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I've been trying to work for a few days, on a little weapon system where you can aim with your mouse and shoot bullets in the direction you're aiming. This is all in 2D to be clear.

Right now, I can calculate the spawn point of the bullet at the tip of the gun quite well and the angle of the sprite is correct and pointing at the mouse however, I believe I am actually calculating the angle somehow inversely and because of this, I can't find a good way to give the bullets; when spawned; the correct starting velocity to fire in the correct direction as well as the correct sprite rotation.

Attached here is an image of what I mean by the inverse aiming angle

I am calculating and setting the angle of the sprite to the angle given between the mouse position and the character position like so: (Following code is in the Vector2 class)

double Vector2::AngleRad(Vector2* other) { return atan2(other->y - y, other->x - x); } double Vector2::AngleDeg(Vector2* other) { return radiansToDegrees(AngleRad(other)); }

and calculating the bullets spawn point (which works right now with the given angle, even though it's reversed) like so: (Following code is in the weapon class)

void Weapon::CalculateBulletExit() { double centerX = GetPos()->x + GetCollisionBox()->W() / 2; double centerY = GetPos()->y + GetCollisionBox()->H() / 2; double radius = GetCollisionBox()->W() / 2; double radiansDeg = degreesToRadians(entityAngle); pointOfExit->x = (centerX + radius * cos(radiansDeg)); pointOfExit->y = (centerY + radius * sin(radiansDeg)); }

So now I want to spawn a bullet at the correct position (the tip of the gun) with the right sprite rotation, and the the correct object velocity. Right now this is how I am doing that: (Following code is in the bullet class)

bool Bullet::Spawn(double heading, Vector2* spawnPoint, double bulletSpeed) { if (mat->dead) { //Make the bullet alive and then return true that the bullet has been spawned mat->dead = false; //Set position and initial velocity double xGoPos = spawnPoint->x - GetCollisionBox()->W() / 2; double yGoPos = spawnPoint->y - GetCollisionBox()->H() / 2; entityBox->X(xGoPos); entityBox->Y(yGoPos); linearVelocity->x = xGoPos + cos(degreesToRadians(heading)) * bulletSpeed; linearVelocity->y = yGoPos + sin(degreesToRadians(heading)) * bulletSpeed; entityAngle = heading; return true; } else { return false; } }

But this is spawning the bullet with a sprite rotation facing 180° backwards, and a velocity weirdly pointing downwards and away. Plus the velocity seems to always towards the right even when I am aiming left.

What is the easiest and fastest way of giving a bullet a velocity in the direction of the mouse (aiming direction) and am I actually calculating the angle correctly or horrifically wrong? :P

From what I've researched and read, there's heaps of ways of getting the angle between two vectors but all I am able to precisely know is the character's bounding box as x, y, w, h. The weapon bounding box as x, y, w, h. And the mouse position as an x, y vector2 class I made. Thanks for any suggestions and help that I get!

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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To inverse the spawn point and other useful methods:

// renamed double Vector2::AngleRadOther(Vector2 other) { return atan2(y - other->y, x - other->x); } // renamed double Vector2::AngleDegOther(Vector2* other) { return radiansToDegrees(AngleRadOther(other)); } double Vector2::AngleRad() { return atan2(y, x); } double Vector2::AngleDeg() { return radiansToDegrees(AngleRad()); } double Vector2::GetLength() { return sqrt(x * x + y * y); } void Vector2::Normalize() { double length = GetLength(); x /= length; y /= length; }

Fix for velocity:

bool Bullet::Spawn(Vector2* headingVec, Vector2* spawnPoint, double bulletSpeed) { if (mat->dead) { double headingDeg = headingVec->AngleDeg(); //Make the bullet alive and then return true that the bullet has been spawned mat->dead = false; //Set position and initial velocity double xGoPos = spawnPoint->x - GetCollisionBox()->W() / 2; double yGoPos = spawnPoint->y - GetCollisionBox()->H() / 2; entityBox->X(xGoPos); entityBox->Y(yGoPos); // Normalize vector so that its length is 1 headingVec->Normalize(); linearVelocity->x = headingVec->x * bulletSpeed; linearVelocity->y = headingVec->y * bulletSpeed; //linearVelocity->x = xGoPos + cos(degreesToRadians(heading)) * bulletSpeed; //linearVelocity->y = yGoPos + sin(degreesToRadians(heading)) * bulletSpeed; entityAngle = headingDeg; return true; } else { return false; } }

You didn't post the code that calls Spawn but the Vector2 headingVec argument should be mousePosition - entityPosition entityPosition beeing the position of the entity from which the projectile is launched.

My c++ skills are very lacking so watchout for syntax errors!

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you so much! This worked perfectly. Also, you fixed my reversed angle issue. Thank you so much! \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 25, 2019 at 23:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Aquaphor You are welcome! But watchout I just edited my answer because there was a small bugg in the Vector2.Normalize method! (I divided x by length twice instead of dividing x and y by length once each) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 18:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also would be cool if you could +1 my answer to give me that juicy reputation \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 18:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ I noticed that area and made sure to write it correctly in my code but thanks heaps. And np, upvoted \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 21:15

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