Point of View in ThreeJS Camera

When working with ThreeJS, I need to determine how to find the coordinate of a point that is exactly 1 unit in the direction the camera is facing, even when the camera is rotated at various angles.

The rotation angles in ThreeJS can be quite confusing for those unfamiliar with them.

For instance, if all rotation variables are set to 0, then the expected result would be (0, 0, -1).

If the rotation around the x-axis is Pi / 2 (90 degrees), then the expected result would be (1, 0, 0).

I am looking to create a function to accurately calculate this. The main focus should be on the mathematical aspect of it.

Answer №1

If you're looking to find the global position of a point located one unit in front of your camera, there's a simple solution.

Firstly, create an object positioned directly in front of the camera and make it a child of the camera itself. This allows you to easily access the world position of this object.

In its default state, when a camera's rotation is set to (0, 0, 0), it is oriented along its negative z-axis. Follow this setup:

var customObject = new THREE.Object3D();
customObject.position.set(0, 0, -1);

scene.add(camera); // necessary when the camera has children
camera.add(customObject);

Now, obtaining the desired point becomes straightforward:

var targetPos = new THREE.Vector3(); // initialize once for repeated use

...

camera.updateMatrixWorld(); // usually invoked within the rendering loop

targetPos.setFromMatrixPosition(customObject.matrixWorld);

This method applies to three.js revision 71.

Similar questions

If you have not found the answer to your question or you are interested in this topic, then look at other similar questions below or use the search

Famo.us, Three.js, and Clara.io are three powerful tools that developers

Recently, I came across Famo.us and was quite intrigued by it. However, I noticed that their documentation is currently closed. As someone who is fascinated by WebGL, I decided to explore other options. This led me to discover Three.js and Clara.io. I&apo ...

Begin by introducing a fresh attribute to a JSON entity

Looking for help with modifying JSON data: var myVar = { "9":"Automotive & Industrial", "1":"Books", "7":"Clothing" }; I need to insert a new element at the beginning of the array, resulting in this: var myVar = { "5":"Electroni ...

Achieving Horizontal Alignment of Tab Labels and Icons in Material-UI with Tabs API

I am currently attempting to customize the Material UI CSS in order to align both the phone icon and text on the same line and closer together. After doing some research, I stumbled upon the Tabs API which seemed promising. Upon further inspection, I disc ...

Pass an array using AJAX to my Python function within a Django framework

I am attempting to pass an array to my python function within views.py, but I am encountering issues. It consistently crashes with a keyError because it does not recognize the data from js. Code: Python function in views.py: def cargar_datos_csv(request ...

Monitoring Website Load Speed using Performance API

After attending a recent talk by Steve Souders, I was fascinated by the discussion of the new performance spec being implemented by modern browsers. During his presentation, he used an example to demonstrate how to measure perceived page load time: var ti ...

What could be causing the issue with the focus not being activated when clicking on the input field in Vue?

I am facing an issue where I have to click twice in order to focus on a specific input field, and I'm having trouble setting the cursor at the end of the input. I attempted to use $refs, but it seems like there may be a deeper underlying problem. Any ...

Toggle between images in Vue.js when an image is clicked

Hey there, I'm pretty new to Vue and could use some assistance with implementing a certain logic. I have a JSON file that contains information about polaroids I've taken, such as their IDs, names, image names, and descriptions. Here's a sni ...

"Step-by-step guide on adding and deleting a div element with a double click

$(".sd").dblclick(function() { $(this).parent().remove(); }); <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <table width="750" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <t ...

Exploring the occurrence of immutation within nested arrays inside objects

let myObject = {key : 'Add', array : [0, 2, 3]} let clonedObject = Object.assign({}, myObject, {array: myObject.array}) clonedObject.array.pop() console.log(myObject) console.log(clonedObject) In the above example, let's say we want to rem ...

Exploring the capabilities of the jQuery `val()` function alongside the dynamic framework

Whenever I have a JavaScript variable that contains HTML printed from a table on my server, I encounter issues when using it in a jQuery function like val(). The problem arises every time someone enters content with special characters like " or '. Thi ...

"Dealing with jQuery and PHP error: Index not defined

Greetings to all! I am attempting to load an external php file using jQuery, and I am encountering an undefined index error due to my use of the GET method in the external php file. Here is the code snippet: Main File <script> $(function() { $( ...

Guide on decrypting a file encrypted with C# using Node JS

I currently have encrypted files in C# using DES and PKCS7 encryption. My objective is to decrypt these files in Node JS. The decryption code in C# that I am using appears like this: public string SSFile_Reader( string fileToDecrypt ) { DESCryptoService ...

Using jQuery to compel a user to choose a value from the autocomplete suggestions within a textarea

Currently, I have implemented a snippet that allows the user to choose cities from a list and insert them into a textarea separated by commas. However, I am looking to enhance this feature. I want the user to be able to search for a city by typing a part ...

Adding an await tag to dispatch causes issues with performing a react state update on an unmounted component

I recently added an await tag to a redux dispatch and now I am encountering the following error message: index.js:1 Warning: Can't perform a React state update on an unmounted component. This is a no-op, but it indicates a memory leak in your applica ...

What content appears post-iframe?

After researching for a while, I've only come across information about text displayed after a broken iframe on this topic. However, what I actually want to do is display text below an iframe set at 90% height, like so: https://i.sstatic.net/KHXI3.png ...

How to identify the character encoding in a node.js request

Did you know that Facebook chat has a feature where it automatically detects and displays messages in a left-to-right format when typing in English, but switches to right-to-left style when adding right-to-left characters? I'm curious about how Faceb ...

Transferring a 3D entity to a new location in Three.js

I am facing an interesting challenge in my project involving two 3D objects: a sphere and a car. My goal is to simulate the movement of the car on the surface of the sphere. The tricky part is that I cannot simply place the car on top of the sphere as if ...

Select a hyperlink to access the corresponding tab

I've been playing around with bootstrap and AngularJS. I placed nav-tabs inside a modal-window and have it open when clicking on a link. However, I want the appropriate tab to open directly upon click. For example, if I click on "travel", I want the t ...

Using next.js to fetch data can result in an endless loop of API

This specific code snippet is taken from the Next.js documentation and can also be accessed through the following link: https://nextjs.org/docs/app/building-your-application/data-fetching/fetching-caching-and-revalidating. However, when attempting to fetc ...

Issues with audio and video playback intermittently occurring on Sencha Touch 2

As a beginner with Sencha Touch 2, I am currently working on uploading images onto an iPad using Xcode. My app has audio playing on the home screen, and I want the video to start playing and the audio to stop when a specific tab is selected. However, the ...