Rotation and flipping

[proven frigate]

.

[carmine moth]

rename to "quaternions, motherfucker, how do they work!?"

[empty nest]

when I turn to go left, Renderer does Flip()

the LookAt object is running the RotationMethod() on Update()
#archived-code-general message

[proven frigate]

If you're setting the rotation immediately anyway, why not skip storing it as q and just setting it directly onto the transform.rotation?

Not that it fixes things

[proven frigate]

How many renderers do you have?

For the wizard I mean

[empty nest]

Wizard on Renderer with the Wizard Head renderer on LookAT

[proven frigate]

I see what you want now

The GameObject "Renderer" rotates right? and you want to flip the head?

[dry plover]

try remove " * Mathf.Rad2Deg;"

cuz quaternions use Rad

[carmine moth]

why not just use vector3.LookAt for head?

or v2 if it exists

[proven frigate]

If the head should flip I would use SpriteRenderer.flipX

[carmine moth]

oh wait yeah i see the problem

🤦‍♂️

you need to clamp your rotation

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Quaternion.FromToRotation.html
and use this instead of euler

transform.rotation += Quaternion.FromToRotation(transform.rotation, vectorToTarget);

should be something like that without clamping

[proven frigate]

I had no idea that such a thing existed

That's cool

[carmine moth]

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Quaternion.AngleAxis.html
you can use this aswell

if you use forward axis then you essentially rotate it exactly like euler in 2d
or if it's easier to imagine, vector is like sticking a pen through the object, then rotating the pen

i think it's using euler on background but i never checked

[empty nest]

transform.rotation = Quaternion.FromToRotation(transform.position, vectorToTarget);

this very much doesn't work lol

[carmine moth]

why are you using position

[proven frigate]

So what is it that you're trying to do?

[empty nest]

errors out using rotation

[carmine moth]

ah right

[empty nest]

flip everything when moving left/right

and have an object follow and look at enemy

[carmine moth]

it needs to be transform.forward then

[proven frigate]

Flip what? The head? or the entire object?

[empty nest]

just = instead of +=?

[proven frigate]

I don't think so

[empty nest]

head, firepoint(where bullets shoot from) gun also, maybe future things, not sure

[carmine moth]

ahh shit i don't wanna open VS

[proven frigate]

Ah okay

[empty nest]

otherwise I would just flip sprite renderer

[proven frigate]

So you're basically trying to modify the x value right?

[empty nest]

I flip Y rotation by 180 degrees to essentially flip everything

[carmine moth]

try to split it up?

[empty nest]

then just want to change Z to look at enemy

[proven frigate]

transform.localRotation = Quaternion.Euler(0, transform.localRotation.y + 180, 0);

You need to use localRotation if the parent is rotated

I think

[carmine moth]

anyways

the vector screws it up a little

you only need to rotate one side

flipping doesn't counter the rotation and that's why it doesn't work

[proven frigate]

What do you mean?

[empty nest]

so if I want my player thats holding a gun to have both flip to opposite side of player when moving right vs left

what would you change so I don't have to use 180 degrees Y rotation

[proven frigate]

I don't get why it is a problem?

Why not just rotate it 180°?

[empty nest]

localRotation does fix the head issue...but now when its "flipped left" it no longer points at the enemy 😦

[carmine moth]

then you need to compare position of target, whether it's on the left or right

i'm trying to think of solution but it's really counter-intuitive

i guess the way i'd do it is dotproduct of where you're facing and just set head to neutral position instead of trying to rotate

if you're facing left, then you don't really even care about looking at whatever is behind you(right)

[empty nest]

while thats true, I'm going to eventually make it so once they find a target they don't stop looking at it until they break line of sight

and if they jump over enemy or enemy them, it needs to swap looking directions

[carmine moth]

hmm

[empty nest]

I think i've got solution though

[proven frigate]

Nice

I feel like it should be so simple

[carmine moth]

yeah

[empty nest]

for real

[carmine moth]

really counter-intuitive

wouldn't be a problem in 3d

[empty nest]

yep

of course 2d doesn't get a nice version

[proven frigate]

I think technically it doesn't matter. For 2D you could just rotate it 90 degrees afterwards

I can't see what is going on tho and I am quite confused now lol

[empty nest]

I think you right

[carmine moth]

i can try to explain lol

if you are facing left and you're targeting left, everything is fine

but if target is on the right, your head flips upside down

while the intended result is that if target is on the right, sprite is flipped and rotation is essentially absolute

although now that i think of it,

since sprite is 2-sided then 3d rotation might've worked too

[proven frigate]

Definitely

[carmine moth]

LookAt with world up?

[empty nest]

public class LookAtRotation : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Update is called once per frame
    [SerializeField] Transform target;
    [SerializeField] Mover parent;
    Quaternion q;
    bool left;

    void Update()
    {
        RotationMethod();
    }
    protected virtual void RotationMethod()
    {
        if (target == null) return;
        //Create a vector to the target
        Vector3 vectorToTarget = target.position - transform.position;
        //Convert this to an angle
        float angle = Mathf.Atan2(vectorToTarget.y, vectorToTarget.x) * Mathf.Rad2Deg;
        //Rotate around axis
        left = parent.IsFacingLeft();
        if (left)
        {
            q = Quaternion.Euler(0f, 0f, angle + 180f);
        }
        else
        {
            q = Quaternion.Euler(0f, 0f, angle);

        }
        //Instant rotate
        //transform.rotation += Quaternion.FromToRotation(transform.forward, vectorToTarget);

        transform.localRotation = q;

    }
}

finally got it working

thanks everyone 🙂

[proven frigate]

Ayyyy

I'll close the thread then

[empty nest]

wait

Ima see if I can't use the LookAt 3d method easy 😄

[proven frigate]

Okay

[empty nest]

if you could store the first transform and not exectute to do something like this I think it would work

but as is I think 3d lookat for 2d just sucks lol

[proven frigate]

I would do it differently

I would take the transform.LookAt(target) and rotate 90° around the local y-axis

[empty nest]

it changes the X and Y for lookat

the X rotation is the value you should use for Z funny enough lol

[proven frigate]

Hence the "around the local y-axis"

[empty nest]

ahhh

yeah I have no clue what you are talking about then 😄

[proven frigate]

endRot = Quaternion.AngleAxis(90, transform.up) * transform.localRotation.eulerAngles;

Something like that

To rotate it

endRot is a Vector3

So the end product would be something like:

transform.LookAt(target);
transform.localRotation = Quaternion.Euler(Quaternion.AngleAxis(90, transform.up) * transform.localRotation.eulerAngles);```

[carmine moth]

lookat already rotates, why are you rotating it the second time?

[proven frigate]

Because it faces the side to the camera in 2D

So it is invisible

You have to rotate it 90°

Since forward is into the screen

And LookAt() sets the forward towards the target

[carmine moth]

oh right, forward is z in 3d but x in 2d

[proven frigate]

Yup

Wait no

[carmine moth]

2nd rotation is a weird workaround though

[proven frigate]

I don't think so

It's easy and pretty fast

[carmine moth]

easy and fast is the best way to make bad code

[proven frigate]

Tell me a single reason why it is a "weird workaround"

[carmine moth]

is it not?

[proven frigate]

Why would it be?

[carmine moth]

you're performing 2 similar operations instead of 1

it's fine with 1 character but it's something done in update and potentially dozens of enemies

[proven frigate]

The alternative is to do the LookAt manually which makes reading it wayy harder

[carmine moth]

might be too tiny of an optimization but it still kinda sucks

[proven frigate]

It's not worth remaking the LookAt method

[carmine moth]

either way it's fine

[proven frigate]

Which is the alternative

[carmine moth]

all that really matters is that the abstraction is there

[proven frigate]

I'm sorry, but what does "abstraction" mean?

[carmine moth]

void HeadLooksAtTarget(target)

the rest can be rewritten later

[proven frigate]

I don't get why you would spend a lot of time fixing something that means next to nothing. If you keep doing that, you will be stuck in the project forever without getting anywhere

That's the reason to 50% of my failed projects

[carmine moth]

does that mean you finished first project and got stuck forever in 2nd?

[proven frigate]

No, I lost interest in the project becasue I got nowhere

[carmine moth]

that's why i don't like goal-oriented people

if you do one method right, you can reuse it later

[proven frigate]

These are a few of my projects. Many of them got lost because I lost motivation

[carmine moth]

that's actually not the case

you lack discipline

[proven frigate]

Nah

You know nothing about me

I have made probably more than 100 projects with the sole purpose of learning a single thing

[carmine moth]

i can tell you how i don't lose motivation on projects

i just lose motivation on boring parts of the projects, instead of the entire project

that means i can still return back to it later

[proven frigate]

Like A* Pathfinding, or boids, or chess AI, or evolution simulation, ray marchin, etc.

[carmine moth]

but the project will progress

[proven frigate]

That's cool

If I get nowhere I will lose all motivation. As long as I am going at a steady pace everything is good

Then I clean up at the end

It's not a bad thing to make code that can be used for future projects though

I have used the A* pathfinding library I made lots of times, fx. in my latest prject where I made a hexagonal grid. I am sure that there is a "proper" way to make a hexagon grid, but the solution I came up with I can use for any project that requires such a grid

And the A* is versatile to work with any grid

Stuff like that I optimize

Other stuff that is specific to the project I don't really care about

Waste of time

[carmine moth]

i don't like leaving something half-assed because i might end up reusing it later, and seeing it again will destroy motivation and the momentum since i'll probably start reworking that instead