Finding the shorter turning direction towards a target
- by A.B.
I'm trying to implement a type of movement where the object gradually faces the target. The problem I've run into is figuring out which turning direction is faster. The following code works until the object's orientation crosses the -PI or PI threshold, at which point it will start turning into the opposite direction
void moveToPoint(sf::Vector2f destination) {
if (destination == position) return;
auto distance = distanceBetweenPoints(position, destination);
auto direction = angleBetweenPoints(position, destination);
/// Decides whether incrementing or decrementing orientation is faster
/// the next line is the problem
if (atan2(sin(direction - rotation), cos(direction - rotation)) > 0 ) {
/// Increment rotation
rotation += rotation_speed;
} else {
/// Decrement rotation
rotation -= rotation_speed;
}
if (distance < movement_speed) {
position = destination;
} else {
position.x = position.x + movement_speed*cos(rotation);
position.y = position.y + movement_speed*sin(rotation);
}
updateGraphics();
}
'rotation' and 'rotation_speed' are implemented as custom data type for radians which cannot have values lower than -PI and greater than PI. Any excess or deficit "wraps around". For example, -3.2 becomes ~3.08.
