Calculating ArcCamera direction

[Robbie Lewis]

Hey guys,

This is my first Babylon.js project, really enjoying it so far! I've found answers to all my questions on this great forum, except for one.

I've created a 5x5x5 grid using lines and I'm placing blocks within the space using a cursor. I'm using an ArcRotateCamera to pan around the grid. I'm using the num pad arrows to move the cursor around within the 3d grid and insert/delete to add/remove blocks. See image attached if it helps.

The problem is, when I rotate 180 degrees around my grid, the left num pad arrow now moves the block right from the cameras perspective. What I need to do is calculate the direction the ArcRotateCamera is facing and affect the cursor accordingly. I have experimented with the Alpha property of the camera, but the numbers it gives make no sense! A full rotation of the ArcRotateCamera gives a value of around 6.25. This confuses me, I would expect the alpha to be in degrees?

How can I calculate the direction the camera is facing? (I only care about the alpha plane for this particular problem)

[MarianG]

Hi Robbie. You can calculate direction using this piece of code:

camera.direction = BABYLON.Vector3.Normalize(camera.target.subtract(camera.position));

 

[jerome]

You should consider using a LineSystem (BJS 2.4+) instead of different Lines for a grid

http://doc.babylonjs.com/tutorials/Mesh_CreateXXX_Methods_With_Options_Parameter#linesystem