity:
protected virtual IEnumerator OnTriggerStay(Collider other) {
yield return new WaitForFixedUpdate();
if(other.attachedRigidbody) {
Vector3 offsetVector = this.transform.position - other.transform.position;
float distance = offsetVector.magnitude;
float gravityForce = (other.rigidbody.mass * mass) / Mathf.Pow(distance, 2);
// Clamp gravity.
if(gravityForce > 1.0F) {
gravityForce = 1.0F;
}
other.attachedRigidbody.constantForce.force = offsetVector.normalized * gravityForce;
}
}
There are controllable objects on which the player can click and drag a line away from the object in order to give it a force (shoot) in the opposite direction.
What I want to achieve:
The player should see a rough prediction of the way while aiming. That means that the way-prediction needs to take in account the current velocity, the force which would be applied when the player release the mouse button and the gravity of the surrounding objects.
What I have tried so far:
For testing purposes I just save the computed/predicted positions in an array and draw those positions in OnDrawGizmos().
I wrote a method which returns the gravity influence for a certain position called computeGravityForPosition(Vector3 position).
And thats how I try to calculate the positions:
private void drawWayPrediction() {
Vector3 pos = this.transform.position;
// The offsetVector for the shooting action.
Vector3 forceVector = pos - Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition);
forceVector.z = 0.0F;
// The predicted momentum scaled up to increase the strength.
Vector3 force = (forceVector.normalized * forceVector.magnitude);
// 1. I guess that this is wrong, but don't know how to do it properly.
momentum = this.rigidbody.velocity + force;
for(int i = 0; i < predictionPoints.Length; i++) {
float t = i * Time.fixedDeltaTime;
momentum += computeGravityForPosition(pos);
pos += momentum * t * t;
predictionPoints[i] = pos;
}
}
At the beginning, when the objects just slowly approaching each other it looks okay. After the first shot, the prediction is completely wrong. I guess it is because of 1. in the code. Just adding the force to the velocity is probably horrible wrong.
Thank you very much for your time.
EDIT:
I removed seemingly unnessecary parts.
I still think that the main problem lays in 1. in the code. I just don't know how to mix up the current movement of the object (from which I only have the current velocity as far as I know the physics engine of unity) with the new created force:
Vector3 forceVector = pos - Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(Input.mousePosition);
Vector3 force = (forceVector.normalized * forceVector.magnitude);

So if you are using a new version of unity probably above 2018, you can use the nice method
Physics.Simulate(dt); // delta time, dt, is the amount of time to simulate.
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Physics.Simulate.html
https://docs.unity3d.com/2018.3/Documentation/ScriptReference/PhysicsScene.Simulate.html
By using this function you can manually advance the simulation.
This method should be applied to a different physics scene.
Therefore I suggest that when you click you will simulate a few physics steps (the more you will simulate the more accurate indication the player will get),
with every step you store the position of the object and when you are done simulating draw a line between all the points.
In my opinion, it should run quite fast if done correctly.
The code should look something like this:
public PhysicsScene physicsScene;
GameObject actualBall;
GameObject simulatedBall;
OnClick() {
simulatedBall.SetPosition(actualBall.transform.position);
if (!physicsScene.IsValid())
return; // do nothing if the physics Scene is not valid.
for (int i=0; i < 10; i++) {
physicsScene.Simulate(Time.fixedDeltaTime);
// store the position.
myPoints.append(simulatedBall.rb.position);
}
// draw a line from the stored points.
}
In addition there is this video that I hope will help, good luck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLu1T5Y2SSc
I hope I answered your question and if not tell me :)

Disclaimer : Unfortunately I suck at math so can't provide any code for the calculations.
Now that the legal stuff is out of the way :)
In my opinion you are looking at this all wrong. What you need is to calculate the curve (path of the objects trajectory) and then simply plot the curve in OnDrawGizmos with a line renderer.
You don't need to simulate the behaviour of the object. Not only is this a LOT faster but it's also simpler in terms of TimeScale shenanigans. By changing the TimeScale you are also affecting the TimeScale of your trajectory simulation which will most likely look and feel weird.
By doing a basic trajectory calculation you will not have this issue.
PS: This link might help.