swift: orient y-axis toward another point in 3-d space

Question

Suppose you have two points in 3-D space. Call the first o for origin and the other t for target. The rotation axes of each are alligned with the w

Answer 1

Got it! Incredibly simple when you add a container node. The following seems to work for any positions in any quadrants.

// pointAt_c is a container node located at, and child of, the originNode
// pointAtNode is its child, position coincident with pointAt_c (and originNode)

// get deltas (positions of target relative to origin)
let dx = targetNode.position.x - originNode.position.x
let dy = targetNode.position.y - originNode.position.y
let dz = targetNode.position.z - originNode.position.z

// rotate container node about y-axis (pointAtNode rotated with it)
let y_angle = atan2(dx, dz)
pointAt_c.rotation = SCNVector4(0.0, 1.0, 0.0, y_angle)

// now rotate the pointAtNode about its z-axis
let dz_dx = sqrt((dz * dz) + (dx * dx))

// (due to rotation the adjacent side of this angle is now a hypotenuse)
let x_angle = atan2(dz_dx, dy)
pointAtNode.rotation =  SCNVector4(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, x_angle)

I needed this to replace lookAt constraints which cannot, easily anyway, be archived with a node tree. I'm pointing the y-axis because that's how SCN cylinders and capsules are directed.

If anyone knows how to obviate the container node please do tell. Everytime I try to apply sequential rotations to a single node, the last overwrites the previous one. I haven't the knowledge to formulate a rotation expression to do it in one shot.