# No need to normalize this quaternion

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Just a quicky. I'm not gonna pretend like I know what I'm talking about. Quaternions are pretty new to me (Heh, [looksaround] ..matrices are pretty new to me). From what I understand, a normalized unit quaternion is where the square-root of the sum of x,y,z and w sqaured is 1, right? Or something like this..
(x*x) + (y*y) + (z*z) + (w*w) == 1
If I have two unit quaternions, and I want to add them together, do I need to normalize if the percentages I'm adding together will always be 1? Example..
float perc = 0.7f;
float opp_perc = 1.0f - perc;

// these two quaternions come from elsewhere, and are both
// always units and normalized..
QUAT a,b;

// interpolated result
QUAT c = (a * perc) + (b * opp_perc);


Will quaternion c always be a normalized unit? Testing it seems great, but my lack of knowledge in this area means there could be deep holes somewhere down the road. Thanks for any advice.

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I may have make a mistake in the following but...
a = (w,x,y,z) with ww+xx+yy+zz=1b = (W,X,Y,Z) with WW+XX+YY+ZZ=1c = p (w,x,y,z) + (1-p) (W,X,Y,Z)  = (W+pw-pW, X+px-pX, Y+py-pY, Z+pz-pZ)||c|| = (W+pw-pW)^2 + (X+px-pX)^2 + (Y+py-pY)^2 + (Z+pz-pZ)^2      = WW + ppww + ppWW +      2Wpw - 2WpW - 2ppwW +        XX + ppxx + ppXX +      2Xpx - 2XpX - 2ppxX +        YY + ppyy + ppYY +      2Ypy - 2YpY - 2ppyY +        ZZ + ppzz + ppZZ +      2Zpz - 2ZpZ - 2ppzZ       =  1 + pp   + pp   + 2p (  Ww   - WW   - pwW  +                                 Xx   - XX   - pxX  +                                 Yy   - YY   - pyY  +                                 Zz   - ZZ   - pzZ )      = 1 - 2p + 2pp + 2p(1-p) ( Ww + Xx + Yy + Zz )      = 1 + 2p(1-p)(a.b - 1)

Which won't be equal to 1, unless a.b = 1, p=0 or p=1.

[Edited by - Fruny on September 19, 2004 7:18:00 PM]

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Nope, you can't guarenttee that. Quaternion addition is no different to vector addition, so think of it like a 2D vector. (EDIT: Well, a 4D vector, but the number of dimensions doesn't matter and 2D is easy to do ASCII art for [smile])

^
|
| A
|
|
<--------
B

Is the length of A+B equal to the length of A + the length of B?
Nope.

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Hmm.. I think you'd more than likely need to renormalize it. I haven't checked, but I'm thinking unless A == B or perc == 0 or 1 then you'll never get a normalized result.

To visualize, think about the case of 2D vectors:
^___^___ ^ \ C|  /A \ | / B   \|/

If A and B are normalized (length == 1), then any vector between them (C) is going to have a length less than 1. Quaternions are 4D, but the idea is the same.

And just as an aside, if you're using a linear interpolation to interpolate quaternions for skeletal animation, you'd be able to get better (smoother) results by using spherical linear interpolation (slerp)

-nohbdy

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You're saying that the result of adding them will not be a unit, or that a unit is not calculated in the way that I mentioned?

I can't understand why. If the sum of 4 numbers is 1, and another sum of 4 numbers is 1, isn't this always true?
(sum1 * factor) + (sum2 * (1.0 - factor)) == 1?// In other words, sum1 * 0.5 should makes the sum1 equal 0.5// instead of 1. Right? sum1 * 0.7 makes the sum equal to 0.7.(0.10 + 0.60 + 0.20 + 0.10) * 0.5 == (0.05 + 0.30 + 0.10 + 0.05)(0.30 + 0.20 + 0.10 + 0.40) * 0.5 == (0.15 + 0.10 + 0.05 + 0.20)// so(0.05 + 0.30 + 0.10 + 0.05) + (0.15 + 0.10 + 0.05 + 0.20)// results in(0.20 + 0.40 + 0.15 + 0.25)// HEAVILY edited - sorry for messing this up so bad

Where am I getting lossed?

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Quote:
 Original post by JiiaIf the sum of 4 numbers is 1, and another sum of 4 numbers is 1, isn't this always true?

We don't care about the sum of the numbers, we care about the sum of their squares: (pw+(1-p)W)^2+(px+(1-p)X)^2+(py+(1-p)Y)^2+(pz+(1-p)Z)^2

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Here are some printed out values of real in-game quaternions. Am I accidently getting values that work? It always seems to work..?

Format is  (Ax, Ay, Az, Aw) * opp_perc+ (Bx, By, Bz, Bw) * perc= (Cx, Cy, Cz, Cw) (sum of C's sqaured values)  (-0.016, -0.197, 0.007, 0.980) * 0.210+ (-0.016, -0.218, 0.006, 0.976) * 0.790= -0.016, -0.214, 0.006, 0.977 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)  (-0.016, -0.229, 0.006, 0.973) * 0.320+ (-0.015, -0.248, 0.008, 0.969) * 0.680= -0.016, -0.242, 0.008, 0.970 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)  (-0.015, -0.259, 0.011, 0.966) * 0.460+ (-0.013, -0.267, 0.015, 0.964) * 0.540= -0.014, -0.263, 0.013, 0.965 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)  (-0.012, -0.281, 0.020, 0.959) * 0.540+ (-0.010, -0.289, 0.025, 0.957) * 0.460= -0.011, -0.285, 0.022, 0.958 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)  (-0.006, -0.313, 0.033, 0.949) * 0.590+ (-0.000, -0.320, 0.040, 0.947) * 0.410= -0.004, -0.316, 0.036, 0.948 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)  (0.012, -0.021, 0.080, 0.997) * 0.880+ (0.006, 0.035, 0.079, 0.996) * 0.120= 0.011, -0.015, 0.079, 0.996 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)  (-0.015, 0.149, 0.061, 0.987) * 0.810+ (-0.017, 0.174, 0.054, 0.983) * 0.190= -0.016, 0.154, 0.060, 0.986 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)  (-0.016, -0.197, 0.007, 0.980) * 0.990+ (-0.016, -0.218, 0.006, 0.976) * 0.010= -0.016, -0.197, 0.007, 0.980 (sum of sqaures = 1.000)

[Edited by - Jiia on September 19, 2004 8:19:08 PM]

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Quote:
 Original post by JiiaHere are some printed out values of real in-game quaternions. Am I accidently getting values that work? It always seems to work..?*** Source Snippet Removed ***

First, those test quaternions are all very similar, so they will produce similar results. Second, you're cutting off precision.
-0.004^2 + -0.316^2 + 0.036^2 + 0.948^2 = 0.999872
Try using extreme cases, such as a rotation of 90 degrees around the X axis interpolated with a 90 degree rotation around the Y axis. You may be luck in that in-game values are 'close enough' that occasionaly normalisation to avoid numerical errors will hide the problem. But then again, you may not.

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Quote:
 Original post by joanusdmentiaFirst, those test quaternions are all very similar, so they will produce similar results. Second, you're cutting off precision.-0.004^2 + -0.316^2 + 0.036^2 + 0.948^2 = 0.999872Try using extreme cases, such as a rotation of 90 degrees around the X axis interpolated with a 90 degree rotation around the Y axis. You may be luck in that in-game values are 'close enough' that occasionaly normalisation to avoid numerical errors will hide the problem. But then again, you may not.

Actually, those are in-game bones animating while running. But that's all I needed to hear. Thanks [smile]

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A really obvious example would be

Q1 = (1, 0, 0, 0)
Q2 = (-1, 0, 0, 0)

Both have unit length

Q3 = 0.5*(1, 0, 0, 0) + 0.5(-1, 0, 0, 0)
= (0, 0, 0, 0)

Which isnt unit length by any stretch of the imagination.

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