Having Control of Start point for Lerp Object

In the code below, how to I have control of the X axis position of the object. Right now it always starts form the centre. I want to have many objects moving and want to control their X axis positon or even make it random each time. Any help appreciated.

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5. public class PillarMovement : MonoBehaviour {
6.  
7.     // Use this for initialization
8.  
9.     public Transform startMarker;
10.     public Transform endMarker;
11.     public float speed = 1.0F;
12.  
13.     private float startTime;
14.     private float journeyLength;
15.  
16.  
17.  
18.  
19.     void Start ()
20.     {
21.        
22.         startTime = Time.time;
23.         journeyLength = Vector3.Distance(startMarker.position, endMarker.position);
24.  
25.     }
26.    
27.     // Update is called once per frame
28.     void Update ()
29.     {
30.         float distCovered = (Time.time - startTime) * speed;
31.         float fracJourney = distCovered / journeyLength;
32.         transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(startMarker.position, endMarker.position, fracJourney);
33.        
34.     }
35. }
36.  

 

I don't quiet get what you want.

What do you mean by "it always starts form the center" ?

You want the lerp to occure but still control how the x component evolves over time ?
Then it's not a lerp. A lerp is an linear interpolation, as the name says. The only movement possible by this technique is a straight line.

If you want your transform to follow another path, you'll have to make it yourself.

Or maybe I didn't understand what you meant.

 

Hi, I mean if the object is on a plane(the ground) it seems to start from the middle point of the plane, whereas I want a few other objects to start from the left and right of the centre

 

Oh, yes ok.
I didn't really went through your code at first.

The issue probably has to do with line 32

Code (CSharp):

1.  transform.transform.Lerp(startMarker.position, endMarker.position, fracJourney);

Lerp returns the point which lands on straight line at the percentage given in 3rd parameter.
Typically, Lerp is not used like you did. You use a fancy way to calculate that percentage over time but generally you'd do something like this :

Code (CSharp):

1.  transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, endMarker.position, 0.1f); //0.1f being the percentage of the total distance "travelled" during each update

Of course what you'd do is first set the position at your startMaker.position and then use the Lerp as I did.

EDIT : NVM I'm stupid. What you did should work fine. But I still don't get what you want...
If you want to have a random start position, then @jeffreyschoch explained it.

 

If you want to randomize the starting position, you can add an offset to your startMarker.position.

Maybe like this?

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4. public class PillarMovement : MonoBehaviour
5. {
6.     public Transform startMarker;
7.     public Transform endMarker;
8.     public float randomOffsetAmount;
9.     public float speed = 1.0F;
10.  
11.     private float startTime;
12.     private float journeyLength;
13.     private Vector3 startPosition;
14.  
15.     // Use this for initialization
16.     void Start()
17.     {
18.         startTime = Time.time;
19.         startPosition = startMarker.position + (Vector3.right * Random.value * randomOffsetAmount);
20.         journeyLength = Vector3.Distance(startPosition, endMarker.position);
21.     }
22.  
23.     // Update is called once per frame
24.     void Update()
25.     {
26.         float distCovered = (Time.time - startTime) * speed;
27.         float fracJourney = distCovered / journeyLength;
28.         transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(startPosition, endMarker.position, fracJourney);
29.     }
30. }

 

Hi sorry for my late reply, I am only getting to try this out now. It works great. Thanks for your help