What is a Vector3
A vector is something that has direction and magnitude. In Unity, vectors are divided based on dimensions. A three-Dimensional vector is called Vector3. A vector3 contains the magnitude and direction information for all 3 dimensions. In game development Vector 3 is mostly used to find the position of an object and distance between objects. In this tutorial, we will see how to use Vector3 to its maximum potential.
Syntax for Vector3
A Vector3 in Unity is represented by the name Vector3 followed by the magnitude along each axis.
Vector3(1.0f,2.0f,-6.2f);By default, a Vector3 takes float as input. If you do not require the precision of float then you can specify the input as integer in the manner shown below.
Vector3int(1,2,6);Declaring a new Vector3
Vector3 testvector=new Vector3(0,1,1);Shortforms of Vector3
| Vector | Shortform |
|---|---|
| Vector3(0, 0, -1) | Vector3.back |
| Vector3(0, -1, 0) | Vector3.down |
| Vector3(0, 0, 1) | Vector3.forward |
| Vector3(-1, 0, 0) | Vector3.left |
| Vector3(1, 1, 1) | Vector3.one |
| Vector3(1, 0, 0) | Vector3.right |
| Vector3(0, 1, 0) | Vector3.up |
| Vector3(0, 0, 0) | Vector3.zero |
Useful methods and Properties of Vector3
| Method/property syntax | What it does |
|---|---|
| Vector3.magnitude | Returns the length/magnitude of the vector. |
| Vector3.normalized | Returns the length of the vector with a magnitude of 1. |
| Vector3.normalize | Change the length of the vector to a magnitude of 1. |
| Float xvalue = Vector3.x(same for y and z) | Returns the x component of the Vector |
| Vector3.x = xvalue (same for y and z) | Write the value into the x component of the Vector |
| Vector3.ClampMagnitude(YourVector,clamp distance) | Clamps the magnitude of the vector to the specified distance. To clamp between a range use Mathf.Clamp |
| Vector3.Distance(First vector, second vector) | Returns the distance between two vectors. |
| Vector3.Lerp(First vector, second vector, any value between 0 &1) | Returns a point between the two vectors based on the third input. |
| Vector3.Movetowards(your position, target, max distance) | Move towards the target position |
| Vector3.RotateTowards(Current direction, targetDirection, singleStep, max magnitude) | Rotate towards the target direction |
Code samples for common examples.
1.Position of the Gameobject to which the script is attached.
Vector3 Position= transform.position;2. Position of any Gameobject
Vector3 Position= GameObject.Find("Your Gameobject name").transform.position;3. Move Gameobject by one unity using transform
transform.position += vector3.one;4. Slowly move towards a point in steps of 1.
Vector3 target= new vector3(1f,2f,3f);
Void Update()
{
transform.position= Vector3.Movetowards(transform.position, target, 1.0f);
}5. Slowly Look towards an Enemy
Void Start()
{
Vector3 Enemy_position= GameObject.Find("Enemy").transform.position;
}
Void Update()
{
Vector3 newDir = Vector3.RotateTowards(transform.forward, Enemy_position, 2*Time.deltaTime, 0.0f);
transform.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(newDir);
}
You can also rotate slowly using Vector3.lerp
Vector3 Project
Vector3.Project will project the provided vector onto the normal vector. Let’s try to understand this statement.
A normal vector is a Unit vector representing the direction of the vector. Say you have a vector 3 (10,5,3), if you normalize this you will get (1,1,1). If your vector is (0,10,0) the normalized output will be (0,1,0).
If you project the vector to its own normal then the output vector will be the same as the original.
Let’s take a Vector3 test_vec
Vector3 test_vec=new Vector3(10,5,0);
// Start is called before the first frame update
void Start()
{
Debug.Log(Vector3.Project(test_vec,Vector3.forward));
}
Vector3.forward represents (0,0,1). So, the output vector will be (0,0,0).
If the normal vector is Vector3.up which is (0,1,0) the output will be (0,5,0)
If the normal vector is Vector3.Right which is (1,0,0) the output will be (10,0,0).
