Java3D: rotating object in world coordinates? - rotation

I've been searching all evening but can't find the information I'm looking for, or even if it's possible, which is quite distressing ;)
I'm using Java3D and can't figure out how to rotate the camera in world space.
My left/right, and up/down rotation both happen on local space.
Meaning that if I move left and right, everything looks fine.
However if I look 90 degrees down, then look 90 degrees right, everything appears to be on its side.
Currently, I'm doing the following. This will result in the above effects:
TransformGroup cam = universe.getViewingPlatform().getViewPlatformTransform();
Transform3D trfcam = new Transform3D();
cam.getTransform(trfcam);
trfcam.mul(Camera.GetT3D()); //Gets a Transform3D containing how far to rotate left/right and how far to move left/right/forward/back
trfcam.mul(Camera.GetRot()); //Gets a t3d containing how far to rotate up/down
cam.setTransform(trfcam);
Alternatively, one thing I tried was rotating the root, but that rotates around 0, so if I ever move the camera away from 0, it goes bad.
Is there something available on the web that would talk me through how to achieve this kind of thing?
I've tried a lot of different things but just can't seem to get my head around it at all.
I'm familiar with the concept, as I've achieved it in Ogre3D, just not familiar with the law of the land in J3D.
Thanks in advance for replies :)

Store the ammound you have rotated around each axis (x and y), and when you try to rotate around the x axis for example, reverse the the rotation around y, do the rotate around x, then redo the rotation around y.
I'm not sure I understand your second question correctly. Since viewer and model transformations are dual, you can simulate camera moves by transforming the world itself. If you dont want to translate the x and y axis you are rotating around, just add another TransformGroup to the main TransformGroup you are using, and do the transforms in the new one.
Edit: The first solution is quite slow, so you can make a Transform3D out of the 3 transform you have to do:
Say you have rotated around the x axis (Translate3D xrot), and now you need to rotate around y:
Translate3D yrot = new Translate3D();
yrot.rotY(angle);
Translate3D temp = xot;
xrot.mul(yrot); // Dont forget the reverse order. xrot is the previous translate
xrot.mul(yrot); // xrot = xrot * yrot * xrot^-1
temp.transpose(); // Get the reverse transform of the old transform
xrot.mul(temp);
yrot = xrot; // Store it for future rotation around x axis
cam.setTransform(yrot);
It works similar for many transformations you make: reverse the previous done, do the transform, redo the old one. I hope it helps.

Related

How to animate multiple sprites in one direction using one geometry in Three.js?

I'm trying to do something similar to this example, except instead of having the snow flakes flutter about in all directions I'm trying to animate these sprites in only one direction, like having the snow flakes fall to the ground.
The example above was able to load multiple sprites into one geometry since it can vary the rotations of the points object:
particles.rotation.x = Math.random() * 6;
particles.rotation.y = Math.random() * 6;
particles.rotation.z = Math.random() * 6;
However, this won't work if you're animating all the points in one direction. In this case, would I have to create a new geometry for each sprite, or is there a more efficient way to do this using just one geometry?
There are several options. Instead of rotating randomly, you could:
Decrease the y position on each frame with particles.position.y -= 0.01;. When it crosses a certain threshold (For example: y <= -100), move them back up to the origin (y = 100). You'll have to stagger a few Sprite objects so you don't notice the jump.
Rotate along the x-axis, so the spinning motion makes them go down when in front of the camera.
Since the snowflakes will spin up on the opposite side, you could use some fog to hide the far side, and give it a more wintry feel.
Animating via custom shaders, although this is much more complex if you don't know GLSL shader code.

Flip 3D object around point/line

I'm making a 3D monster maker. I recently added a feature to flip parts along the x and y axes, this works perfectly fine on its own, however, I also have a feature that allows users to combine parts (sets flags, doesn't combine mesh), this means that simply flipping the individual objects won't flip the "shape" of the combined object. I have had two ideas of how to do this which didn't work and I'll list them below. I have access to the origin of the objects and the centre of mass of all instances that are combined - the 0, 0, 0 point on a theoretical number plane
In these examples we're flipping across the y axis, the axis plane is X = width, Y = height, Z = depth
Attempt #1 - Simply flipping the individual object's X scale, getting the X distance from the centreMass and taking that from the centreMass for position, this works when the direction of the object is (0, 0, 1) and the right (1, 0, 0) or (-1, 0, 0), in any other direction X isn't the exact "left/right" of the object. Here's a video to clarify: https://youtu.be/QXdEF4ScP10
code:
modelInstance[i].scale.x *= -1;
modelInstance[i].basePosition.set(centre.x - modelInstance[i].distFromCentre.x, modelInstance[I].basePosition.y, modelInstance[I].basePosition.z);
modelInstance[i].transform.set(modelInstance[i].basePosition, modelInstance[i].baseRotation, modelInstance[i].scale);
Attempt #2 - Rotate the objects Y180° around the centreMass and then flip their z value. As far as I understand, this is a solution, but I don't think I can do this. The way to rotate an object around a point AFAIK involves transforming the matrix to the point, rotating it, and then translating it back which I can't use. Due to the ability to rotate, join, flip, and scale objects I keep the rotation, position, and scale completely separate because issues with scaling/rotating and movement occur. I have a Vector3 for the position, a matrix for the rotation, and a Vector3 for the scale, whenever I change any of these I use object.transform.set(position, matrix.getRotation(), scale); So when I attempt to do this method (translating rotation matrix to point etc) the objects individually flip but remain in the same place, translating the objects transform matrix has weird results and doesn't work. Video of both variations: https://youtu.be/5xzTAHA1vCU
code:
modelInstance[i].scale.z *= -1;
modelInstance[i].baseRotationMatrix.translate(modelInstance[i].distFromCentre).rotate(Vector3.Y, 180).translate( modelInstance[i].distFromCentre.scl(-1));
modelInstance[i].transform.set(modelInstance[i].basePosition, modelInstance[i].baseRotation, modelInstance[i].scale);
Ok, since no one else has helped I'll give you some code that you can either use directly or use to help you alter your code so that it is done in a similar way.
First of all, I tend to just deal with matrices and pass them to shaders as projection matrices, ie. I don't really know what modelInstance[i] is, is it an actor (I never use them), or some other libgdx class? Whatever it is, if you do use this code to generate your matrices, you should be able to overwrite your modelInstance[i] matrix at the end of it. If not, maybe it'll give you pointers on how to alter your code.
First, rotate or flip your object with out any translation. Don't translate or scale first, because when you rotate you'll also rotate the translation you've performed. I use this function to generate a rotation matrix, it rotates around the y axis first, which I think is way better then other rotation orders. Alternatively you could create an identity matrix and use the libgdx rotation functions on it to create a similar matrix.
public static void setYxzRotationMatrix(double xRotation, double yRotation, double zRotation, Matrix4 matrix)
{
// yxz - y rotation performed first
float c1=(float)Math.cos(yRotation);
float c2=(float)Math.cos(xRotation);
float c3=(float)Math.cos(zRotation);
float s1=(float)Math.sin(yRotation);
float s2=(float)Math.sin(xRotation);
float s3=(float)Math.sin(zRotation);
matrix.val[0]= -c1*c3 - s1*s2*s3; matrix.val[1]=c2*s3; matrix.val[2]=c1*s2*s3-c3*s1; matrix.val[3]=0;
matrix.val[4]= -c3*s1*s2 + c1*s3; matrix.val[5]=c2*c3; matrix.val[6]=c1*c3*s2+s1*s3; matrix.val[7]=0;
matrix.val[8]= -c2*s1; matrix.val[9]=-s2; matrix.val[10]=c1*c2; matrix.val[11]=0;
matrix.val[12]=0; matrix.val[13]=0; matrix.val[14]=0; matrix.val[15]=1.0f;
}
I use the above function to rotate my object to the correct orientation, I then translate it to the correct location, then multiply it by the cameras matrix and scale as the final operation. This will definitely work if you can do it that way, but I just pass my final matrix to the shader. I'm not sure how you use your matrices. If you want to flip the model using the scale, you should try it immediately after the rotation matrix has been created. I'd recommend getting it working without flipping with scale first, so you can test both matrix.scl() and matrix.scale() as the final step. Off hand, I'm not sure which scale function you'll need.
Matrix4 matrix1;
setYxzRotationMatrix(xRotationInRadians, yRotationInRadians, zRotationInRadians,matrix1);
//matrix1 will rotate your model to the correct orientation, around the origin.
//here is where you may wish to use matrix1.scl(-1,1,1) or matrix1.scale(-1,1,1).
//get anchor position here if required - see notes later
//now translate to the correct location, I alter the matrix directly so I know exactly
what is going on. I think matrix1.trn(x, y, z) would do the same.
matrix1.val[12]=x;
matrix1.val[13]=y;
matrix1.val[14]=z;
//Combine with your camera, this may be part of your stage or scene, but I don't use
//these, so can't help.
Matrix4 matrix2;
//set matrix2 to an identity matrix, multiply it by the cameras projection matrix, then
//finally with your rotation/flip/transform matrix1 you've created.
matrix2.idt().mul(yourCamera.combined).mul(matrix1);
matrix2.scale(-1,1,1); //flipping like this will work, but may screw up any anchor
//position if you calculated one earlier.
//matrix2 is the final projection matrix for your model. ie. you just pass that matrix
to a shader and it should be used to multiply with each vertex position vector to create
the fragment positions.
Hopefully you'll be able to adapt the above to your needs. I suggest trying one operation at a time and making sure your next operation doesn't screw up what you've already done.
The above code assumes you know where you want to translate the model to, that is you know where the center is going to be. If you have an anchor point, lets say -3 units in the x direction, you need to find out where that anchor point has been moved to after the rotation and maybe flip. You can do that by multiplying a vector with matrix1, I'd suggest before any translation to the correct location.
Vector3 anchor=new vector3(-3,0,0);
anchor.mul(matrix1); //after this operation anchor is now set to the correct location
//for the new rotation and flipping of the model. This offset should
//be applied to your translation if your anchor point is not at 0,0,0
//of the model.
This can all be a bit of a pain, particularly if you don't like matrices. It doesn't help that everything is done in a different way to what you've tried so far, but this is the method I use to display all the 3D models in my game and will work if you can adapt it to your code. Hopefully it'll help someone anyway.

How do I place an element in front of the camera, facing it regardless of where it is?

I have this simple scene with a "tooltip" entity composed of some data, I'd like to know how to position it in front of the camera. The tooltip will have to face certain points a few meters away so the user can see it. It must obey camera direction (it can be gathered by calculating it from previousPoint to nextPoint where the camera will move), but only y axis (can't be tilted or anything like that).I tried digging through math but couldn't understand good enough to employ a solution for this little project; I appreciate all the help!
setTimeout(function(){
var camera = document.getElementById("cameraS");
var tt = document.getElementById("ttS");
var cameraPos = camera.getAttribute('position');
var ttPos = tt.getAttribute('position');
tt.setAttribute('position', cameraPos);
tt.setAttribute('rotation', {'y': -90});
}, 5000);
JSFiddle
EDIT
I made an image showing what I'm after: http://imgur.com/a/eDhqE
I have point A and point B; the camera will play an animation moving from previous point to the next, and upon reaching there the tooltip will be displayed a few meters away from the point (box) so we can see it. It must take camera orientation into consideration but it must be perpendicular to the ground (can't be tilted).
There is a command THREE.Object.lookAt(THREE.Vector3); that will rotate an object (assuming (0.0,1.0,0.0) is up) to face a vector. You can use this to have it face your camera.
If you only want Y rotation, you can copy the current rotation, then do look at, then copy the rotation.x and rotation.z from the previous frame rotation copy - so that way it'll only correct the y with .lookAt because you reset x and z.

Issues with small rotation values (precision?)

Excuse me if this is an obvious question, I'm quite new to Three.js.
I'm trying to rotate some geometry along its Y axis, quite slowly and I'm using a rotation matrix for that.
In my machine, when setting a value smaller than 0.0076rad for the rotation, the geometry starts spinning, but when it reaches PI/2, it's not able to proceed, and stays flapping in values around PI/2.
Find an example here: http://jsfiddle.net/vn0m7h81/ , where the speed value can be set at...
// Speeds below 0.0076 cause the cube to stop spinning when reaching
// Pi/2 rotation in the Y axis. Values > 0.0075 work fine.
var rotationSpeed = 0.0075;
For incr. values bigger than 0.0075 the geometry keeps spinning forever.
What's the reason for this behavior?
Do not modify mesh.matrix directly in three.js unless you are an experienced user. Instead, update mesh.rotation or mesh.quaternion, and let the renderer update the matrix for you. You can also use mesh.rotateY( radians ).
three.js r.73

Libgdx decal rotation around custom axis

I'm working app that uses Libgdx engine and decals in 3d space.
Now I need to rotate decals around X,Y,Z axis, but around custom pivot point that stands somewhere in the 3d space.
I found that decals have transformationOffset field, which might work with some calculations, but is Vector2 only. It means that I can move pivot point only over X and Y axis.
And when rotating decals over Y axis, wherever the pivot is, the result is the same.
decal.transformationOffset = new Vector2(0, -5);
decal.rotateX(newValues[0]);
decal.rotateY(newValues[1]);
decal.rotateZ(newValues[2]);
I need to move pivot over Z axis, too.
Is there some workaround for this issue?
Tnx!
EDIT:
I have succeded to rotate decal over pivot point in 3d space, but only if pivot's and decals's Z position is the same. If they are not I don't get what I've expected.
This is the code that works for pivot with same Z value:
decal.transformationOffset = new Vector2(pivotPosition.x - decal.getPosition().x, pivotPosition.y - decal.getPosition().y);
Tween.to(decal, DecalTween.XYZ_ROTATION, 5f).target(0, 360, 0).repeatYoyo(Tween.INFINITY, 0f).start(tweenManager);
And in tween I do this:
target.setRotationX(0);
target.setRotationY(0);
target.setRotationZ(0);
target.rotateX(newValues[0]);
target.rotateY(newValues[1]);
target.rotateZ(newValues[2]);
How to extend this to use and Z value for pivot. I'm trying to add and translation animation beside rotate to achive this, but the results is weird.
Tween.to(decal, DecalTween.MOVE_XYZ, 2.5f).target(decal.getPosition().x, decal.getPosition().y, pivotPosition.z - decal.getPosition().z).repeatYoyo(Tween.INFINITY, 0f).start(tweenManager);
decal.transformationOffset = new Vector2(pivotPosition.x - decal.getPosition().x, pivotPosition.y - decal.getPosition().y);
Tween.to(decal, DecalTween.XYZ_ROTATION, 5f).target(0, 360, 0).repeatYoyo(Tween.INFINITY, 0f).start(tweenManager);
Any idea how to combine translate and rotate animatio to get decal rotation in circle path over the pivot point?
I will answer my own question I guess.
I have extended Decal class, changed transformationOffset to Vector3.
Then in transformVertices I have added tz value, like there already was tx and ty. And add tz in calculation for vertex position.
Simple as that.
If anyone knows why is this left out from native libgdx support, please let me know.
Cheers.

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