Question

I am trying to rotate vectors using matrices, but got confused.

I thought all I needed to do is create a rotation matrix and multiply it to a vector to get the rotated vector.

Here you can see a simple test I’ve done using Processing:

Use a to increment rotation, and x/y/z to changes the axis.

And here is source:

PVector[] clone,face = {new PVector(50,0,50),new PVector(-50,0,50),new PVector(-50, 0, -50),new PVector(50, 0, -50)};
color faceC = color(255,0,0),cloneC = color(0,255,0);
float angle = 90;
PVector x = new PVector(1,0,0),y = new PVector(0,1,0),z = new PVector(0,0,1), axis = x;
PFont ocr;

void setup(){
  size(400,400,P3D);
  strokeWeight(1.1610855);smooth();
  clone = rotateVerts(face,angle,axis);
  ocr = loadFont("ocr.vlw");
}
void draw(){
  background(255);
  fill(0);textFont(ocr,10);text("a = increment rotation\nx/y/z = change axis\nrotation: " + angle + "\naxis: " + axis,10,10,200,200);fill(255);
  translate(width*.5,height*.5);
  rotateX(map(mouseY,height*.5,-height*.5,0,TWO_PI));
  rotateY(map(mouseX,0,width,0,TWO_PI));
    drawQuad(face,faceC);
    drawQuad(clone,cloneC);
  stroke(128,0,0);line(0,0,0,100,0,0);stroke(0,128,0);line(0,0,0,0,-100,0);stroke(0,0,128);line(0,0,0,0,0,100);
}
void keyPressed(){
  if(key == 'a') angle += 15;
  if(angle > 360) angle -= 360;
  if(key == 'x') axis = x;
  if(key == 'y') axis = y;
  if(key == 'z') axis = z;
  clone = rotateVerts(face,angle,axis);
}
PVector[] rotateVerts(PVector[] verts,float angle,PVector axis){
  int vl = verts.length;
  PVector[] clone = new PVector[vl];
  for(int i = 0; i<vl;i++) clone[i] = PVector.add(verts[i],new PVector());
  //rotate using a matrix
  PMatrix3D rMat = new PMatrix3D();
  rMat.rotate(radians(angle),axis.x,axis.y,axis.z);
  for(int i = 0; i<vl;i++) rMat.mult(clone[i],clone[i]);
  return clone;
}
void drawQuad(PVector[] verts,color c){
  stroke(c);
  beginShape(QUADS);
    for(int i = 0 ; i < 4; i++) vertex(verts[i].x,verts[i].y,verts[i].z);
  endShape();
}

Processing comes with a PVector and PMatrix3D which I’ve used.

Am I not using PMatrix they it should be used or is this a bug ?
Any hints ?

Answer 1

This is the culprit:

rMat.mult(clone[i],clone[i]);

this is not safe to do, because unlike in C or JAVA, the source is changing as the operation proceeds.

changing the end of the function to:

PVector[] dst = new PVector[vl];
for(int i = 0; i<vl;i++) dst[i] = new PVector();
for(int i = 0; i<vl;i++) rMat.mult(clone[i],dst[i]);
return dst;

will resolve the issue.