2d game : fire at a moving target by predicting intersection of projectile and unit

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 bVeloci

Answer 1

+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 2

I wrote an aiming subroutine for xtank a while back. I'll try to lay out how I did it.

Disclaimer: I may have made one or more silly mistakes anywhere in here; I'm just trying to reconstruct the reasoning with my rusty math skills. However, I'll cut to the chase first, since this is a programming Q&A instead of a math class :-)

How to do it

It boils down to solving a quadratic equation of the form:

a * sqr(x) + b * x + c == 0

Note that by sqr I mean square, as opposed to square root. Use the following values:

a := sqr(target.velocityX) + sqr(target.velocityY) - sqr(projectile_speed)
b := 2 * (target.velocityX * (target.startX - cannon.X)
          + target.velocityY * (target.startY - cannon.Y))
c := sqr(target.startX - cannon.X) + sqr(target.startY - cannon.Y)

Now we can look at the discriminant to determine if we have a possible solution.

disc := sqr(b) - 4 * a * c

If the discriminant is less than 0, forget about hitting your target -- your projectile can never get there in time. Otherwise, look at two candidate solutions:

t1 := (-b + sqrt(disc)) / (2 * a)
t2 := (-b - sqrt(disc)) / (2 * a)

Note that if disc == 0 then t1 and t2 are equal.

If there are no other considerations such as intervening obstacles, simply choose the smaller positive value. (Negative t values would require firing backward in time to use!)

Substitute the chosen t value back into the target's position equations to get the coordinates of the leading point you should be aiming at:

aim.X := t * target.velocityX + target.startX
aim.Y := t * target.velocityY + target.startY

Derivation

At time T, the projectile must be a (Euclidean) distance from the cannon equal to the elapsed time multiplied by the projectile speed. This gives an equation for a circle, parametric in elapsed time.

sqr(projectile.X - cannon.X) + sqr(projectile.Y - cannon.Y)
  == sqr(t * projectile_speed)

Similarly, at time T, the target has moved along its vector by time multiplied by its velocity:

target.X == t * target.velocityX + target.startX
target.Y == t * target.velocityY + target.startY

The projectile can hit the target when its distance from the cannon matches the projectile's distance.

sqr(projectile.X - cannon.X) + sqr(projectile.Y - cannon.Y)
  == sqr(target.X - cannon.X) + sqr(target.Y - cannon.Y)

Wonderful! Substituting the expressions for target.X and target.Y gives

sqr(projectile.X - cannon.X) + sqr(projectile.Y - cannon.Y)
  == sqr((t * target.velocityX + target.startX) - cannon.X)
   + sqr((t * target.velocityY + target.startY) - cannon.Y)

Substituting the other side of the equation gives this:

sqr(t * projectile_speed)
  == sqr((t * target.velocityX + target.startX) - cannon.X)
   + sqr((t * target.velocityY + target.startY) - cannon.Y)

... subtracting sqr(t * projectile_speed) from both sides and flipping it around:

sqr((t * target.velocityX) + (target.startX - cannon.X))
  + sqr((t * target.velocityY) + (target.startY - cannon.Y))
  - sqr(t * projectile_speed)
  == 0

... now resolve the results of squaring the subexpressions ...

sqr(target.velocityX) * sqr(t)
    + 2 * t * target.velocityX * (target.startX - cannon.X)
    + sqr(target.startX - cannon.X)
+ sqr(target.velocityY) * sqr(t)
    + 2 * t * target.velocityY * (target.startY - cannon.Y)
    + sqr(target.startY - cannon.Y)
- sqr(projectile_speed) * sqr(t)
  == 0

... and group similar terms ...

sqr(target.velocityX) * sqr(t)
    + sqr(target.velocityY) * sqr(t)
    - sqr(projectile_speed) * sqr(t)
+ 2 * t * target.velocityX * (target.startX - cannon.X)
    + 2 * t * target.velocityY * (target.startY - cannon.Y)
+ sqr(target.startX - cannon.X)
    + sqr(target.startY - cannon.Y)
  == 0

... then combine them ...

(sqr(target.velocityX) + sqr(target.velocityY) - sqr(projectile_speed)) * sqr(t)
  + 2 * (target.velocityX * (target.startX - cannon.X)
       + target.velocityY * (target.startY - cannon.Y)) * t
  + sqr(target.startX - cannon.X) + sqr(target.startY - cannon.Y)
  == 0

... giving a standard quadratic equation in t. Finding the positive real zeros of this equation gives the (zero, one, or two) possible hit locations, which can be done with the quadratic formula:

a * sqr(x) + b * x + c == 0
x == (-b ± sqrt(sqr(b) - 4 * a * c)) / (2 * a)

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

Here's an example where I devised and implemented a solution to the problem of predictive targeting using a recursive algorithm: http://www.newarteest.com/flash/targeting.html

I'll have to try out some of the other solutions presented because it seems more efficient to calculate it in one step, but the solution I came up with was to estimate the target position and feed that result back into the algorithm to make a new more accurate estimate, repeating several times.

For the first estimate I "fire" at the target's current position and then use trigonometry to determine where the target will be when the shot reaches the position fired at. Then in the next iteration I "fire" at that new position and determine where the target will be this time. After about 4 repeats I get within a pixel of accuracy.

Answer 5

First rotate the axes so that AB is vertical (by doing a rotation)

Now, split the velocity vector of B into the x and y components (say Bx and By). You can use this to calculate the x and y components of the vector you need to shoot at.

B --> Bx
|
|
V

By


Vy
^
|
|
A ---> Vx

You need Vx = Bx and Sqrt(Vx*Vx + Vy*Vy) = Velocity of Ammo.

This should give you the vector you need in the new system. Transform back to old system and you are done (by doing a rotation in the other direction).

Answer 6

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;
}