Limit rotation angle

I am currently trying to rotate the weapons of a spaceship towards the mouse position, but in order to avoid the collision of projectiles with the ship I want to limit the angle the weapon can turn.

I've tried doing this:

    Vector3 mousePos = Input.mousePosition;
float range = 100.0f;
float rotStep = 0.1f;

Vector3 positionOnScreen = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(mousePos + Vector3.forward * range);

Vector3 targetDir = positionOnScreen - transform.position;
Vector3 newDir = Vector3.RotateTowards(transform.forward, targetDir, rotStep * Time.deltaTime, 0.0f);

Quaternion lookRot = Quaternion.LookRotation(newDir);

float xAngle = lookRot.eulerAngles.x;
if (xAngle > 10 && xAngle <= 180)
{
xAngle = 10;
}
else if (xAngle < 350 && xAngle > 180)
{
xAngle = 350;
}

float yAngle = lookRot.eulerAngles.y;
if (yAngle > 10 && yAngle <= 180)
{
yAngle = 10;
}
else if (yAngle < 350 && yAngle > 180)
{
yAngle = 350;
}

float zAngle = lookRot.eulerAngles.z;
if (zAngle > 10 && zAngle <= 180)
{
zAngle = 10;
}
else if (zAngle < 350 && zAngle > 180)
{
zAngle = 350;
}

lookRot.eulerAngles =new Vector3(xAngle, yAngle, zAngle);
transform.rotation = lookRot;


The problem here is that I don't know how to limit the rotation angle since it's not the same depending on the ship rotation (for example if it's (0, 0 , 0) or (-90, -90, -90)). I've tried using transform.localRotation too, but still happens the same. Do you how could I limit the rotation regardless of the ship rotation?

I think you should use the LocalRotation. because from what I see you are only checking the rotation of the cannons in world space, not locally.

• As I said in my question, I've already tried using transform.LocalRotation, but the results where not what I wanted. I will try again, just in case I did something wrong. Regarding the issue of projectiles colliding with the ship I've solved It by using Spherecasts from the weapon and checking if they collide with their same ship. I know it's not the exact solución to this, but maybe will help somebody – Hector Oct 18 '19 at 11:23
• ah im sorry my bad i missed that. what you could maybe do is compare the rotation of the cannons to the rotation of the ship and if it goes past a set limit like if(cannon.rotation.y <= ship.rotation.y + 45 && cannon.rotation.y >= ship.rotation.y + -45 ) – MaartenVlutters Oct 18 '19 at 12:06
• It seems that indeed I wasn't using the right LocalRotation. I tried with Quaternion localLookRot = lookRot * Quaternion.Inverse(transform.parent.rotation); But the results were not right. – Hector Oct 18 '19 at 16:46

Here's a way to do this with local rotation, expressing our limits symmetrically about our initial orientation to avoid the problems described in this answer.

public float yawRange;
public float pitchRange;

// Cache our initial rotation in Start, to use it as the center of our range.
Quaternion _neutralRotation;

void Start() {
_neutralRotation = transform.localRotation;
}

void Update() {
// The first part proceeds as before.
Vector3 mousePos = Input.mousePosition;
float range = 100.0f;
float rotStep = 0.1f;

Vector3 positionInWorld = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(mousePos + Vector3.forward * range);

// Then we transform into our parent's local space, to get an offset from our local position.
Vector3 positionInParent = transform.parent.InverseTransformPoint(positionInWorld);

Vector3 targetDir = positionInParent - transform.localPosition;

Vector3 newDir = Vector3.RotateTowards(transform.forward, targetDir, rotStep * Time.deltaTime, 0.0f);

// We convert this into a rotation space where Euler angles (0, 0, 0) describe the orientation
// at the center of our range, so we get symmetric behaviour in all directions from here.
Vector3 relativeToCenter = (Quaternion.Inverse(_neutralRotation) * newDir).normalized;

// We extract the Euler angles that describe this direction, and clamp them.
float yaw = Mathf.Atan2(relativeToCenter.x, relativeToCenter.z) * Mathf.Rad2Deg;
float pitch = Mathf.Asin(relativeToCenter.y) * Mathf.Rad2Deg;;

yaw = Mathf.Clamp(yaw, -yawRange, yawRange);
pitch = Mathf.Clamp(pitch, -pitchRange, pitchRange);

// We apply this clamped rotation relative to our center, relative to our parent.
transform.localRotation = _neutralRotation * Quaternion.Euler(pitch, yaw, 0);
}