I'm trying to create a "billboard" effect where a quad/gameObject always faces a target object (the camera) around the Y axis. This is working fine as per the code below, but I want to add an optional offset to the pivot point on the X axis.
So rather than rotating around the center point (default behaviour), I want the quad to rotate around a new point thats n units off of the center point, while still facing the target object.
This will run in Update().
Currently Working Code Without Offset
transform.LookAt(camera.transform, Vector3.up);
transform.localEulerAngles = new Vector3(0, transform.localEulerAngles.y, 0); // Only affects Y Axis.
The offset I need is calculated by the function below. It is tested to be correct by moving a child GameObject by this value.
Both the leftObj and rightObj are children of the GameObject I want to be rotating.
public float GetCenterPos()
{
Vector3 left = leftObj.transform.localPosition;
Vector3 right = rightObj.transform.localPosition;
Vector3 center = (left + right) / 2f;
return center.x;
}
Top Down View of My Problem
I have tried combinations of RotateAround, but I can't figure out how to get it to face the correct object and what the pivot should be relative to the offset.
I have also googled around, and I can't find a solution to this problem that I feel is relatively simple.
To recap: I don't need a rotational offset, and I don't want to add an extra parent to change the pivot like many other answers suggest. The offset gets calculated dynamically in Update.
Thank you for any help.
I've been tinkering with it for a while, and I came up with this solution. It's not ideal because it requires storing a reference to the starting position, which breaks some of the other movement functionality I need, but it does answer my original question.
Before beginning the code above (either in start or before a bool flag is set, whatever) store a reference to the object's localPosition (startPos)
Then before calling LookAt, adjust the position to take into account the offset.
transform.localPosition = new Vector3(startPos.x + offset, transform.localPosition.y, transform.localPosition.z);
transform.LookAt(camController.transform, Vector3.up);
transform.localEulerAngles = new Vector3(0, transform.localEulerAngles.y, 0);
To clarify, the reason why I need a reference to startPos is because otherwise I would be adding the offset every frame, resulting in the object just moving constantly, rather than using a consistent value.
I just set the startPos before and after toggling the "billboard" functionality to keep it updated. Not ideal, but it does work.
Related
I'm trying to make a pick up objects mechanic like the one in Amnesia. It's easy to calculate needed rigidbody's velocity, so that the held object stays in front of camera, but my problem is that the object doesn't rotate at all when I hold it. And I would rather have it always be rotated towards the camera. This could easily be achieved with simply parenting the object to player's camera, but...
The behaviour I'm after is as follows: if the bottle I picked up was standing on a table, with neck of the bottle facing ceiling, I would like to see this bottle always with its neck facing ceiling while I hold it. But if this bottle collides with something, it should behave like it actually bumped onto something, so it should rotate some small amount, but it should always try to return to its "original" rotation (in this case, neck facing ceiling).
I think that I need to calculate angular velocity for that and probably have some lerp to return to original rotation, but I'm at a loss on how to do that properly.
I think that the first thing I would need to do is to store the initial direction the moment player picks object up:
Vector3 targetDirection = playerCamera.transform.position - transform.position;
Script is on the held object, so "transform" refers to it. In FixedUpdate() I probably need to have some interpolation, so that angular velocity always tries to rotate the object to original rotation:
rigidbody.angularVelocity = Vector3.Lerp(rigidbody.angularVelocity, targetAngularVelocity, lerpSpeed * Time.fixedDeltaTime);
I don't know how to calculate targetAngularVelocity, because after all I would like the held object to return to original rotation smoothly. I'm not even sure if that's the right way to do this thing and perhaps I should do something else than to calculate angular velocity needed to rotate object properly. I tried just interpolating localRotation to original local rotation, but that did not allow the held object to bump on stuff (the movement then was very jittery). Any ideas?
You need a stabilizer. A script which will add torque/angular velocity to the object, whose angle is different from the target one. Say, you have two variables: targetDirection and currentDirection aka transform.forward. Then you write something like this in fixed update:
var rotation = Quaternion.FromToRotation(currentDirection, targetDirection).eulerAngles * sensitivity;
rigidbody.angularVelocity = rotation;
I recommend to set sensitivity about 0.05 and then increase it if the object stabilizes too slow.
Probably I confused the order, so you should put minus somewhere, but the approach itself is applicable.
The last few days I've been stuck with a headache of a problem in Unity.
Okay, I won't go into details with my game, but I've made a super-simple example which represents my issue.
I have a 2D scene these components:
When the scene loads, and I tap the button this script executes:
Vector3 pos = transform.position;
pos.x -= 10;
transform.position = pos;
I have also tried this code:
transform.position = Camera.main.WorldToScreenPoint(new Vector3(0, 0, 0));
The problem is, that when I click the button, the x-pos of the object sets to -1536 which is not as expected. Picture shows the scene after the button has been clicked. Notice the Rect Transform values:
So I did a little Googling and found out about ScreenToWorldPoint, WorldToScreenPoint etc but no of these conversions solves my problem.
I'm pretty sure I'm missing someting here, which probably is right in front of my, but I simply can't figure out what.
I hope someone can point me in the right direction.
Best regards.
The issue is that you are using transform.position instead of rectTransform.anchoredPosition.
While it's true that UI elements are still GameObjects and do have the normal Transform component accessible in script, what you see in the editor is a representation of the RectTransform that is built on top. This is a special inspector window for UI elements, which use the anchored positioning system so you can specify how the edges line up with their parent elements.
When you set a GameObject's transform.position, you are providing a world space position specified in 3D scene units (meters by default). This is different from a local position relative to the canvas or parent UI element, specified in reference pixels (the reference pixel size is determined by the canvas "Reference Resolution" field).
A potential issue with your use of Camera.WorldToScreenPoint is that that function returns a position specified in pixels. Whereas, as mentioned before, setting the transform.position is specified in scene units (i.e. meters by default) and not relative to the parent UI element. The inspector, though, knows it's a UI element so instead of showing you that value, it is showing you the world position translated to the UI's local coordinates.
In other words, when you set the position to zero, you are getting the indices of whatever pixels happen to be over the scene's zero point in your main camera's view, and converting those pixel numbers to meters, and moving the element there. The editor is showing you a position in reference pixels (which are not necessarily screen pixels, check your canvas setting) relative to the object's parent UI element. To verify, try tilting your camera a bit and note that the value displayed will be different.
So again you would need to use rectTransform.anchoredPosition, and you would further need to ensure that the canvas resolution is the same as your screen resolution (or do the math to account for the difference). The way the object is anchored will also matter for what the rectTransform values refer to.
Try using transform.localposition = new Vector3(0,0,0); as your button is a child of multiple game objects. You could also try using transform.TransformPoint, which should just convert localpos to worldpos.
The issue is that your button is inside of another object. You want to be changing the local position. transform.localPosition -= new Vector3(10, 0, 0)
As #Joseph has clearly explained, you have to make changes on your RectTransform for your UI components, instead of change Transform.
To achieve what you want, do it like this:
RectTransform rectTransform = this.GetComponent<RectTransform>();
Vector2 anchoredPos = rectTransform.anchoredPosition;
anchoredPos.x -= 10;
rectTransform.anchoredPosition = anchoredPos;
Just keep in mind that this 10 are not your 3D world space units (like meters or centimeters).
Try these things because I did not understand what you were trying to do
Try using transform.deltaposition
Go to the canvas and go then scale with screen size then! You can use transform.position = new Vector3(transform.position.x -10,transform.position.y, transform.positon.z)
And if this doesn't work
transform.Translate(new Vector3(transform.deltaposition.x - 10,transform.deltaposition.y, transform.deltaposition.z);
I have a better idea. Instead of changing the positions of the buttons, why not change the values that the buttons represent?
Moving Buttons
Remember that the buttons are GameObjects, and every gameobject has a position vector in its transform. So if your button is named ButtonA, then in your code you want to get a reference to that.
GameObject buttonA = GameObject.Find("ButtonA");
//or you can assign the game object from the inspector
Once you have a reference to the button, you can proceed in moving it. So let's imagine that we want to move ButtonA 10 units left.
Vector3 pos = buttonA.transform.position;
pos.X -= 10f;
buttonA.transform.position = pos;
The chest bone of my player can be rotated while aiming.
Now I wanted to evaluate how much (minimum and maximum rotation) I should let the chest be rotatable.
To do that, I allowed all degrees of rotation and took a look at the Inspector.
For example, the minimum value that the chest should be rotatable to the left should be Y=-15.
At Y=-15 (seen in the Inspector), it still looked natural.
Now I wanted to code this.
To my surprise, chest.localRotation.Y was a completely different value than what the Inspector is showing.
I have then taken a look at the chest variable and extended the view.
I just can't see the rotation value that the Inspector is showing.
How should I go on in this case, please?
I'm using this to rotate the bone:
Chest.LookAt(ChestLookTarget.position);
Chest.rotation = Chest.rotation * Quaternion.Euler(Offset);
Thank you!
The reason why it doesn't work:
Quaternion is not a human readable value.
One Quaternion is allways unique but can have multiple (infinite?) different representations in Euler space! The other way round one Euler represents allways exactly one Quaternion value.
If you look at the docs it explicitly says
Don't modify this directly unless you know quaternions inside out.
Than as said what you see in the inspector is the localRotation in relation to the parent Transform.
Better said it is one of the many possible Euler inputs that result in the Quaternion. What you see in the debug at localEulerAngles is another possible Euler representation. Unity usually in localEulerAngles also gives you only values > 0.
It seems that the chest anyway will only rotate around the Y axis, right?
If this is the case you can simply get the Angle between the chest's original forward vector and the target. It is way easier to handle Vector3 values than Quaternions ;)
It seems to be the same use case as in this post
// get the target direction
Vector3 targetDir = ChestLookTarget.position - Chest.position;
// Reset any difference in the Y axis
// since it would change the angle as well if there was a difference I the height
// between the two objects
targetDir.y = 0;
// however you currently rotate
// instead rotate only the Vector3 variable without applying it to the transform yet
Vector3 newDir = Vector3.RotateTowards(Chest.forward, targetDir, RotationSpeed * Time.deltaTime, 0.0f);
// Compare the target direction to the parents forward vector
float newAngle = Vector3.Angle(Chest.parent.transform.forward, newDir);
if (newAngle > MaxRotationAngle)
{
// What should happen if angle gets bigger?
return;
}
// If angle still okey set the new direction
Chest.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(newDir);
In the scene, I have a long chain of children that are connected via hinge to their parent. For my code, I need the position of the hinge anchors in world space, so I use:
public Vector2 hingeVector => hinge.anchor + (Vector2)gameObject.transform.position;
For the first hinge, that code gives the correct position. But for the second hinge this happens:
The red point is the vector I get, the blue point is the actual position. As you can see, it's a somewhat small but still problematic difference.
Is there any way I can fix this? I couldn't find anything like this online.
You need to add the object's rotation
The anchor values are axis aligned and aren't affected by rotation, but in order to calculate the anchor point in world space, knowing the transform's position, you need to rotate the anchor point values by the object's rotation then add it to the position:
Vector2 p = hinge.anchor.Rotate(gameObject.transform.rotation.eulerAngles.z)
+ (Vector2)gameObject.transform.position;
I am trying to figure out how to modify HelloARController.cs from the example ARCore scene to place objects directly in front of the camera. My thinking is that we are raycasting from the camera to a Vector3 on an anchor or tracked plane, so can't we get the Vector3 of the start of that ray and place an object at or near that point?
I have tried lots, and although I am somewhat a beginner, I have come up with this
From my understanding, ScreenToWorldPoint should output a vector3 of the screen position corresponding to the world, but it is not working correctly. I have tried other options instead of ScreenToWorldPoint, but nothing has presented the desired effect. Does anyone have any tips?
To place the object right at the middle of the camera's view, you would have to change the target gameObject's transform.position (as AlmightyR has said).
The ready code would look something like this:
GameObject camera;
GameObject object;
float distance = 1;
object.transform.position = camera.transform.position + camera.transform.forward * distance;
Since camera's forward component (Z axis) is always poiting at the direction where Camera is looking to, you take that vector's direction and multiply it by a distance you want your object to be placed on. If you want your object to always stay at that position no matter how camera moves, you can make it a child of camera's transform.
object.transform.SetParent(camera.transform);
object.transform.localPosition = Vector3.forward * distance;
Arman's suggestion works. Also giving credit to AlmightyR since they got me started in the right direction. Here's what I have now:
// Set a position in front of the camera
float distance = 1;
Vector3 cameraPoint = m_firstPersonCamera.transform.position + m_firstPersonCamera.transform.forward * distance;
// Intanstiate an Andy Android object as a child of the anchor; it's transform will now benefit
// from the anchor's tracking.
var andyObject = Instantiate(m_andyAndroidPrefab, cameraPoint, Quaternion.identity,anchor.transform);
The only problem with this is that because of the existing HelloAR example code, an object is only placed if you click on a point in the point cloud in my case (or a point on a plane by default). I would like it to behave so that you click anywhere on screen, and it places an object anchored to a nearby point in the point cloud, not necessarily one that you clicked. Any thoughts for how to do that?
Side tip for those who don't know: If you want to place something anchored to a point in the cloud, instead of on a plane, change
TrackableHitFlag raycastFilter = TrackableHitFlag.PlaneWithinBounds | TrackableHitFlag.PlaneWithinPolygon;
to
TrackableHitFlag raycastFilter = TrackableHitFlag.PointCloud;