spawning random objects in the camera view

Unity Engine
1

I want to spawn random 3D models within the camera view, I have a target object at position [0,0,0] and I want to have [0,10] random objects around the target.

My problem is that the camera is moving and rotating during the run time, so the view would change. How can I specify the range of values for the random object positions? is there a way to force it to find a place within the camera view?

Thanks in advance

P.S I’m not using colliders, I check collisions by myself (by finding the distance between the objects)

2

Well you could pick a random pixel on the screen and then get the corresponding world location by projecting that pixel out into the game world from the camera’s viewport.

3

Yes, that’s sound to be it. But I’m not exactly sure how to do it. I want to get the center of the camera to be my reference point, and spawn object right and left, forward and inward.

I tried using Camera.ScreenToWorldPoint with no luck… :frowning:

4

Camera.ScreenToWorldPoint is a good start. That will give you a point on the camera’s viewport, which will be very close to the camera. You’ll want to try to project that point out into the world to a certain distance. What that distance is really depends on how your game is laid out and where exactly you want the objects to spawn.

5 
public static Vector3 ScreenPositionIntoWorld(Vector2 screenPosition, float distance)
{
  Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(screenPosition);
  return (ray.direction.normalized * distance);
}

Usage:

Vector3 worldPosition = ScreenPositionIntoWorld(
  // example screen center:
  new Vector2(Screen.width / 2, Screen.height / 2),
  // distance into the world from the screen:
  10.0f
);
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