Check whether object is looking in between a minimum and maximum angle in 3d Space

Question

What I want to accomplish is to check whether an object is looking in between a minimum and maximum angle in 3D space

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for example if a Helicopter is looking to the right...

it would have to check whether its rotation vector is within a cone like shape

when, the heli's rotation vector is inside, the method returns true, but false otherwise. So in the scenario above, the method would return false.

The answer is fairly simple in 2D as all I have to do is check whether minAngle < heli rot angle < maxAngle or use dot product to check, but in 3D I have to look at 2 dimensions against the Y axis to start.

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I could define a cone class and check whether a vector is projected from the origin, but it seemed too excessive as I dont need variables like cone length, start radius, & end radius. I feel like I'm missing something simple that involves a bit of playing around from xz to xz->y. Is it possible to accomplish something similar just by checking heli's rot orientation?

Answer 1

You'll need to get the current direction vector of the object (you can get this with transform.forward in Unity), vectors that point in the directions you care for and the angle between the cone's side and center.

You then simply need to take the dot product of the forward vector and one of the directions, and if it's larger than the cosine of the angle, then the forward vector is in the cone.

Answer 2

It sounds like the Physics.SphereCast() could do the job for you. It cast a sphere in the direction and with the radius that you choose.

Here is a sample script:

public class SphereCast : MonoBehaviour {


public float Distance;
public float distanceToObstacle;
public float sphereRadious;
public string Tag;


void Update()
{
    RaycastHit hit;

    Vector3 p1 = transform.position;

    if (Physics.SphereCast(p1, sphereRadious, Vector3.down, out hit, Distance))
    {
        distanceToObstacle = hit.distance;

        if (hit.collider.tag == "Enemy")
        Destroy(hit.collider.gameObject);

        Debug.DrawLine(transform.position, hit.point, Color.red, 10);
    }
}}

Here is a GIF with what it looks like: