- Home /
Dynamically change Vector3.up/right?,How to make a cylinder chase mechanic?
I have been researching this for a few days now and can't seem to finish this little project. If you can help me out you would make my week!
I have a ball (the player) that can roll around on a platform. There is a cylinder object that I would like to have chase the player by detecting and only rolling to whichever side the player is closest to. Rolling ONLY on it's rounded sides. But NOT fliping or sliding towards the sides that are flat on the cylinder. So far I have this code that works PERFECTLY when the cylinder's rounded sides are facing left and right.
[SerializeField] private float movePower = 5;
[SerializeField] private float desiredSpeed;
[SerializeField] private float maximumDrag;
[SerializeField] private float forceConstant;
private const float groundCheckRay = 1f;
private Rigidbody rigidbody;
private float jumpSpeed;
private float playerDistance = 50f;
[SerializeField] Transform target;
private bool activate;
void Start()
{
rigidbody = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();
}
public void Roll(Vector3 direction)
{
rigidbody.drag = Mathf.Lerp(maximumDrag, 0, direction.magnitude); // reduce amount of force on the cylinder if it is already moving at speed.
float forceMultiplier = Mathf.Clamp01((desiredSpeed - rigidbody.velocity.magnitude) / desiredSpeed); // perform the push.
rigidbody.AddForce(direction * (forceMultiplier * Time.deltaTime * forceConstant));
//rigidbody.AddTorque(direction * (forceMultiplier * Time.deltaTime * forceConstant));
}
// this is called from the ball (player script) when the cylinder enters the ball's trigger collider.
public void FoundPlayer(GameObject player)
{
target = player.transform;
activate = true;
StartCoroutine(LocateSide(player));
}
// this is called from the ball (player script) when the cylinder exits the ball's trigger collider.
public void LostPlayer()
{
target = null;
activate = false;
}
IEnumerator LocateSide(GameObject player)
{
while (activate == true)
{
Vector3 toTarget = (target.position - transform.position).normalized;
// find wich side the ball is on (right or left)
if (Vector3.Dot(toTarget, Vector3.right) > 0)
{
// if ball is on the right side then the cylinder rolls to the right
Roll(Vector3.right);
Debug.Log("Rolling right");
}
else
{
// if ball is on the left side then the cylinder rolls to the left
Roll(-Vector3.right);
Debug.Log("Rolling -right");
}
yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame();
}
}
However, if I turn the cylinder so that it's rounded sides are facing forward and back (or up and down, however you think about it), the cylinder still only detects if the player is to the left or right (which is now the two flat sides of the cylinder) and then tries to slide and/or flip to the left or right to chase the player instead of detecting to which rolling side the player is closest and rolling foward or back to try to reach the player. I know this has to do with using Vector3.up and Vector3 right, but how do I change these directions dynamically? PLEASE HELP! Thanks
Answer by troien · May 24, 2019 at 02:14 PM
Ok, so I'm hoping I understood what you wanted to do :p. I'm assuming you want your cilinder to move parallel to your ball and not rotate towards it, because of the things you do in your existing code, and running it in a test scene, it looks like that is what you are doing.
I think these changes to your coroutine should make it behave the way you want it to:
IEnumerator LocateSide()
{
while (activate == true)
{
// I tested this with a normal Unity cilinder, where the flat sides are on transform.up
// Since you are rolling your cilinder, only the flat sides (transform.up) are meaningful
// transform.forwad and transform.right are constantly rotating so can't be used
// Therefore, in order to calculate our forward, we need to assume the up.
// So my assumption is that Vector3.up is up. (Usually a safe assumption in most worlds with normal gravity)
Vector3 right = transform.up; // The 'up' of our transform is one of the flat sides
Vector3 up = Vector3.up; // As stated above, my assumption
Vector3 forward = Vector3.Cross(right, up);
// Debug our values to see if they make sense
Debug.DrawRay(transform.position, forward * 10, Color.blue);
Debug.DrawRay(transform.position, right * 10, Color.red);
Debug.DrawRay(transform.position, up * 10, Color.green);
Vector3 toTarget = (target.position - transform.position).normalized;
// find wich side the ball is in front or behind us
if (Vector3.Dot(toTarget, forward) > 0)
{
// if ball is in front of us
Roll(forward);
Debug.Log("Rolling forward");
}
else
{
// if ball is behind us
Roll(-forward);
Debug.Log("Rolling back");
}
yield return new WaitForEndOfFrame();
}
}
Answer by Adireinu · May 24, 2019 at 03:12 PM
Thank you very much for answering. I will try it out tomorrow and see how it works! I actually finally managed to get the cylinder to respond the way I wanted with the code below but I am not sure if this is an okay way to do this. Let me know what you think?
while ((activate == true || isAlwaysActive) && ball.isAlive)
{
Vector3 toTarget = (player.transform.position - transform.position).normalized;
if (((transform.eulerAngles.y > 45f) && (transform.eulerAngles.y < 135) || (transform.eulerAngles.y > 225f) && (transform.eulerAngles.y < 315f)))
{
if (Vector3.Dot(toTarget, Vector3.right) > 0)
{
// if ball is on the right side then the cylinder rolls to the right
Roll(Vector3.right);
}
else
{
// if ball is on the left side then the cylinder rolls to the left
Roll(-Vector3.right);
}
}
else{
// find wich side the ball is on (right or left)
if (Vector3.Dot(toTarget, Vector3.forward) > 0)
{
// if ball is on the right side then the cylinder rolls to the right
Roll(Vector3.forward);
}
else
{
// if ball is on the left side then the cylinder rolls to the left
Roll(-Vector3.forward);
}
}
This way if the cylinder changes it's y position and is at a different angle it will change directions and addforce accordingly.
Well personally I think the code I posted is a little bit easier to understand the intent as you're using some magic numbers to determain which way forward is, where I just calculate where forward is and use that ins$$anonymous$$d, but I might be biased, and if it works, it works :p.
There is however one noticeable difference between what you do and what I do. If the cylinder is not at a 90 degrees angle at least. Your code moves only along world x/z axis. $$anonymous$$eaning the only thing that prevents it from sliding when you are not rotated at exactly 90 degrees is the drag of the cylinder which is higher when sliding. Where the code I posted only pushes in the direction the cylinder can go based on its current rotation, meaning it will never change direction unless you collide with something. Especially noticeable when the cylinder starts at a 45 degrees angle relative to the player.
Your answer
Follow this Question
Related Questions
Flip over an object (smooth transition) 3 Answers
Checking vector3 gameObject is about to move to (pathfinding collision detection) 1 Answer
How do I turn 1 objects rotation into another objects movement direction? 1 Answer
Set direction of rotation C# 1 Answer
slowly rotate a object *need quick fix* 0 Answers