JS access spherecast position

Question

In t$$anonymous$$s 2d concept im trying to make a bacteria colony produce spores. So i make it look in a random direction around itself and if it casts a sphere in that direction without $$anonymous$$tting any other spores, then it grows a spore there. But, im not sure how to re-access the spherecast's position once iv used it. here is my code:

 #pragma strict
 var growthCount = 0;
 var growthCountMax: int;
 var newSpore: GameObject;
 var randomDir: Vector3;
 var $$anonymous$$t: RaycastHit;
 var spawnDistMaster: float;
 var spawnDist: float;
 var spawnDistNoise: float;
 var newSporePos: Vector3;
 
 function Start () 
 {
 
 }
 
 function Update () 
 {
     
 }
 
 function incGrowthCount(num:int)
 {
     growthCount = num-1;
 }
 
 function lookForGrowSpot()
 {
     spawnDist = spawnDistMaster + Random.Range(-spawnDistNoise, spawnDistNoise);
     randomDir = Vector3(Random.Range(-359,359),0,Random.Range(-359,359));
     Debug.DrawRay(transform.position, randomDir, Color.cyan);
     
     if(!Physics.SphereCast(transform.position, .3, randomDir, $$anonymous$$t, spawnDist))
     {
         Debug.Log("Hit Not$$anonymous$$ng");
         //store the spherecasts ending position in "newSporePos"
         //newSporePos = ?;
         grow();
         return true;
     }
     Debug.Log("$$anonymous$$t somt$$anonymous$$ng");
     return false;
 }
 
 function grow()
 {
     //make spore at newSporePos
 }

also as a bonus question: is there a better way to make a random direction in 2d than what i did? what i have now just feels wrong.

Answer 1

The last will be first: you can generate a vector pointing in a random direction inside the plane XZ with a code like t$$anonymous$$s:

 randomDir = Quaternion.Euler(0, Random.Range(0, 360), 0) * Vector3.forward;

It generates a random rotation from 0 to 359 and applies it to a unit vector that originally pointed in the Z axis direction.

About the SphereCast: you should calculate the position by adding the random direction vector to the origin - but make sure that the vector length is equal to the distance to the new spore - it will be easy if randomDir is generated like above, because it has unit length: just multiply it by the desired distance. The code could be like t$$anonymous$$s:

 ...
 function lookForGrowSpot()
 {
     // generate unit vector pointing in a random direction:
     randomDir = Quaternion.Euler(0, Random.Range(0, 360), 0) * Vector3.forward;
     Debug.DrawRay(transform.position, randomDir, Color.cyan);
     // if position free...
     if(!Physics.SphereCast(transform.position, .3, randomDir, $$anonymous$$t, spawnDist))
     {  // calculate the position:
        newSporePos = transform.position + spawnDist * randomDir;
        grow();
        return true;
     }
     return false;
 }

NOTE: The spores must have colliders in order to be detected by SphereCast.

JS access spherecast position

1 Reply

Your answer

Welcome to Unity Answers

Follow this Question

Related Questions