Pitch/yaw difference between 2 transforms

Unity Engine
1

I posted this 24 hours ago in Answers but have not gotten a response and the question fell through to the 7th page where it’s not getting any views anymore. I hope that it’s okay in this case to try my luck here, if not, I apologize!

Question: I have two transforms in my scene. The first one is my camera, the second one is a spaceship. Both of these can move and rotate freely (6dof) in the scene. I need to get the pitch/yaw difference between both transform.rotations, ie. the angles at which I’m looking at the ship.

Examples: If the spaceship is facing straight away from us and we’re right behind the ship’s tail, the yaw should be 180 deg, pitch 0 deg for example. Or if the ship is facing left (relative to the camera) and we’re seeing it from the top-down (ie. we see its ‘roof’ only), the yaw and pitch would be 90 deg both.

Attempt: I tried the following after reading this:

int CalculateYaw()
{
    // get a vector from the ship to the camera
    Vector3 shipToCamera = Camera.main.transform.position - transform.position;
     
    // get a numeric angle for each vector, on the X-Z plane (relative to world forward)
    float angleA = Mathf.Atan2(transform.forward.x, transform.forward.z) * Mathf.Rad2Deg;
    float angleB = Mathf.Atan2(shipToCamera.x, shipToCamera.z) * Mathf.Rad2Deg;
     
    // return the signed difference in these angles
    return (int)Mathf.DeltaAngle(angleA, angleB);
}
     
// same for pitch along Y-Z plane

But the code doesn’t work to my expectations. When the camera is at 0/0/0 and the spaceship at 0/0/30 in the scene and I let the spaceship rotate along its up-axis, the yaw behaves as it should (ever incrementing) but the pitch jumps between 0 (where it should be at) and 180 - being at 180 whenever the ship is facing away from the camera and 0 when it’s facing toward me. I suspect this is due to the angles being relative to the world forward when they should be relative to the spaceship transform forward.

And this is where I’m lost, any help/insight would be greatly appreciated!

2

I understand what you’re trying to accomplish. Have you tried a smooth follow script? You would have to modify a few things, but it might work better than those formulas.

3

Can you be more specific? I don’t understand how a smooth follow script could help me calculate the pitch/yaw values I’m interested in!

Thanks for the response.

4

I guess the question is, do you really need the pitch/yaw values or do you just want the camera to be in the right position at the correct rotation?

In the description section of this youtube video, download the full tutorial scene.

Take a look at the smooth follow script that’s in it. It may or may not be applicable to what you are trying to accomplish.

5

Oh no, sorry, I am not interested in creating a third person camera at all. Sorry! I need the pitch and yaw values because my games uses billboards instead of 3d models and I have a whole bunch of textures, rendered shots of the spaceship from all possible angles, and I need to decide which is the ‘correct’ texture (ie. angle) to pick from the bunch. Think early Wing Commander style! I guess I could’ve been more open about what I intend to use the pitch/yaw values for in the OP, sorry for that.

6

No worries. :slight_smile: