hey guys I am fiddling with learning by making asteroids type space game and such. It is 2d.

In this I have the 'view' fixed on the playership at the centre of the screen.

I want to calculate constantly the arc seen in the image below which is directly ahead of the ship. This would be a frontal firing arc. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/593/arcx.png/

This is where I am stumped. Having gone through so many maths lessons the past few days on py theorem etc...

Your ship rotates based on an angle based on your left/right input via kieyboard. So I know what direction the ship is facing in terms of a bearing. That value is held in the variable 'angle'.

Of course I know where my ship XY is, and I know where enemy ships XY are. I've used atan2 and I have calculated the bearing or angle of the enemy ship from my ship. But this won't help to create a fixed firing 'arc' in front of my player ship.

Basically I need a formula or calculation to calculate that tangent as seen in the picture, no matter what direction I am facing or where I am. So the value of that 'area' in front of the ship always remains constant which means it is my frontal firing arc. Let's say a value of about 60 degrees. So quite a narrow firing arc.

I know how to check if a potential target is within said firing arc before being allowed to fire, but determining that arc in front my ship is giving me measles.

Can anyone shed some light?

thanks

hey there thanks for the reply.

here is an actual view, forgive the placeholder art and debug stuff.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/39/arcsss.png/

So the grey ship is mine. Always centered in the middle of the screen and it can move about the world. Rotate accel etc, but the camera is always fixed top down on it wherever it goes.

now if I fly around the green ship, I can get the angle of it from me using atan2.

But if I rotate that doesn't get taken into account by atan2. So the enemy ship could be at 60 degree value, and I could rotate my ship (let say I am now stationary) and my aft section will be facing the enemy, yet I would be able to fire, although the enemy isn't in my 'front arc'

So checking on the angle of the enemy from your ship using atan2 or anything else i've used and using the value returned it to see if it is inside your front firing arc isn't working out.

the firing arc is for my projectiles, not really related to collision

Yeah, your question is confusing. I guess you're trying to figure out if the enemy ship is within your own ships "view", which would be a triangle. And if the enemy is in that triangle, you'll enable the ship to fire. Is that the case? I guess it'd be similar to using a bounding box. Decide the perimeter of the triangle, and check if the ship is within that perimeter. If so, you can fire.

I guess you'd do that by deciding how far out you can see. Say it's 10 pixels. Then the two long sides are 10 pixels, and the short side opposite the ship is a little weird to get. You could use arc length. We're talking 60 degrees right? That's 1/3 a radian, I believe. Multiply that by 10. That's the length of the other side.

Now I dunno how you'd check if something is within a triangle. I'm sure someone has that figured out. Maybe it takes some basic calculus. Regardless, it might just be better to make a bounding box instead and pretend it's some viewing arc. But I dunno. You'd have to explain what you're looking for better if you need more help. It's hard to understand what you're asking completely.

might I ask what language you are programming in?

sure its blitzmax!

If you have the angle of bearing can't you just add and subtract 30 degrees from that to get the bounds of your arc and then check to see if the angle to the target is within those bounds? I guess I don't understand what you're asking. Maybe if you describe what you're trying to do from a slightly higher level?

the problem is that although I know the angle of the target from my ship, that is just the angle of the target from my ENTIRE ship. In this case, the firing arc is going to be a *frontal arc* so only if the player ship its target can it fire. Since the arc is a forward arc and its going to be narrow.

Since the ship can rotate on one spot while stationary, its possible for the angle of the target to be = to the firing arc, even though your ship isn't facing. Which would mean you could still fire.