How to get height of a point inside a triangle
Author
Hi I have a triangle ABC and a point P. This point is somewhere inside the triangle and I know its X and Z position but not Y (it's height). I also know the coordinates of the points A, B and C.
How can I find the height of point P if it is anywhere in the triangle?
thanks,
r_bewick
Find the barycentric coordinates of the point within the triangle in XZ space, then use those coordinates to interpolate Y.
One method would be plug the x and z values into the plane equation for the triangle and solve for y, i.e. (off the top of my head, so no guarantee of correctness):
ax + by + cz + d = 0ax + cz + d = -byy = -(ax + cz + d) / b
Author
Quote:
Find the barycentric coordinates of the point within the triangle in XZ space, then use those coordinates to interpolate Y.
I have looked at barycentric coordinates on wikipedia etc but it is really confusing to me. Could you point me out to a tutorial that shows me how to do this?
Quote:
ax + by + cz + d = 0
ax + cz + d = -by
y = -(ax + cz + d) / b
This looks simple enough. But can you please explain which each letter means? eg which letter is what vertice of the triangle and which is point P?
thankyou very much for the quick replies :)
Quote:This looks simple enough. But can you please explain which each letter means? eg which letter is what vertice of the triangle and which is point P?x and z in the equation are the x and z components of the point P.
thankyou very much for the quick replies :)
ax + by + cz + d = 0 is the general equation of a plane (see equation 2, here). Geometrically, a, b, and c correspond to the x, y, and z components of a vector normal to the plane, and d is proportional to the orthogonal distance from the plane to the origin.
Given a triangle with vertices A, B, and C, you can find the equation of the plane as follows:
vector3 normal = cross(B - A, C - A);// The coefficients of the plane equation are then:a = normal.x;b = normal.y;c = normal.z;d = -dot(A, normal);The plane equation can also be expressed in a couple of other forms - see the article linked above for details.
Author
thanks for replying again. I put all the values in but it didnt work for me :(
I'm not sure why.
I'm using this for making units walk the right height on terrain smoothly but now the units jump up and down really high when they go over slopes. Are you sure that everything you gave me is correct? also Im not sure if some of my code is correct but I don't know if you want me to post it (C++ & directX)
I'm not sure why.
I'm using this for making units walk the right height on terrain smoothly but now the units jump up and down really high when they go over slopes. Are you sure that everything you gave me is correct? also Im not sure if some of my code is correct but I don't know if you want me to post it (C++ & directX)
Quote:also Im not sure if some of my code is correct but I don't know if you want me to post it (C++ & directX)Yes, post the relevant code (be sure to use [ source ] tags).
Author
//_fPosX & _fPosY = position of point in triangle int iTileX = static_cast<int>((_fPosX - m_vec3Position.x) / m_fTileSizeX); int iTileZ = static_cast<int>((_fPosZ - m_vec3Position.z) / m_fTileSizeZ); unsigned int iCurrentVertice = iTileX + (iTileZ * (m_iNumTilesX)); if ((iCurrentVertice + m_iNumTilesX + 1 >= m_vecVertices.size()) || (iTileX > m_iNumTilesX) || (iTileX < 0) || (iTileZ > m_iNumTilesZ) || (iTileZ < 0)) { return 0; } float fHeight; //height of point (unknown) D3DXVECTOR3 N; //normal D3DXVECTOR3 A; //triangle v1 D3DXVECTOR3 B; //triangle v2 D3DXVECTOR3 C;// triangle v3 //distance from position to top vertice float dx = _fPosX-m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice+m_iNumTilesX].vec3Position.x; float dz = _fPosZ-m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice+m_iNumTilesX].vec3Position.z; //If dz > dx then the point would be in the first triangle (v0,v1,v2). if (dz > dx) //1st triangle. { //vector of terrain vertices A = m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice].vec3Position; } else //2nd triangle { A = m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice+1].vec3Position; } B = m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice+m_iNumTilesX].vec3Position; C = m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice+m_iNumTilesX+1].vec3Position; D3DXVec3Cross(&N,&(B - A),&(C - A)); D3DXVec3Normalize(&N, &N); float a,b,c,d; a = N.x; b = N.y; c = N.z; float x,z; x = _fPosX-m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice].vec3Position.x; z = _fPosZ-m_vecVertices[iCurrentVertice].vec3Position.z; d = -D3DXVec3Dot(&A,&N); fHeight = -(a*x + c*z + d) / b; return fHeight;
I didn't proof all of the code, but it looks to me like you might be using the wrong vertices for one of the two triangles that make up the quad. (You might try sketching out each case on paper to make sure that you're grabbing the right vertices.)
Author
I checked again and am quite sure they are right.
Instead of trying to find the height of a point in the triangle I also Set the units height to the average height of the 3 vertices of the triangle it is closest to and it does follow the terrain height properly it was just very jumpy as it moved from one triangle to the next.
any other ideas? I have absolutely no idea about whats wrong.
by the way thanks so much for all your help jyk. I really appreciate it
Instead of trying to find the height of a point in the triangle I also Set the units height to the average height of the 3 vertices of the triangle it is closest to and it does follow the terrain height properly it was just very jumpy as it moved from one triangle to the next.
any other ideas? I have absolutely no idea about whats wrong.
by the way thanks so much for all your help jyk. I really appreciate it
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