koobas.hobune.stream
How do I convert a normal to a scale?
So, say I had a normalized direction and wanted to extend it's magnitude to the face of a cube, how would I do that without physics raycasting?
To try to explain this better, how would I take Vector3(1,1,1).normalized and convert it back to Vector3(1,1,1)?
Just a few things:
You title reads like you want to "convert" an "apple" into a "screwdriver".
A normalized vector or unit vector is only called normal when it's related to a surface of another object. See Surface normal. So "normal" isn't a substitute for a "normalized vector"
You have choosen the worst example possible. It doesn't expain what you actually wanted to do.
Finally downvoting is ment for clearly wrong things or misinformation. Of course you can use your karma to vote whatever you want, just want to say that i see more mis(sing)information in your question than in whebert answer. He directly answered your example.
Gotcha.. yeah.. I shouldn't have downvoted him with such a poorly written question.
Webert: I upvoted you just for the effort. Looks like you were just about to come up with the same solution. Thanks!
It works like this:
figure out which component (x,y or z) has the greatest absolute value.
determine the factor which extends this component to 1 or -1 depending on the orientation. This is done by simply do f = 1.0f / x
multiply the whole vector by this factor.
So something like that:
// C#
Vector3 Cubify(Vector3 v)
{
float f = Mathf.Max(Mathf.Abs(v.x), Mathf.Abs(v.y), Mathf.Abs(v.z));
if (f == 0.0f)
return Vector3.zero;
return v / f;
}
That works perfect! It's funny you can google "cubify vector" and nothing shows up. I don't know what the technical term is really, but as long as it works, I'm happy. :D
Just multiply the normalized vector by the magnitude you want it to have.
Vector3 vector = Vector3.one;
float magnitude = vector.magnitude;
// Vector will be what it originally was
vector = vector.normalized * magnitude;
But you see? This question is more complicated than how to change the magnitude. I'm trying to convert a radius magnitude to a magnitude that fits inside a cube. $$anonymous$$ake more sense?
Ah, I didn't get that from your question initially. I coded the following up in Unity to see if this would work (it does), then noticed @Bunny83 had already answered... anyway.
Vector3 vector = Random.insideUnitSphere;
float cubeSize = 5f;
float magnitude = cubeSize / $$anonymous$$athf.$$anonymous$$ax($$anonymous$$athf.Abs(vector.x), $$anonymous$$athf.Abs(vector.y), $$anonymous$$athf.Abs(vector.z));
// The vector will now lie on the cube of cubeSize
vector = vector * magnitude;
