2d game : fire at a moving target by predicting in

Question

Okay, this all takes place in a nice and simple 2D world... :)

Suppose I have a static object A at position Apos, and a linearly moving object B at Bpos with bVelocity, and an ammo round with velocity Avelocity...

How would I find out the angle that A has to shoot, to hit B, taking into account B's linear velocity and the speed of A's ammo ?

Right now the aim's at the current position of the object, which means that by the time my projectile gets there the unit has moved on to safer positions :)

Answer 1

I made a public domain Unity C# function here:
http://ringofblades.com/Blades/Code/PredictiveAim.cs

It is for 3D, but you can easily modify this for 2D by replacing the Vector3s with Vector2s and using your down axis of choice for gravity if there is gravity.

In case the theory interests you, I walk through the derivation of the math here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KainShin/20090515/83954/Predictive_Aim_Mathematics_for_AI_Targeting.php

Answer 2

+1 on Jeffrey Hantin's excellent answer here. I googled around and found solutions that were either too complex or not specifically about the case I was interested in (simple constant velocity projectile in 2D space.) His was exactly what I needed to produce the self-contained JavaScript solution below.

The one point I would add is that there are a couple special cases you have to watch for in addition to the discriminant being negative:

• "a == 0": occurs if target and projectile are traveling the same speed. (solution is linear, not quadratic)
• "a == 0 and b == 0": if both target and projectile are stationary. (no solution unless c == 0, i.e. src & dst are same point.)

Code:

/**
 * Return the firing solution for a projectile starting at 'src' with
 * velocity 'v', to hit a target, 'dst'.
 *
 * @param Object src position of shooter
 * @param Object dst position & velocity of target
 * @param Number v   speed of projectile
 * @return Object Coordinate at which to fire (and where intercept occurs)
 *
 * E.g.
 * >>> intercept({x:2, y:4}, {x:5, y:7, vx: 2, vy:1}, 5)
 * = {x: 8, y: 8.5}
 */
function intercept(src, dst, v) {
  var tx = dst.x - src.x,
      ty = dst.y - src.y,
      tvx = dst.vx,
      tvy = dst.vy;

  // Get quadratic equation components
  var a = tvx*tvx + tvy*tvy - v*v;
  var b = 2 * (tvx * tx + tvy * ty);
  var c = tx*tx + ty*ty;    

  // Solve quadratic
  var ts = quad(a, b, c); // See quad(), below

  // Find smallest positive solution
  var sol = null;
  if (ts) {
    var t0 = ts[0], t1 = ts[1];
    var t = Math.min(t0, t1);
    if (t < 0) t = Math.max(t0, t1);    
    if (t > 0) {
      sol = {
        x: dst.x + dst.vx*t,
        y: dst.y + dst.vy*t
      };
    }
  }

  return sol;
}


/**
 * Return solutions for quadratic
 */
function quad(a,b,c) {
  var sol = null;
  if (Math.abs(a) < 1e-6) {
    if (Math.abs(b) < 1e-6) {
      sol = Math.abs(c) < 1e-6 ? [0,0] : null;
    } else {
      sol = [-c/b, -c/b];
    }
  } else {
    var disc = b*b - 4*a*c;
    if (disc >= 0) {
      disc = Math.sqrt(disc);
      a = 2*a;
      sol = [(-b-disc)/a, (-b+disc)/a];
    }
  }
  return sol;
}

Answer 3

Basically , intersection concept is not really needed here, As far as you are using projectile motion, you just need to hit at a particular angle and instantiate at the time of shooting so that you get the exact distance of your target from the Source and then once you have the distance, you can calculate the appropriate velocity with which it should shot in order to hit the Target.

The following link makes teh concept clear and is considered helpful, might help: Projectile motion to always hit a moving target

Answer 4

I just hacked this version for aiming in 2d space, I didn't test it very thoroughly yet but it seems to work. The idea behind it is this:

Create a vector perpendicular to the vector pointing from the muzzle to the target. For a collision to occur, the velocities of the target and the projectile along this vector (axis) should be the same! Using fairly simple cosine stuff I arrived at this code:

private Vector3 CalculateProjectileDirection(Vector3 a_MuzzlePosition, float a_ProjectileSpeed, Vector3 a_TargetPosition, Vector3 a_TargetVelocity)
{
    // make sure it's all in the horizontal plane:
    a_TargetPosition.y = 0.0f;
    a_MuzzlePosition.y = 0.0f;
    a_TargetVelocity.y = 0.0f;

    // create a normalized vector that is perpendicular to the vector pointing from the muzzle to the target's current position (a localized x-axis):
    Vector3 perpendicularVector = Vector3.Cross(a_TargetPosition - a_MuzzlePosition, -Vector3.up).normalized;

    // project the target's velocity vector onto that localized x-axis:
    Vector3 projectedTargetVelocity = Vector3.Project(a_TargetVelocity, perpendicularVector);

    // calculate the angle that the projectile velocity should make with the localized x-axis using the consine:
    float angle = Mathf.Acos(projectedTargetVelocity.magnitude / a_ProjectileSpeed) / Mathf.PI * 180;

    if (Vector3.Angle(perpendicularVector, a_TargetVelocity) > 90.0f)
    {
        angle = 180.0f - angle;
    }

    // rotate the x-axis so that is points in the desired velocity direction of the projectile:
    Vector3 returnValue = Quaternion.AngleAxis(angle, -Vector3.up) * perpendicularVector;

    // give the projectile the correct speed:
    returnValue *= a_ProjectileSpeed;

    return returnValue;
}

Answer 5

I've seen many ways to solve this problem mathematically, but this was a component relevant to a project my class was required to do in high school, and not everyone in this programming class had a background with calculus, or even vectors for that matter, so I created a way to solve this problem with more of a programming approach. The point of intersection will be accurate, although it may hit 1 frame later than in the mathematical computations.

Consider:

S = shooterPos, E = enemyPos, T = targetPos, Sr = shooter range, D = enemyDir
V = distance from E to T, P = projectile speed, Es = enemy speed

In the standard implementation of this problem [S,E,P,Es,D] are all givens and you are solving either to find T or the angle at which to shoot so that you hit T at the proper timing.

The main aspect of this method of solving the problem is to consider the range of the shooter as a circle encompassing all possible points that can be shot at any given time. The radius of this circle is equal to:

Sr = P*time

Where time is calculated as an iteration of a loop.

Thus to find the distance an enemy travels given the time iteration we create the vector:

V = D*Es*time

Now, to actually solve the problem we want to find a point at which the distance from the target (T) to our shooter (S) is less than the range of our shooter (Sr). Here is somewhat of a pseudocode implementation of this equation.

iteration = 0;
while(TargetPoint.hasNotPassedShooter)
{
    TargetPoint = EnemyPos + (EnemyMovementVector)
    if(distanceFrom(TargetPoint,ShooterPos) < (ShooterRange))
        return TargetPoint;
    iteration++
}

Answer 6

I grabbed one of the solutions from here, but none of them take into account movement of the shooter. If your shooter is moving, you might want to take that into account (as the shooter's velocity should be added to your bullet's velocity when you fire). Really all you need to do is subtract your shooter's velocity from the target's velocity. So if you're using broofa's code above (which I would recommend), change the lines

  tvx = dst.vx;
  tvy = dst.vy;

to

  tvx = dst.vx - shooter.vx;
  tvy = dst.vy - shooter.vy;

and you should be all set.