IOS openGL best way to rotate Sphere with touchesMoved - iphone

Question

I drew Globe object using OpenGL and i can rotate it with finger touch , but it doesn't work well in some cases because i am rotating using the difference between x and y
Rotation3D rot = sphere.currentRotation;
rot.x += diffX ;
rot.y += diffY ;
rot.z += 10 ;
sphere.currentRotation = rot;
when you move your finger from Top Right to bottom Left it isn't work good.
Any ideas ?
Thanks
Peter Gabra

Answer 1

To arbitrarily rotate objects, it's easiest to store their current orientation as a transformation matrix and manipulate the elements. I explain this in detail here.
The only difference is that in that other question, the OP wanted to apply rotations from two controls (horizontal and vertical), whereas you are after drag-based rotation. The technique is basically the same, but instead of rotating around either the X or Y axis, you need to compute an arbitrary axis of rotation from the touch's delta vector as follows:
axis = [0, 0, 1] ⨯ [diffX, diffY, 0]
(⨯ = "cross product")
Then you rotate the U, V and W vectors (as described in my other answer) around the axis by some angle in proportion to the length of the delta vector:
M = rotation(k * length([diffX, diffY, 0]), axis)
U = M * U
V = M * V
W = M * W
If you find the object rotating in the opposite direction to what you expect, there are three possibilities:
If it's only the vertical rotation that goes the wrong way, you need to negate diffY. This is a common mistake I make due to inconsistencies between OpenGL and UIKit coordinate systems.
If it's all rotation, you can either swap the arguments in the cross-product or use [0, 0, -1]. This is usually because of confusion between left- and right-handed coordinate systems.
If it's just the horizontal rotation, make both adjustments. (Don't negate diffX, no one uses left-to-right X-coordinates.)

Answer 2

In case you're using Euler angles: I recommend not using Euler angles to model rotations. Use Quaternions instead. It might seem like it makes your code more complicated, but rotations work well when you use Quaternions. Here's some advantages:
it's very straightforward to apply user interaction to current rotation state
no gimbal lock problems
no need for matrix drift adjustments after repeated rotations
you can interpolate rotations easily
Note that Apple give you a Quaternion type to use: GLKQuaternion. No need to write your own Quaternion class.
See also:
http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/Quaternion+and+Rotation+Primer
Euler angles vs. Quaternions - problems caused by the tension between internal storage and presentation to the user?