Vectrosity - Fast and Easy Line Drawing

Yes, it's definitely visible with those settings.



--Eric

 

Hello,
Like show below, when i try to create a circle with a segment size > 1.0f (here 50), when the circle is oriented the generated mesh seems TWISTED and remains not FLAT like expected, could you investigate.
Maybe than the first and the last segment are not correctly oriented so there is a twisted effect....

Thank you in advance.


Here my component code :

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using Vectrosity;
3.  
4. public class ElongataDefenseZone : MonoBehaviour
5. {
6.     public Camera camera3D;
7.     public float widthSegment = 1.0f;
8.     public float radiusZone = 1.0f;
9.     public int segments = 3;//Default Minimal
10.     public Vector3 offset = Vector3.zero;
11.     public Material segmentsMaterial;
12.     public Texture segmentTexture;
13.     public float segmentsTexureScale = 1.0f;
14.  
15.     private VectorLine zone;
16.  
17.     void Awake()
18.     {
19.         if (segments < 3)
20.             segments = 3;
21.  
22.         VectorManager.useDraw3D = true;
23.         VectorLine.SetCamera3D(camera3D);
24.        
25.         Vector3[] segmentsArray = new Vector3[segments+1];
26.  
27.         zone = VectorLine.SetLine3D(Color.green, segmentsArray);
28.         zone.lineWidth = widthSegment;
29.         zone.lineType = LineType.Continuous;
30.         zone.joins = Joins.Fill;
31.         zone.material = segmentsMaterial;
32.         zone.textureScale = segmentsTexureScale;
33.      
34.         zone.texture = segmentTexture;
35.         zone.continuousTexture = true;
36.         zone.AddNormals();
37.  
38.         //For test when we rotate the gameObject on which the script is attached(same issue)
39.         zone.drawTransform = gameObject.transform;
40.     }
41.  
42.     // Use this for initialization
43.     void Start ()
44.     {
45.         //With Vector3.up or other value, the issue is the same
46.         zone.MakeCircle(gameObject.transform.position+offset,Vector3.down,radiusZone,segments);
47.     }
48.  
49.     // Update is called once per frame
50.     void Update ()
51.     {
52.         zone.Draw3D();
53.     }
54. }
55.  
56.  

 

Lines are oriented to a camera, so from the perspective of the camera that you're using, it will look right. (Please use code tags when posting code.)

--Eric

 

Hi Eric! Can you help me with this? I'm trying to get a zigzag, thick, textured line to work. But I'm getting these undesirable results. I'm using a circle texture.

I get the pink one with Join.Weld. I get the blue one with Join.Fill.

The blue one is more desirable, but two circles (or two non-full circles) overlap at the end of the two line segments, forming what looks like a pac-man. What I want to have are smooth-flowing circles on the line, without the overlaps. How can I do that?

 

There's really no physical way to get a perfect result with lines, due to how they're made (stretched quads, basically). You can use more segments in the line with Joins.Weld to get rid of the warping, but it will still be weird at intersections. What you should do is use points instead; one point for each dot.

--Eric

 

Okay, thanks! I'll just do points.

 

Hello Eric,

Regarding your answer, i chose to create another camera with a position at top of my mesh and oriented to 90° in order to get the good perpesctive and a FLAT circle.


And it looks correct. But it remains a question, is there a trick for create a circle untwisted independently of the camera used, in order to keep a single camera in the scene ?

 

Hello, I hope here's the right place to ask a question about the new Vectrosity 5.

In the old version I had my (3d-)lines parented under other objects, of which some have DontDestroyOnLoad enabled. I don't move these parents, I mainly use them for organizing the scene. In Vectrosity 5 all the line objects (VectorObject3D) are always in the root of the scene and can't be parented to anything for some reason. Setting the parent of a VectorLine rectTransform doesn't do anything (it's immediately resetted?). Is this intended or is it a bug?

In my case it breaks everything because the some of the lines are deleted on scene transitions. Strangely, after changing the scene the VectorLine reference still works, I can still change points etc., just the actual displaying game object is missing.

 

Hello!

Vectrosity noob here so please bear with me.

I am trying to combine vectrosity elements with my existing UI (built with UnityEngine.UI)

My UI has a CanvasScaler component which scales with the size of the screen.

At the moment, in order to get everything to match properly I am having to

1. create a dummy line to get the main Vectrosity canvas object to create itself
2. attach a CanvasScaler to the Vectrosity canvas
3. set its properties to be the same as my UI's main canvas
4. get rid of the dummy line as I only need it for Vectrosity initialisation
5. now I can use vectrosity without any scale/position matching issues


Does this sound right? I get the desired results but it just feels a bit hacky. Specifically, is there a nice way to intialise vectrosity (i.e. without creating a dummy vectrosity element). Is there a way to preattach a CanvasScaler to it? Is there a "good practice" way to do this sort of thing that I am unaware of?

Many thanks!

 

No, sorry. You can disable the extra camera when you don't need it.

Neither; I can't see any problems setting the parent to another object, and there's nothing in the code that would have any effect on parenting.

The best thing is to use the next version of Vectrosity, which has an option to pass worldPositionStays into SetCanvas, since right now it just uses true. So you'd use "SetCanvas (myCanvas, false)". But in the meantime you could edit the source of the SetCanvas function and replace "SetParent (canvas.transform, true)" with "SetParent (canvas.transform, false)". That way you can use SetCanvas with your scaled canvas.

--Eric

 

Does Vectrosity have any method to get nearest distance and heading between gameobject and Line3D?

 

I'm not sure what that means exactly, but you can see a list of all functions in the Vectrosity Reference Guide.

--Eric

 

I have a player and straight VectorLine.SetLine3D .. I want to display distance between player and this line.

I can get GetPoint3D from this line and calculate distance between this point and GameObject. But how to find nearest Point on this line?

 

That's more of a general math question; there are no specific functions in Vectrosity for that.

--Eric

 

Ok Thanks.
I have also another problem. 3D lines disappear sometime when camera is rotating/ moving

 

Assuming you're updating the line when the camera moves, then it's probably related to Vectrosity culling the segment because one point is too far outside the camera frustum. Add more segments in the line to prevent this.

--Eric

 

Now, some segments disappearing after adding more points.

How many points is needed? Is there any option to add this segments? I'm creating line from two points.

 

It depends on the line. If one point in a segment is too far outside the frustum, then it will be culled. If you have really huge segments then you'll need to subdivide them more.

--Eric

 

Ok. I will try to figure it something by myself here.

Could you tell me why line at first point have other width than on the second one?

I set the .lineWidth = 3f.. But on the begin of line line is 3f, but on the end it is much bigger.

 

This lines changing width (or it looks only like this) when camera is rotating. Please see attached examples from orthographic and perspective camera.

I'm creating lines like this.
VectorLine.SetLine3D (Color.white, point1, point2)
I have tried also changing SetWidth(3f) and lineWidth = 3f ... nothing helps.

 

It doesn't look like you have the lines oriented to the camera that you used for the screenshots.

--Eric

 

Second screenshot is from MainCamera.. So it should be oriented to the camera out of the box.
I have tried also Draw3DAuto(), Draw3D() in update function, and setCamera3D(Camera.main);

Nothing helps. Nothing changes anything.

 

I'd have to see some code that demonstrates the effect.

--Eric

 

Ok

Player (3D Cube)

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3. using Vectrosity;
4.  
5. public class LineTest : MonoBehaviour {
6.     private GameObject playerObject;
7.     public float movementSpeed = 10;
8.     public float turningSpeed = 60;
9.  
10.     // Use this for initialization
11.     void Start () {
12.         VectorLine line = VectorLine.SetLine3D (Color.white, new Vector3(4787.1f,0,1443.7f), new Vector3(-4584.5f,0,-1382.6f));
13.         line.Draw3DAuto ();
14.     }
15.    
16.     // Update is called once per frame
17.     void Update () {
18.         var playerObject = GameObject.Find ("Player");
19.         Vector3 playerPos = playerObject.transform.position;
20.         Quaternion playerRot = playerObject.transform.rotation;
21.        
22.        
23.        
24.         float horizontal = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal") * turningSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
25.         transform.Rotate (0, horizontal, 0);
26.        
27.        
28.         float vertical = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical") * movementSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
29.         transform.Translate (0, 0, vertical);
30.    
31.     }
32. }
33.  

Main Camera script to follow object with rigidbody

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class CarSmoothFollow : MonoBehaviour {
5.    
6.     public Transform target;
7.     public float distance = 20.0f;
8.     public float height = 5.0f;
9.     public float heightDamping = 2.0f;
10.    
11.     public float lookAtHeight = 0.0f;
12.    
13.     public Rigidbody parentRigidbody;
14.    
15.     public float rotationSnapTime = 0.3F;
16.    
17.     public float distanceSnapTime;
18.     public float distanceMultiplier;
19.    
20.     private Vector3 lookAtVector;
21.    
22.     private float usedDistance;
23.    
24.     float wantedRotationAngle;
25.     float wantedHeight;
26.    
27.     float currentRotationAngle;
28.     float currentHeight;
29.    
30.     Quaternion currentRotation;
31.     Vector3 wantedPosition;
32.    
33.     private float yVelocity = 0.5F;
34.     private float zVelocity = 0.5F;
35.    
36.     void Start () {
37.        
38.         lookAtVector =  new Vector3(0,lookAtHeight,0);
39.        
40.     }
41.    
42.     void LateUpdate () {
43.        
44.         wantedHeight = target.position.y + height;
45.         currentHeight = transform.position.y;
46.        
47.         wantedRotationAngle = target.eulerAngles.y;
48.         currentRotationAngle = transform.eulerAngles.y;
49.        
50.         currentRotationAngle = Mathf.SmoothDampAngle(currentRotationAngle, wantedRotationAngle, ref yVelocity, rotationSnapTime);
51.        
52.         currentHeight = Mathf.Lerp(currentHeight, wantedHeight, heightDamping * Time.deltaTime);
53.        
54.         wantedPosition = target.position;
55.         wantedPosition.y = currentHeight;
56.        
57.         usedDistance = Mathf.SmoothDampAngle(usedDistance, distance + (parentRigidbody.velocity.magnitude * distanceMultiplier), ref zVelocity, distanceSnapTime);
58.        
59.         wantedPosition += Quaternion.Euler(0, currentRotationAngle, 0) * new Vector3(0, 0, -usedDistance);
60.        
61.         transform.position = wantedPosition;
62.        
63.         transform.LookAt(target.position + lookAtVector);
64.        
65.     }
66.    
67. }

​

 

I can't actually run that code since I don't have your project, but I doubt that coordinates which are so far apart are going to work. See what I wrote earlier about points being outside the view frustum. Also SetLine3D already uses Draw3DAuto, so don't use that twice.

--Eric

 

I tried to make more LineSegments.. Its the same..
Problem is somewhere in camera. If I use other camera (for example orthographic) top view camera. Lines looks good.

Do you know maybe what from camera script can make conflict with Vectrosity?

 

I make another test.. Nothing more than camera, cube, and line.. Effect in attachment.
I think that I make somewhere simple mistake but can't find it.

I can send you project on e-mail because I can't attach it here.

This is New project in Unity 5..

Main camera position -4.72,3.44,-10
Main camera rotation 18.68698,16.18596,359.7587

And the Cube with name "Player" with following script

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3. using Vectrosity;
4.  
5. public class LineTest : MonoBehaviour {
6.     private GameObject playerObject;
7.     public float movementSpeed = 10;
8.     public float turningSpeed = 60;
9.    
10.     // Use this for initialization
11.     void Start () {
12.         VectorLine line = VectorLine.SetLine3D (Color.white, new Vector3(4787.1f,0,1443.7f), new Vector3(-4584.5f,0,-1382.6f));
13.         line.Draw3DAuto ();
14.     }
15.    
16.     // Update is called once per frame
17.     void Update () {
18.         var playerObject = GameObject.Find ("Player");
19.         Vector3 playerPos = playerObject.transform.position;
20.         Quaternion playerRot = playerObject.transform.rotation;
21.        
22.        
23.        
24.         float horizontal = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal") * turningSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
25.         transform.Rotate (0, horizontal, 0);
26.        
27.        
28.         float vertical = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical") * movementSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
29.         transform.Translate (0, 0, vertical);
30.        
31.     }
32. }
33.  

 

What did you do to get that screenshot? Telling me it works, when it obviously does not on my end with no explanation of what you did is not very helpful. . .

 

Yes, the points in the line are just much too far apart for that to work considering where the camera is. This is what it's like when dividing the line into 100 segments:

I put your code in a script and attached it to an object, with the camera using the settings you mentioned, then ran the scene.

--Eric

 

That is counter to everything I am trying to do. The whole point is that I need a line to be visible without running the scene. What I am doing is creating a custom editor window, and then running the script in the editor without ever pressing the play button, thus without the scene ever running.

 

Sorry, I missed that. If you mean 3D lines in terms of creating line objects without a canvas, I don't actually know about that. I assumed you meant lines using Vector3 points, but still using a canvas.

--Eric

 

So, are you saying that Vectrosity now uses a canvas in order to have lines, and this canvas is something that is created when you run the scene, and thus you can't have lines if you don't run the scene. . .? Or something. . .?
All I care about is having visible lines without ever pressing the big Play button at the top.

 

No, a canvas is used for when you use VectorLine.Draw(). VectorLine.Draw3D creates a standard mesh object. Vectrosity 4 used a canvas for all lines. Note that there's never been any support for editor-only lines until Vectrosity 5, and currently only for Vector2 lines.

--Eric

 

Hello Eric,

I purchased your unity asset and I'm trying to build a circle vector using Joins.Fill and then "mask" parts of the circle so that it fills radially. All of this works fine, but with Joins.Fill active, it seems to be automatically joining the beginning/end of the points list to the origin of the scene, creating an undesired line.

Do you know if this is a bug, or am I perhaps doing something wrong?

 

Do you have any code which shows that? If I change the power bar demo code to use Joins.Fill instead of Joins.Weld, it's still fine.

--Eric

 

In my case, (I have many lines and these lines are very long) to show them correctly I need many lineSegments.

I have performance issues.
Is there any easy way to call Draw3D on lines that are visible in the camera view at the moment? This will help me to keep frame rate.

 

If you use ObjectSetup, it uses bounding boxes to not render lines when appropriate. However I don't know how well that would work with lines that are so long.

--Eric

 

I have this warning in the Unity 5.2 version:

It has no easy fix on my side because the correct overload has a "VertexHelper" param that is not the same as "Mesh".

 

Yes, I just found out that the latest patch changed things without any warning. I'd recommend reverting to 5.2.1 (no patch) if possible for now. Hopefully it will be sorted out on Unity's end, but if not, then I'll have to figure some workaround.

--Eric

 

I have a problem where in my project, frame rate drops are coinciding with unexpected gaps in my vectrosity trails. I've made a simple scene to show the problem, attached to this post.

To replicate:

• I'm using Unity 5.2.0f3.
• In a new project import the trailgaps package.
• Import Vectrosity (I'm using Vectrosity 5).
• Open TrailGlitches scene and run it.
• Use arrow keys (or a joypad, latest unity breaks key input on my mac) to move the distant cube around.
• Every ten seconds 'DoExpensiveTask' will be repeated, which contains a loop that takes two seconds to complete.
• When this slow task has finished and the screen updates, the trail at the corresponding point has a gap like the one shown below:

 

You have subsequent points in the line that are identical. In general you should only add points if a sufficient distance exists between them, such as in the DrawLinesMouse demo script.

--Eric

 

Hi Eric,
How can I draw lines that face to up-direction, like a tape stuck on the ground. The only way I know is to put a temp camera on the top, but I believe there should be a better way. Thank you!

Stephen Zhou

 

That's currently the only way.

--Eric

 

I use these two functions to make a base circle and then expand the size of it.

Code (CSharp):

1. public static List<Vector2> GetBasicCircle(int _resolution)
2.     {
3.         float _angleChange = 360.0f / _resolution;
4.         List<Vector2> _circle = new List<Vector2>();
5.         float _end = 360.0f;
6.         for (float _angle = 0; _angle <= _end; _angle += _angleChange)
7.         {
8.             float _newAngle = _angle * Mathf.Deg2Rad;
9.             _circle.Add(new Vector2(Mathf.Cos(_newAngle), Mathf.Sin(_newAngle)));
10.         }
11.         return _circle;
12.     }
13.    
14.     public static List<Vector3> CreateCircle(List<Vector2> _normalizedCircle, Vector3 _position, float _radius)
15.     {
16.         List<Vector3> _circle = new List<Vector3>();
17.         int _length = _normalizedCircle.Count;
18.         for (int i = 0; i < _length; i++)
19.         {
20.             _circle.Add(new Vector3(_position.x + _normalizedCircle[i].x * _radius, _position.y + _normalizedCircle[i].y * _radius, _position.z));
21.         }
22.         return _circle;
23.     }

And then I use Vectrosity like this...

Code (CSharp):

1. public static void InitializeVectors()
2.     {
3.         List<Vector3> _circle = ProceduralGeometry.CreateCircle(ProceduralGeometry.GetBasicCircle(180), Vector3.zero, 4.5f);
4.         if (ejectTimeUI == null)
5.             ejectTimeUI = new VectorLine("EjectTimeCircle", _circle, 10.0f, LineType.Continuous, Joins.Fill);
6.         ejectTimeUI.SetColor(Color.white);
7.         ejectTimeUI.drawTransform = currentPlayerRef.transform.Find("PlayerUI/EjectTime");
8.         ejectTimeUI.layer = LayerMask.NameToLayer("Player");
9.         ejectTimeUI.Draw3DAuto();
10.        
11.         if (ejectZoomTimeUI == null)
12.             ejectZoomTimeUI = new VectorLine("EjectZoomTimeCircle", _circle, 5.0f, LineType.Continuous, Joins.Fill);
13.         ejectZoomTimeUI.layer = LayerMask.NameToLayer("Player");
14.         ejectZoomTimeUI.SetColor((Color32)ejectTimeColor);
15.         ejectZoomTimeUI.drawTransform = currentPlayerRef.transform.Find("PlayerUI/EjectZoom");
16.         ejectZoomTimeUI.Draw3DAuto();
17.     }

This is code that sets the start and end points of the circle to draw.

Code (CSharp):

1. float _ejectZoomFactor = Mathf.Min(1, (ejectTimer - ejectTime) / ejectThresholdTime);
2.         float _ejectTimeFactor = Mathf.Min(1, ejectTimer / ejectTime);
3.         if (ejectTimer <= ejectTime)
4.         {
5.             if (PlayerManagerScript.ejectZoomTimeUI != null)
6.                 PlayerManagerScript.ejectZoomTimeUI.drawEnd = (int)Mathf.Floor(PlayerManagerScript.ejectZoomTimeUI.points3.Count * _ejectTimeFactor);
7.             if (PlayerManagerScript.ejectTimeUI != null)
8.                 PlayerManagerScript.ejectTimeUI.drawEnd = (int)Mathf.Floor(PlayerManagerScript.ejectTimeUI.points3.Count * _ejectTimeFactor);
9.         }
10.         else if (ejectTimer >= ejectTime)
11.         {
12.             if (PlayerManagerScript.ejectZoomTimeUI != null)
13.                 PlayerManagerScript.ejectZoomTimeUI.drawStart = (int)Mathf.Floor(PlayerManagerScript.ejectZoomTimeUI.points3.Count - PlayerManagerScript.ejectZoomTimeUI.points3.Count * (1.0f - _ejectZoomFactor));
14.             if (PlayerManagerScript.ejectTimeUI != null)
15.                 PlayerManagerScript.ejectTimeUI.drawEnd = (int)Mathf.Floor(PlayerManagerScript.ejectTimeUI.points3.Count * _ejectTimeFactor);
16.         }

 

There's a problem with that. All 3D lines are automatically unparented when calling VectorLine.Draw3D(). This means they will lose their parents each time they're drawn... Here's again the project attached that shows the issue (without Vectrosity.dll this time). I'm using v 5.0.

 

They don't "really" exist properly until you've called Draw3D; "new VectorLine" sort of primes them. So you can call Draw3D immediately when creating the line, then parent it as you like after that.

Do you have any code I can run that doesn't have external dependencies? Or you can post a project (don't include Vectrosity). I'm not able to get the issue to happen with my own code.

--Eric

 

Hi,

I have one draw call by vector line I draw. Is it normal ?

Thanks !

 

Yes, that's normal.

--Eric

 

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Is there a way to optimize it ?

Thanks

 

It's already about as optimized as it can get.

--Eric