By now I am so confused that I'm not sure of my vector math anymore.. I have a Matrix4: MatrixA representing an objects (sensor cube) world transform. I want to place this object so that it's forward direction is pointing in the same direction as a given normalized Vector3: VecA . I also want to translate the objects (i.e. 4 units) in VecA's direction from a given point: VecB (the translation part works, using the same direction vector, VecA)
I have tried all the ways I can think of including rotate()+translate(), setToWorld(), setToLookAt(), setToRotation(), manually editing the values (column 3) of the Matrix4 (this gave the best results in terms of rotation but I get a skewed cube)
I know my direction vector (VecA) is OK. (by printing it's value and also visually confirming it by looking at the working translation using the same vector)
Can someone please tell me how I should do to achieve my desired results, thanks!
Assuming you're unrotated "forward direction" is (0,0,1), your unrotated "up direction" is (0,1,0) and you don't want to rotate the up direction (if possible), then something like this (untested code) should be what you need:
Vector3 vx = new Vector3(), vy = new Vector3(), vz = new Vector3();
Matrix4 m = new Matrix4();
...
vecB.set(vecA).scl(4.f); // if understand correctly, this is what you want
vz.set(vecA).nor();
vx.set(vz).crs(0, 1, 0).nor();
vy.set(vz).crs(vx).nor();
m.idt();
m.val[Matrix4.M00] = vx.x; m.val[Matrix4.M01] = vx.y; m.val[Matrix4.M02] = vx.z;
m.val[Matrix4.M10] = vy.x; m.val[Matrix4.M11] = vy.y; m.val[Matrix4.M12] = vy.z;
m.val[Matrix4.M20] = vz.x; m.val[Matrix4.M21] = vz.y; m.val[Matrix4.M22] = vz.z;
m.trn(vecB);
It is possible that you need to switch the crs arguments though (e.g. vy.set(vx).crs(vz).nor(), in case the rotation is upside-down). Alternatively you could use a Quaternion to specify the rotation and use m.set(vecB, rotationQuaternion);.
Related
I'm trying to plot country names of the globe, so the text meshes will be aligned with the surface, but I'm failing to calculate proper rotations. For text I'm using THREE.TextGeometry. The name appears on the click of the mesh of the country at the point of intersection using raycasting. I'm lacking knowledge of how to turn these coordinates to proper rotation angles. I'm not posting my code, as it's complete mess and I believe for a knowldgeable person will be easier to explain how to achieve this in general.
Here is desired result:
The other solution, which I tried (and which, of course, is not the ultimate), based on this SO answer. The idea is to use the normal of the face you intersect with the raycaster.
Obtain the point of intersection.
Obtain the face of intersection.
Obtain the normal of the face (2).
Get the normal (3) in world coordinates.
Set position of the text object as sum of point of intersection (1) and the normal in world coordinates (4).
Set lookAt() vector of the text object as sum of its position (5) and the normal in world coordinates (4).
Seems long, but actually it makes not so much of code:
var PGHelper = new THREE.PolarGridHelper(...); // let's imagine it's your text object ;)
var PGlookAt = new THREE.Vector3(); // point of lookAt for the "text" object
var normalMatrix = new THREE.Matrix3();
var worldNormal = new THREE.Vector3();
and in the animation loop:
for ( var i = 0; i < intersects.length; i++ ) {
normalMatrix.getNormalMatrix( intersects[i].object.matrixWorld );
worldNormal.copy(intersects[i].face.normal).applyMatrix3( normalMatrix ).normalize();
PGHelper.position.addVectors(intersects[i].point, worldNormal);
PGlookAt.addVectors(PGHelper.position, worldNormal);
PGHelper.lookAt(PGlookAt);
}
jsfiddle exmaple
The method works with meshes of any geometry (checked with spheres and boxes though ;) ). And I'm sure there are another better methods.
very interesting question.I have tried this way, we can regard the text as a plane. lets define a normal vector n from your sphere center(or position) to point on the sphere surface where you want to display text. I have a simple way to make normal vector right.
1. put the text mesh on sphere center. text.position.copy(sphere.position)
2. make text to the point on sphere surface, text.lookAt(point)
3.relocate text to the point. text.position.copy(point)
I'm using the blender game engine and python I made a script that makes an empty follow my cursor in 3D space. (I use the keyboard for height for now).
Now I wanted to implement a LookAt function for a general object rather than a camera, using python. I want the object to look exactly at the point I'm hovering (the empty position) at the screen. For now I'm using a cube so basically one face of the cube should always face the empty.
So, I thought of using matrices or quaternions but the problem is that All I have is a direction vector and I chose the x axis for the local look direction. So either way I need to calculate the euler angles and convert them to axis-rotation angles. (theta*[axis^]).
The resources I have in the Blender Game Engine is: mathutils (provide quarternions, euler based rotations (via axis-angles), matrices) - though it doesn't have any updated documentation which is just annyoingly horrible! I have to print help to get some sort of info!
Now I've been able to make the object look at the empty when I rotate only the Z axis. I used a little trick that handles the angle sign for me using simple trigonometry, so sign is handled and I don't need any matrix trickery or quarternions. The problem begins when I try to rotate once again - I want to rotate the Y axis for the up-down look (as known in 3D we need two sorts of rotations to face someone, the third is just for rotating the view upside-down - "rolling the camrea") since this rotation axis is the look direction vector.
Here's my script:
import bge
from mathutils import Vector, Matrix
import math
# Basic stuff
cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner
scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
c = scene.objects["Cube"]
e = scene.objects["Empty"]
# axises (we're using localOrientation)
x = Vector((1.0,0.0,0.0))
y = Vector((0.0,1.0,0.0))
z = Vector((0.0,0.0,1.0))
vec = Vector(e.worldPosition - c.worldPosition) # direction vector
# Converting direction vector into euler angles
# Using trigonometry we get: tan(psi) = cos(phi2)/cos(phi1)
# Where phi1 is the angle between x axises (euler angle)
# and phi2 is the euler of the y axises.
# psi is the z rotation angle.
# get cos(euler_angle)
phi1 = vec.dot(x)/vec.length # = cos p1
phi2 = vec.dot(y)/vec.length # = cos p2
phi3 = vec.dot(z)/vec.length # = cos p3
# get the rotation/steer angles
zAngle = math.atan(phi2/phi1)
yAngle = math.atan2(phi3,phi1)
xAngle = math.atan(phi2/phi3)
# use only 2 as the third must adapt (also: view concept - x is the looking direction, rotating it would make rolling)
r = c.localOrientation.to_euler()
r.z = zAngle
r.y = -yAngle
#r.x = xAngle
c.localOrientation = r
Seperately each axis works perfectly, but when combined, there are little jump glitches when I get through the global Y axis.
Also, it seems that the "local" orientation in blender is just the same as the "worldOrientation" which is also annoying cause I'm not sure anymore in what frame of reference I'm working anymore. If anyone knows, please help !
Edit 1:
Appearantely there's a built in logic block that handles this for me and when I press "3D" it tracks AND succeeds on rotating BOTH axises. Though, I still want to know what's the problem with my script! What did the 3D button do that I didn't?
Edit 2:
I tried stop making trigo tricks and found out that when I use local orientation I ALWAYS get a gimbal lock in one axis. That's probably what happened behind the scenes. Thanks for anyone interested, if you have any good trick I'd still be glad to hear =]!
I have a youtube tutorial on how to make the camera look at specific objects. It may help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwbObDkiJrE
But the concept, when using the gui, is to open the object->relations panel and for the object you want to be doing the LookAt, you make it the child of the object you want it to follow (the parent). You then select 'Vertex' as the relationship. This will then affect the rotation angles of the child object only.
Try this,
bpy.data.objects['child'].parent = bpy.data.objects['parent']
bpy.data.objects['child'].parent_type = 'VERTEX'
and actually there is more info here
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/26108/how-do-i-parent-objects
I'm attempting to add a small value to a World Matrix in order to replicate the accuracy of a fired weapon [pistol, assault rifle]
Currently, my World Matrix resides at a Parent Objects' position, with the ability to rotate about the Y axis exclusively.
I've done this in Unity3D, running whenever the object needs to be created [once per]:
var coneRotation = Quaternion.Euler(Random.Range(-spread, spread), Random.Range(-spread, spread), 0);
var go = Instantiate(obj, parent.transform.position, transform.rotation * coneRotation) as GameObject;
and am attempting to replicate the results using Direct3D11.
This lambda returns a random value between [-1.5, 1.5] currently:
auto randF = [&](float lower_bound, float uppder_bound) -> float
{
return lower_bound + static_cast <float> (rand()) / (static_cast <float> (RAND_MAX / (uppder_bound - lower_bound)));
};
My first thought was to simply multiply a random x && y into the forward vector of an object upon initialization, and move it in this fashion: position = position + forward * speed * dt; [speed being 1800], though the rotation is incorrect (not to mention bullets fire up).
I've also attempted to make a Quaternion [as in Unity3D]: XMVECTOR quaternion = XMVectorSet(random_x, random_y, 0) and creating a Rotation Matrix using XMMatrixRotationQuaternion.
Afterwards I call XMStoreFloat4x4(&world_matrix, XMLoadFloat4x4(&world_matrix) * rotation);, and restore the position portion of the matrix [accessing world_matrix._41/._42/._43] (world_matrix being the matrix of the "bullet" itself, not the parent).
[I've also tried to reverse the order of the multiplication]
I've read that the XMMatrixRotationQuaternion doesn't return as an Euler Quaternion, and XMQuaternionToAxisAngle does, though I'm not entirely certain how to use it.
What would be the proper way to accomplish something like this?
Many thanks!
Your code XMVECTOR quaternion = XMVectorSet(random_x, random_y, 0); is not creating a valid quaternion. First, if you did not set the w component to 1, then the 4-vector quaternion doesn't actually represent a 3D rotation. Second, a quaternion's vector components are not Euler angles.
You want to use XMQuaternionRotationRollPitchYaw which constructs a quaternion rotation from Euler angle input, or XMQuaternionRotationRollPitchYawFromVector which takes the three Euler angles as a vector. These functions are doing what Unity's Quaternion.Euler method is doing.
Of course, if you want a rotation matrix and not a quaternion, then you can XMMatrixRotationRollPitchYaw or XMMatrixRotationRollPitchYawFromVector to directly construct a 4x4 rotation matrix from Euler angles--which actually uses quaternions internally anyhow. Based on your code snippet, it looks like you already have a base rotation as a quaternion you want to concatenate with your spread quaternion, so you probably don't want to use this option for this case.
Note: You should look at using the C++11 standard <random> rather than your home-rolled lambda wrapper around the terrible C rand function.
Something like:
std::random_device rd;
std::mt19937 gen(rd());
// spread should be in radians here (not degrees which is what Unity uses)
std::uniform_real_distribution<float> dis(-spread, spread);
XMVECTOR coneRotation = XMQuaternionRotationRollPitchYaw( dis(gen), dis(gen), 0 );
XMVECTOR rot = XMQuaternionMultiply( parentRot, coneRotation );
XMMATRIX transform = XMMatrixAffineTransformation( g_XMOne, g_XMZero, rot, parentPos );
BTW, if you are used to Unity or XNA Game Studio C# math libraries, you might want to check out the SimpleMath wrapper for DirectXMath in DirectX Tool Kit.
I'm trying to set the ProjectionMatrix of a Three.js Perspective Camera to match a projection Matrix I calculated with a different program.
So I set the camera's position and rotation like this:
self.camera.position.x = 0;
self.camera.position.y = 0;
self.camera.position.z = 142 ;
self.camera.rotation.x = 0.0;// -0.032
self.camera.rotation.y = 0.0;
self.camera.rotation.z = 0;
Next I created a 4x4 Matrix (called Matrix4 in Three.js) like this:
var projectionMatrix = new THREE.Matrix4(-1426.149, -145.7176, -523.0170, 225.07519, -42.40711, -1463.2367, -23.6839, 524.3322, -0.0174, -0.11928, -0.99270, 0.43826, 0, 0, 0, 1);
and changed the camera's projection Matrix entries like this:
for ( var i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
self.camera.projectionMatrix.elements[i] = projectionMatrix.elements[i];
}
when I now render the scene I just get a black screen and can't see any of the objects I inserted. Turning the angle of the Camera doesn't help either. I still can't see any objects.
If I insert a
self.camera.updateProjectionMatrix();
after setting the camera's projection Matrix to the values of my projectionMatrix the camera is set back to the original Position (x=0,y=0,z=142 and looking at the origin where I created some objects) and the values I set in the camera's matrix seem to have been overwritten. I checked that by printing the cameras projection Matrix to the console. If I do not call the updateProjectionMatrix() function the values stay as I set them.
Does somebody have an idea how to solve this problem?
If I do not call the updateProjectionMatrix() function the values stay as I set them.
Correct, updateProjectionMatrix() calculates those 16 numbers you pasted in your projection matrix based on a bunch of parameters. Those parameters are, the position and rotation you set above, plus the parameters you passed (or default) for the camera. (these actually make the matrixWorld and its inverse.
In case of a perspective camera, you don't have much - near, far, fov and aspect. Left,right,top,bottom are derived from these, with an orthographic camera you set them directly. These are then used to compose the projection matrix.
Scratch a pixel has a REALLY good tutorial on this subject. The next lesson on the openGL projection matrix is actually more relevant to WebGL. left right top and bottom are made from your FOV and your aspect ratio. Add near and far and you've got yourself a projection matrix.
Now, in order for this thing to work, you either have to know what you're doing, or get really lucky. Pasting these numbers from somewhere else and getting it to work is short of winning the lottery. Best case scenario, you can have your scale all wrong and clipping your scene. Worst case, you've mixed a completely different matrix, different XYZ convention, and there's no way you'll get it to work, or at least make sense.
Out of curiosity, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to match your camera to a camera from somewhere else?
I'm attempting to use Java3D to rotate a vector. My goal is create a transform that will make the vector parallel with the y-axis. To do this, I calculated the angle between the original vector and an identical vector except that it has a z value of 0 (original x, original y, 0 for z-value). I then did the same thing for the y-axis (original x, 0 for y-value, original z). I then used each angle to create two Transform3D objects, multiply them together and apply to the vector. My code is as follows:
Transform3D yRotation = new Transform3D();
Transform3D zRotation = new Transform3D();
//create new normal vector
Vector3f normPoint = new Vector3f (normal.getX(), normal.getY(), normal.getZ());
//****Z rotation methods*****
Vector3f newNormPointZ = new Vector3f(normal.getX(), normal.getY(),0.0F);
float zAngle = normPoint.angle(newNormPointZ);
zRotation.rotZ(zAngle);
//****Y rotation methods*****
Vector3f newNormPointY = new Vector3f(normal.getX(),0.0F, normal.getZ());
float yAngle = normPoint.angle(newNormPointY);
yRotation.rotY(yAngle);
//combine the two rotations
yRotation.mul(zRotation);
System.out.println("before trans normal = " +normPoint.x + ", "+normPoint.y+", "+normPoint.z);
//PRINT STATEMENT RETURNS: before trans normal = 0.069842085, 0.99316376, 0.09353002
//perform transform
yRotation.transform(normPoint);
System.out.println("normal trans = " +normPoint.x + ", "+normPoint.y+", "+normPoint.z);
//PRINT STATEMENT RETURNS: normal trans = 0.09016449, 0.99534255, 0.03411238
I was hoping the transform would produce x and z values of or very close to 0. While the logic makes sense to me, I'm obviously missing something..
If your goal is to rotate a vector parallel to the y axis, why can't you just manually set it using the magnitude of the vector and setting your vector to <0, MAGNITUDE, 0>?
Also, you should know that rotating a vector to be directly pointing +Y or -Y can cause some rotation implementations to break, since they operate according to the "world up" vector, or, <0,1,0>. You can solve this by building your own rotation system and using the "world out" vector <0,0,1> when rotating directly up.
If you have some other purpose for this, fastgraph helped me with building rotation matrices.
It's best to understand the math of what's going on so that you know what to do in the future.