HOWTO: Step Away From Storing an Orientation as ‘3 Angles’
Via our local but currently distant MVP Catalin “Please leave a message after the beep” Zima comes the tip to an overview of matrix math for rotations:
As intuitive as the ‘3 angle’ approach is, the Matrix approach might be that daunting to the beginner. But it doesn’t have to be. I believe that after learning the basics of a matrix and how to visualize a matrix in the mind’s eye while manipulating it, it will be very easy for the beginner to pick up. So for the cost of investing a little time to understand the Matrix, your effectiveness in 3d programming will increase dramatically and you can stop the insanity of banging your head again the ‘3 angles’ brick wall.
Get your full fix at Matrix Basics. How to step away from storing an orientation as ‘3 angles’.
April 7th, 2010 - 05:10
Not a bad idea, but how does this work for something like a camera class? I would still think it would come in handy keeping track of the camera and look-at positions for the camera, as well as the yaw/pitch/roll, rather than just modifying the view matrix.
April 8th, 2010 - 00:34
@Joel, it depends on what kind of camera you need. If it’s an FPS camera this might be fine, but if you want to have a camera like the one in descent the matrix approach would be a lot better
April 10th, 2010 - 19:50
If all you need is a rotation, then a Quaternion is the best way to store/manipulate it.
Matrices take up more memory and do not interoplate, but they have the nice property that they can be combined easily.
It really depends on the usage, but I agree that yaw/pitch/roll is never a good way to go.