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✓ ANSWER ACCEPTED

Raycasting: Direction Value?

Asked 418 views1 answers

I have been looking at some wiki pages on Raycasting, and I have failed to understand how to direct the ray where you want it. I know that to make a ray, you do something like this:

local ray = Ray.new(startposition, direction?)

The thing I don't understand is what to put to make the ray go in the way I want. Do I have to put another point along the path I want it to go on?

Also, I am wondering if/how it is possible to send a ray in a certain direction based on a mouse click on the screen.

Thanks in advance!

Anonymous

1 answer

✓ Accepted answer

The direction is equal to (endpoint-startpoint).unit * length. Subtracting the starting point from the ending point results in a vector pointing in the correct direction, and .unit normalizes that vector so that all components are less than or equal to one. To create a ray from any point to the mouse's target, simply set the endpoint in that formula to Mouse.Hit.p.

AnonymousEdited Permalink

2 comments

2

You'll also have to remember that if you don't change the length of the direction unit, and you keep it as a unit, the Ray will only detect things 1 stud away from the origin

Anonymous#
0

To elaborate on TurboFusion's answer: While not documented, "direction" really is the direction and DISTANCE that a raycast will look in. A length 10 vector will go 10 studs, etc, so usually very large, like 1000, vectors are necessary to make it useful.

Anonymous#

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