unity3d - Clamp rotation value - unity3d

Question

I have an object that rotates according to mouse position, but I want to clamp it so it doesn't get further or lower than certain value. Here is my code:
void LookAt () {
float distance = transform.position.z - Camera.main.transform.position.z;
Vector3 position = new Vector3(Input.mousePosition.x, Input.mousePosition.y, distance);
position = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(position);
position.x = Mathf.Clamp(position.x, -70, 70);
position.z = Mathf.Clamp(position.z, -70, 70);
Vector3 target = new Vector3 (position.x, transform.position.y, position.z); // Use current object positin.y
transform.LookAt(target);
}
But unfortunately it doesn't work, it keeps rotating 360.
Edit:
This is a 3D top-down game, I have a tank and I want to rotate it's upper half. The code I wrote above works perfect for the job, but now I don't know how to limit it so the barrel( the part I'm rotating) always facing upwards where the enemies will come from. 70 or whatever are just random values I was testing, first I want to figure what exactly the proper code is, then determining the values is the easy part.

Answer 1

Actually, the problem is that you're clamping a position, not a rotation. You're having it look at a certain point, but limiting that point rather than the angle that it will need to rotate to meet it. You'll have to use trigonometry to calculate the angle it wants to point in (more specifically, the atan2 function), clamp that value to (-70, 70), and then apply that rotation to the object (using euler angles). Do you require further clarification on any of these steps?
Cheers.
P.S. Note that atan2 returns a value in radians, but your range and euler angles use degrees.

Answer 2

You limit your target position by 70 units in world space, which is usually a lot, but depends on your game scale. What I think you wanted to do is to limit mouse position by 70 pixels around the screen center. (Please, provide this remarks in the question itself, so we won't have to guess). However, because you used the same variable both for screen space and world space position of the target, you likely got confused and clamped the position after converting it to world space.
Also, you made the y coordinate of the target to be the same as the object. But this means that the object would have to rotate 360 degrees every time the target passed it. I assume that what you wanted to do instead is to assume that the target location is located on camera place.
void LookAt () {
var cursorPosition = new Vector3(Input.mousePosition.x, Input.mousePosition.y, camera.main.nearClipPlane);
cursorPosition.x = Mathf.Clamp(position.x, -70, 70);
cursorPosition.z = Mathf.Clamp(position.z, -70, 70);
var targetPosition = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(cursorPosition);
transform.LookAt(targetPosition);
}
Please, provide details about your reasoning and desired behavior when you ask to find errors in your code.