Move objects in array with positions array

Question

I am trying to get a line of spheres to move around but all i get is the first sphere to move and get the rest to follow as one instead of building a sort of a train of spheres. Any idea how to alter the code to get it right? In the code bellow i get the first pbject in listBalls to move nicely along the Bezier curve but the rest move as one and overlap with the first sphere too.

    void Update()
{

    t += Time.deltaTime * 0.2f;
    ballPosition = Mathf.Pow(1 - t, 3) * p0 + 3 * Mathf.Pow(1 - t, 2) * t * p1 + 3 * (1 - t) * Mathf.Pow(t, 2) * p2 + Mathf.Pow(t, 3) * p3;
    positions.Add(ballPosition);
    listBalls[0].transform.position = positions[j];
    for (i = 1; i < listBalls.Count; i++)
    {
        Transform ball = listBalls[i].transform;
        Transform nextBall = listBalls[i - 1].transform;
        if ((ball.position - nextBall.position).magnitude > 1f)
        {
            ball.position = positions[j];
        }
    }
    j++;

Feels like it should be something easy, setting the N-1 balls to same position as the first ball must be wrong. I tried setting them at positions[j-2] but it didn't work either.

Edit: the Spheres should start rolling left to right one after the other eventually all 10 should be on the screen and when they reach P3 they should restarting the rolling.

• listBalls is the List with 10 spheres
• positions is the List with 50 Vector3 positions along the curve.

[![enter code here][2]][2]

Answer 1

It looks like you want something like this:

t += Time.deltaTime * 0.2f;

ballPosition =     Mathf.Pow(1 - t, 3)                   * p0 
             + 3 * Mathf.Pow(1 - t, 2) * t               * p1
             + 3 * (1 - t)             * Mathf.Pow(t, 2) * p2
             +                           Mathf.Pow(t, 3) * p3;
positions.Add(ballPosition);

// Put first ball at the last position in the list. It's our first "leader"
int positionIndex = positions.Count - 1;
Vector3 leaderPosition = positions[positionIndex];
listBalls[0].transform.position = leaderPosition;

for (i = 1; i < listBalls.Count; i++)
{
    // Back up through the positions list until you find one that's 1.0 units
    // or further behind our current "leader" ball.
    do {
        positionIndex--;
    } while ( (positionIndex >= 0 )
         && ( (positions[positionIndex] - leaderPosition).sqrMagnitude < 1f*1f )
    );

    // If we exhausted our available positions, abort
    // and leave the rest of the balls where they are.
    if(positionIndex < 0) break;

    // This position becomes our new leader for the next ball to follow.
    leaderPosition = positions[positionIndex];

    // Position our current ball at this leader position.
    listBalls[i].transform.position = leaderPosition;
}

// Once the whole train of balls has moved past the start of the list,
// we can remove old positions to keep the list from growing without bound.
if(positionIndex > 0);
positions.RemoveRange(0, positionIndex);

// For efficiency, note that using a circular buffer here will save you the
// copying cost of shifting all the list entries down each time.