How to make an object face its forward vector - c#

Similar to my recent question only this time I would like to move the object towards a vector and not another object.
Vector3 line = dalekList[i].direction;
float rotationDal = (float)(-Math.Atan2(dalekList[i].position.X, -dalekList[i].position.Z) / (2 * Math.PI));
Matrix dalekTransform = Matrix.CreateScale(GameConstants.DalekScalar) * Matrix.CreateRotationY(rotationDal) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(dalekList[i].position);
So I would need to put the rotation (rotationDal) into the CreateRotationY, only I'm not sure how to calculate that angle.

If the vector you want to "watch" is dalekList[i].direction, you should try to use Atan2 on it, instead of position.

Related

How do I get the original number to calculate the sin and cos for a point on a circle?

I got this to move an object in a circle:
currentAngle += Time.deltaTime * angularSpeed;
offset = new Vector3(Mathf.Sin(currentAngle), 0, Mathf.Cos(currentAngle)) * circleRad;
transform.position = fixedPoint + offset;
Is there a way to get the original currentAngle (used to calculate a point) from a position on this circle, like backtrack the function?
The atan2 function is what you are looking for.
In C# it is available as Math.Atan2, which takes double arguments. In addition, Unity (which you are probably using given the code sample in your question) has Mathf.Atan2 which takes float arguments.

how to make the transform.up of a gameobject be colliear with a vector, without changing it's Y rotation?

So... I'll try to be as clear as possible, if I let something unclear please let me know.
I have a vector that comes from origin and go to a point in space, and I have an object that I want it's transform.up (Or Y vector) to be colinear with this vector, but the Y rotation of this object is driven by another factor, and I dont want to change it.
So far, what I'm trying to do is project this vector in the local XY and local ZY planes and measure the angles and apply rotation:
float xInclination = Mathf.Atan(Vector3.ProjectOnPlane(orbitMomemtumVector, transform.right).z / Vector3.ProjectOnPlane(orbitMomemtumVector, transform.right).y)*Mathf.Rad2Deg;
float yInclination = Mathf.Atan(initialPos.z / initialPos.x) * Mathf.Rad2Deg;
float zInclination = -Mathf.Atan(Vector3.ProjectOnPlane(orbitMomemtumVector, transform.forward).x / Vector3.ProjectOnPlane(orbitMomemtumVector, transform.forward).y)*Mathf.Rad2Deg;
if (initialPos.x < 0 && initialPos.z > 0)
{
yInclination = 180f - Mathf.Abs(yInclination);
argumentPeriapsis = argumentPeriapsis - yInclination;
}
else if (initialPos.x < 0 && initialPos.z < 0)
{
yInclination = 180f + Mathf.Abs(yInclination);
argumentPeriapsis = argumentPeriapsis - yInclination;
}
else
{
argumentPeriapsis = argumentPeriapsis - yInclination;
}
transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(xInclination, (float)argumentPeriapsis, zInclination);
This image shows the problem, I need the Y arrow to be collinear with the blue line
Let me be clear on this, don't use Euler angles in 3d space. In fact, avoid them in 2d games as well. Unless your object truly rotates on a single axis, and you never have to get the angle between two rotations, or lerp your rotations, don't use them.
What you want is Quaternion.LookRotation(A, B).
A being a vector to which Z will be colinear, X being orthogonal to the plane defined by A and B, and Y belonging to that plane.
Followup:
To match other axis to A, there are multiple solutions. First would be to simply apply the lookRotation to a parent object, while the child object is rotated inside to match whatever rotation you want. You can also edit your entire mesh to do so.
The other way is to simply apply another rotation, so that both combined get your desired result, like so:
Quaternion zMatched = Quaternion.LookRotation(zAxisTarget, direction)
Quaternion yMatched = zMatched * Quaternion.AngleAxis(90f, Vector3.right);
transform.rotation = yMatched;
This will rotate the object so that the y axis becomes collinear to the previous z axis.
This is however nor perfect. If you reach this point, you should consider building your own clearer solution based on combining AngleAxis results. But it works well enough.

Leap Motion Get Finger Bending (C#)

Hello I tried a lot diffrent ways to get bending angle in Leap Motion. But I couldn't get true values. I used this method for reading. Thanks in advance.
Bone bone1 = finger.Bone(Bone.BoneType.TYPE_INTERMEDIATE);
Bone bone2 = finger.Bone(Bone.BoneType.TYPE_PROXIMAL);
double angle = 180 - ((bone1.Direction.AngleTo(bone2.Direction) / Math.PI) * 180) * 2;
In this example I'll use array accessors as a quicker way of accessing bones from Finger objects.
For reference, bone indices are: 0 = metacarpal, 1 = proximal, 2 = intermediate, 3 = distal. You can validate this by looking at the definition of BoneType.
(Careful, the thumb has one fewer bone than the other fingers.)
Vector3 bone0Dir = finger.bones[0].Direction.ToVector3();
Vector3 bone1Dir = finger.bones[1].Direction.ToVector3();
float angle = Vector3.Angle(bone0Dir, bone1Dir);
This example retrieves the angle in degrees between the metacarpal bone and the proximal bone of the finger object.
Note that Vector3.Angle returns the unsigned angle between the two bones; if you desire a signed angle, you can use the SignedAngle function instead. You'll need to pass it a reference axis; Vector3.Cross(hand.PalmarAxis(), hand.DistalAxis()) would be suitable for this.
EDIT: Ah, apologies, the answer is a bit different if you're outside of the Unity engine. In that case, Leap.Vector.AngleTo is sufficient, but there's a simpler way to convert radians to degrees:
Vector bone0Dir = finger.bones[0].Direction;
Vector bone1Dir = finger.bones[1].Direction;
float angle = bone0Dir.AngleTo(bone1Dir) * Vector.RAD_TO_DEG;
Again, this will return the unsigned angle, but fingers don't usually bend backwards, so this should be sufficient for your use-case. You can also use Math.Asin((bone0Dir.Cross(bone1Dir).Magnitude)) * RAD_TO_DEG to get a (right-handed) signed angle.

What's wrong with this XNA RotateVector2 function?

I know this is probably a very simple question, but I can't seem to figure it out. First of all, I want to specify that I did look over Google and SO for half an hour or so without finding the answer to my question(yes, I am serious).
Basically, I want to rotate a Vector2 around a point(which, in my case, is always the (0, 0) vector). So, I tried to make a function to do it with the parameters being the point to rotate and the angle(in degrees) to rotate by.
Here's a quick drawing showing what I'm trying to achieve:
I want to take V1(red vector), rotate it by an angle A(blue), to obtain a new vector (V2, green). In this example I used one of the simplest case: V1 on the axis, and a 90 degree angle, but I want the function to handle more "complicated" cases too.
So here's my function:
public static Vector2 RotateVector2(Vector2 point, float degrees)
{
return Vector2.Transform(point,
Matrix.CreateRotationZ(MathHelper.ToRadians(degrees)));
}
So, what am I doing wrong? When I run the code and call this function with the (0, -1) vector and a 90 degrees angle, I get the vector (1, 4.371139E-08) ...
Also, what if I want to accept a point to rotate around as a parameter too? So that the rotation doesn't always happen around (0, 0)...
Chris Schmich's answer regarding floating point precision and using radians is correct. I suggest an alternate implementation for RotateVector2 and answer the second part of your question.
Building a 4x4 rotation matrix to rotate a vector will cause a lot of unnecessary operations. The matrix transform is actually doing the following but using a lot of redundant math:
public static Vector2 RotateVector2(Vector2 point, float radians)
{
float cosRadians = (float)Math.Cos(radians);
float sinRadians = (float)Math.Sin(radians);
return new Vector2(
point.X * cosRadians - point.Y * sinRadians,
point.X * sinRadians + point.Y * cosRadians);
}
If you want to rotate around an arbitrary point, you first need to translate your space so that the point to be rotated around is the origin, do the rotation and then reverse the translation.
public static Vector2 RotateVector2(Vector2 point, float radians, Vector2 pivot)
{
float cosRadians = (float)Math.Cos(radians);
float sinRadians = (float)Math.Sin(radians);
Vector2 translatedPoint = new Vector2();
translatedPoint.X = point.X - pivot.X;
translatedPoint.Y = point.Y - pivot.Y;
Vector2 rotatedPoint = new Vector2();
rotatedPoint.X = translatedPoint.X * cosRadians - translatedPoint.Y * sinRadians + pivot.X;
rotatedPoint.Y = translatedPoint.X * sinRadians + translatedPoint.Y * cosRadians + pivot.Y;
return rotatedPoint;
}
Note that the vector arithmetic has been inlined for maximum speed.
So, what am I doing wrong? When I run the code and call this function with the (0, -1) vector and a 90 degrees angle, I get the vector (1, 4.371139E-08) ...
Your code is correct, this is just a floating point representation issue. 4.371139E-08 is essentially zero (it's 0.0000000431139), but the transformation did not produce a value that was exactly zero. This is a common problem with floating point that you should be aware of. This SO answer has some additional good points about floating point.
Also, if possible, you should stick with radians instead of using degrees. This is likely introducing more error into your computations.

How do I find rotation transformed 2D coordinates in XNA?

I'm making an XNA game and have run into a small problem figuring out a bit of vector math.
I have a class representing a 2D object with X and Y integer coordinates and a Rotation float. What I need is to have a Vector2 property for Position that gets and sets X and Y as a Vector2 that has been transformed using the Rotation float. This way I can just do something like;
Position += new Vector2((thumbstick.X * scrollSpeed), -(thumbstick.Y * scrollSpeed));
and the object will move in it's own upward direction, rather than the View's upward direction.
So far this is what I have...I think the set is right, but for += changes it needs a get as well and the answer just isn't coming to me right now... >.>
public Vector2 Position
{
get
{
// What goes here? :S
}
set
{
X = value.X * (int)Math.Cos(this.Rotation);
Y = value.Y * (int)Math.Cos(this.Rotation);
}
}
No, both are incorrect.
A 2D vector transforms like this:
x' = x*cos(angle) - y*sin(angle)
y' = x*sin(angle) + y*cos(angle)
where the angle is measured in radians, zero angle is along the positive x-axis, and increases in the counterclockwise direction as you rotate around the z-axis out of plane. The center of rotation is at the end of the vector being transformed, so imagine the vector with origin at (0,0), end at (x,y) rotation through an angle until it becomes a vector with origin at (0,0) and end at (x', y').
You can also use the Matrix helper methods to create a Z rotation matrix then multiply your vector by this to rotate it. Something like this:
Vector v1;
Matrix rot = Matrix.CreateRotationZ(angle);
Vector v2 = v1 * rot;
I think this is a bad idea. Keep all of your objects' X and Y co-ordinates in the same planes instead of each having their own axes. By all means have a Position and Heading properties and consider having a Move method which takes your input vector and does the maths to update position and heading.

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