EntityDistance and Scale

[Rick]

Is there a way to convert the value returned from EntityDistance() to a value to pass as a scale to ScaleEntity()?

[Josh]

I am not sure what you are trying to do, but the math will be easiest if you give the mesh dimensions of 1.0 when it is scaled 1,1,1. I assume you are trying to make a mesh span from one point to another.

[Rick]

Yeah, I'm trying to scale a mesh from 1 point to another. I kind of have it working although I don't know 100% why it works.

 

I put a pivot at the point of a character and another at the point of where the mouse is clicked on the terrain. Between these 2 points I get the distance between the x & z only. I then use that distance / 10 in the z value of ScaleEntity() and it seems to scale the plane correctly. I also point the character pivot to the mouse clicked pivot and then rotate the plane along the y.

 

 

This all works, although I don't know why 10 is the magic number to divide by the distance. I also need to increase the segments of the plane a lot since the scale distance can be pretty far it needs a ton of segments in order to hug the terrain.

TPick p;
CameraPick(&p, GetLayerCamera(GetFrameworkLayer(0)), Vec3(MouseX(), MouseY(), 5000));
TPivot mousePivot = CreatePivot();
TPivot ownerPivot = CreatePivot();

// TODO: This doesn't work, but we only want to set things if it's on the terrain only
if(p.surface != 0)
{
	PositionEntity(mousePivot, Vec3(p.X, p.Y, p.Z));
	PositionEntity(ownerPivot, GetOwner()->GetPosition());

	TVec3 p1 = EntityPosition(mousePivot);
	TVec3 p2 = EntityPosition(ownerPivot);

	// Get 2D distance
	float x = p2.X - p1.X;
	float y = p2.Z - p1.Z;
	x = x * x;
	y = y * y;
	float distance = sqrt(x + y);

	PointEntity(ownerPivot, mousePivot);
	RotateEntity(_plane->GetPlane(), Vec3(0, EntityRotation(ownerPivot).Y, 0));

	//float distance = EntityDistance(ownerPivot, mousePivot);
	ScaleEntity(_plane->GetPlane(), Vec3(1.0, 1.0, distance/10));

	ShowEntity(_plane->GetPlane());
}