LibGDX make player rotate towards mouse pointer (Player facing mouse)

Question

I am tryna makin' a 2D game with a 3D player (kinda of Factorium). I got stuck on the rotating of the player. I'd like it look always torwards to the mouse. e.g. If I move mouse on the top-left of the window, player will rotate towards the same direction.

I read on some other question about the method below, but it doesn't work properly:

private void rotatePlayerToMouse(OrthographicCamera camera) {

    Vector3 mousePos = camera.unproject(new Vector3(Gdx.input.getX(), Gdx.input.getY(), 0));
    Vector3 playerPos = this.getPosition();//this.instance.transform.getTranslation(Vector3)

    float degree = (float)Math.atan2(mousePos.y - playerPos.y, mousePos.x - playerPos.x);
    System.out.println(degree);
    this.instance.transform.rotate(new Vector3(0f, 0f, 1f), degree);
}

This method allows player to rotate. Player rotates both direction, but it doesn't stop rotating...

What is wrong?

Answer 1

Two obvious problems here:

• You've labelled a variable degree that's actually measured in radians, not in degrees.

• You're telling the object how much to rotate by, not giving it a target angle it should rotate to.

These can both be solved by reading the documentation for the methods you're using. It tends to show when you don't. 😉

float radians = (float)Math.atan2(mousePos.y - playerPos.y, mousePos.x - playerPos.x);

this.instance.transform.setFromEulerAnglesRad(0, 0, radians).setTranslation(playerPos);