RotateTowards not rotating transform.forward - unity3d

I have two objects, predator and prey. I am trying to write code so that when the predator sees the prey, it rotates in its direction and moves forward (in that same direction).
Vector3.RotateTowards (transform.forward, preyPos, Mathf.Infinity, Mathf.Infinity);
transform.Translate (transform.forward * predatorSpeed);
My understanding is that the above code should rotate transform.forward, however it is the same vector both before and after that line. Why is this happening? I have tried many things, but I can't get this to work out.

Because Vector3 in Unity is a struct (value type) thus always passed by value.
Vector3 v = Vector3.zero;
ChangeValue(v); // Change value of v.x, v.y, v.z
Debug.Log(v); // still (0, 0, 0);
That said, Vector3.RotateTowards() has to return a Vector3. Basically, you need:
transform.forward = Vector3.RotateTowards (transform.forward, preyPos, Mathf.Infinity, Mathf.Infinity);
But i'm not sure it will work because transform.forward is immutable.
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Vector3.RotateTowards.html
If you want rotating to face a target, consider 1 of these:
Transform.LookAt();
Quaternion.RotateTowards();
Quaternion is a struct as well so please read the docs carefully.

Related

Only rotate one axis on Unity gameobject

I have inherited some code that simply does this....
transform.rotation = m.rotation;
I know that my model will always be standing upright and therefore it only needs to rotate around on one axis. How can I only change the Y rotation.
I can't seem to get this to work because I get stuck right away when I try:
transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(m.rotation.x, m.rotation.y, m.rotation.z);
Which does not align it the same as:
transform.rotation = m.rotation;
I was hoping to then just change the m.rotation.y. Any reason this doesn't work?
The m value looks like this
public MarkerInfo(string name, bool isVisible, Vector3 position, Quaternion rotation, Vector3 scale){
this.name = name;
this.isVisible = isVisible;
this.position = position;
this.rotation = rotation;
this.scale = scale;
}
If m stands for a c# class and not a uniy one, changing its rotations will have no effect. You need to apply your rotation to a unity Transform, that normally is an instance of a component of a gameobject of the scene. That way you can see in the scene the changes you apply to the transform of that specific gameobject.
I think you need to know what unity gameobject does MarkerInfo manipulate or stands for, get its Transform with gameObject.transform and rotate that.
With transform.RotateAround or manipulating directly yout transform's Transform.eulerAngles you should be able to get your rotation.
Take into account that this line: transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(m.rotation.x, m.rotation.y, m.rotation.z); you are trying wont do what I think you think it does. The x,y,z of a quaternion are not the euler angles.
To apply that rotation to the transform you need to do transform.rotation = m.rotation, so the fact those line do not do same make perfect sense.
The best ways to do this are by using Quaternion.Euler, which converts a Vector3 to a Quaternion (Unity's confusing variable for storing rotation), or by using Quaternion.Set, which sets the values of a Quaternion similar to Vector3.Set. The first one has 2 declarations: 1 where you pass a vector3 variable, and another where you pass 3 ints/floats. The following 2 lines of code both do the same thing using both declarations.
transform.rotation += Quaternion.Euler(Vector3.up);
transform.rotation += Quaternion.Euler(0, 1, 0);
The second method works like this (I don't know what the fourth one does, but it's typically 1):
// transform.Set(x, y, z, 1);
transform.Set(0, 45, 0, 1);
transform.Set(transform.x + 1, transform.y, transform.z, 1);
Quaternions are confusing and annoying at first, but Unity comes with a lot of fancy rotation-focused functions that coultn't be possible without them. You can use Quaternion.Euler to convert a Vector3 to a Quaternion and then use those functions on them. They could come in handy later. You can find them here under "public/static methods".
I suppose you want player to have same forward vector as other object but keep the original up vector?
I would avoid Euler Angles as much as possible because they are "glitchy" and try like that:
var forward = m.forward;
forward.y = 0;
transform.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(forward, Vector3.up);
just resolve the case
m.forwad == Vector3.down || m.forward == Vector3.up
and it should be working

Rotate Object around point and move it along sine function

First off: I am very new to Unity, as in VERY new.
I want to do the following: I want to rotate a cube around a stationary point (in my case a camera) with a radius that is adjustable in the inspector. The cube should always have its Z-axis oriented towards the camera's position. While the cube is orbiting around the camera, it should additionally follow a sine function to move up and down with a magnitude of 2.
I have some working code, the only problem is an increase in distance over time. The longer the runtime, the higher the distance between the cube and the camera.
Here is what I currently have:
void Awake()
{
cameraPosition = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("MainCamera").transform;
transform.position = new Vector3(x: transform.position.x,
y: transform.position.y,
z: cameraPosition.position.z + radius);
movement = transform.position;
}
I instantiate some variables in the Awake()-method and set the cube's position to where it should be (do you instantiate in Awake()?). I'll use the Vector3 movement later in my code for the "swinging" of the cube.
void Update()
{
transform.LookAt(cameraPosition);
transform.RotateAround(cameraPosition.position, cameraPosition.transform.up, 30 * Time.deltaTime * rotationSpeed);
MoveAndRotate();
}
Here I set the orientation of the cube's z-axis and rotate it around the camera. 30 is just a constant i am using for tests.
void MoveAndRotate()
{
movement += transform.right * Time.deltaTime * movementSpeed;
transform.position = movement + Vector3.up * Mathf.Sin(Time.time * frequency) * magnitude;
}
To be quite frank, I do not understand this bit of code completely. I do however understand that this includes a rotation as it moves the cube along it's x-axis as well as along the world's y-axis. I have yet to get into Vector and matrices, so if you could share your knowledge on that topic as well I'd be grateful for that.
It seems like I have found the solution for my problem, and it is an easy one at that.
First of all we need the initial position of our cube because we need to have access to its original y-coordinate to account for offsets.
So in Awake(), instead of
movement = transform.position;
We simply change it to
initialPosition = transform.position;
To have more readable code.
Next, we change our MoveAndRotate()-method to only be a single line long.
void MoveAndRotate()
{
transform.position = new Vector3(transform.position.x,
Mathf.Sin(Time.time * frequency) * magnitude + initialPosition.y,
transform.position.z);
}
What exactly does that line then? It sets the position of our cube to a new Vector3. This Vector consists of
its current x-value
our newly calculated y-value (our height, if you want to say so) + the offset from our original position
its current z value
With this, the cube will only bop up and down with distancing itself from the camera.
I have also found the reason for the increase in distance: My method of movement does not describe a sphere (which would keep the distance the same no matter how you rotate the cube) but rather a plane. Of course, moving the cube along a plane will automatically increase the distance for some points of the movement.
For instantiating variables in Awake it should be fine, but you could also do it in the Start(){} Method that Unity provides if you wanted to.
For the main problem itself I'm guessing that calling this function every frame is the Problem, because you add on to the position.
movement += transform.right * Time.deltaTime * movementSpeed;
Would be nice if you could try to replace it with this code and see if it helped.
movement = transform.right * Time.deltaTime * movementSpeed;

Drawing a line in the direction a player is moving

For debugging purposes I am trying to draw 2 debug lines. One in the direction that the character is facing and one in the direction that the character is moving.
I have the following function that is called in the update method.
void DrawDirectionLines()
{
var wishDir = transform.position + transform.forward;
var movementDir = Quaternion.LookRotation(rb.velocity).eulerAngles;
Debug.DrawLine(transform.position, transform.position + transform.forward * 5, Color.red);
Debug.DrawLine(transform.position, transform.position + movementDir * 5, Color.blue);
}
The red direction debug line works perfectly however the blue line representing the actual movement direction of the player seems to always misbehave and never points in the direction the player is moving in.
Does anybody know how I can fix this?
The problem is because your movemendDir is a Vector3 with the euler angles, and not a direction vector.
The good news is that rb.velocity is the direction you only need. The documentation says: Unity velocity also has the speed in X, Y, and Z defining the direction.
But if you use that velocity vector the lenght of the line will depends on the velocity. The solution is normalize that vector.
You need to replace:
var movementDir = Quaternion.LookRotation(rb.velocity).eulerAngles;
to:
var movementDir = rb.velocity.normalized;

1st person space ship pitch and yaw isue

I've been trying for some time now with different tutorials to get a nice firstperson (cockpit view) spaceship controll system. I tried using mouse only, keyboard only and combinations but I keep encountering the same problem with all tutorials. even this simple line of code does it:
transform.position += transform.forward * Time.deltaTime * 90f;
transform.Rotate( Input.GetAxis("Vertical"), Input.GetAxis("Horizontal"), 0.0f);
The problem I keep getting is that if I pitch its ok. it I yaw its ok. But If I do both (so I go diagonaly) it also rotates my ship on the Z axis and messes up my orientation. I tried locking the z rotation in the rigidbody but that does'nt help either. I tried making code myself alternating with apply torque and simply rotating, followed some tutorials including this one: Tutorial but keep getting the rotation problem.
What I want to make is a game that controlls like the old game Helbender
Does anyone of you know of a way that I can get spaceship controlls to work?
----EDIT-----
Got a bit further now. It doenst turn on my z axis anymore becouse I keep setting it to 0. Only problem now is that if I try to make a looping the ship flips around instead of nicely looping.
if (Input.GetKey("up"))
{
transform.Rotate(transform.right * -ShipPanSpeed * Time.deltaTime, Space.World);
}
if (Input.GetKey("down"))
{
transform.Rotate(transform.right * ShipPanSpeed * Time.deltaTime, Space.World);
}
if (Input.GetKey("left"))
{
transform.Rotate(transform.up * -ShipPanSpeed * Time.deltaTime,Space.World);
}
if (Input.GetKey("right"))
{
transform.Rotate(transform.up * ShipPanSpeed * Time.deltaTime,Space.World);
}
float z = transform.eulerAngles.z;
transform.Rotate(0, 0, -z);
You could always try to make one parent object for the Controls and then a child object (the spaceshit) that you can rotate for the pivot but not attach any movement beside rotation.
What i mean is that you can rotate the parent on the Y axis to make it rotate and move the transform forward or backward at the same time. If you want to pivot up or down you can transform forward at the sametime you transform up/down multiplied with the axis you want to pivot with
Example:
private void Update(){
//PARENT--------------------------------------------
// MOVING FORWARD AND BACKWARD
transform.position += transform.forward * Input.GetAxis("Vertical") * speed * Time.deltaTime();
// MOVING RIGHT AND LEFT
transform.position += transform.right * Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") * speed * Time.deltaTime();
//PIVOT UP AND DOWN
transform.position += transform.up * -Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * speed * Time.deltaTime();
//ROTATE AROUND THE Y AXIS
tranform.Rotate(0f, Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") * rotationspeed, 0f);
}
For the spaceship (child) for the pivot i would recommend you to make a emptyobject and set the chip to lookAt that object based on the input axis you use to move up/down and forward/backward.
Hope this helped or at least gave you a idea of how to make it :)

How to move an object by a certain angle over a period of time in a circle [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.