Matrix4f getRotation Vector3f

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

Simple question:

Is there an easy way (or what is the best way) to convert a lwjgl Matrix4f to a Vector3f that represents the rotations

cheers and thanks!
j.

#2

I don’t think you understand what the two are, excuse me if you do though I mean no offence.
A Vector is used to store a direction. From what I understand, you have a point (0, 0, 0) (the origin) and then the Vector, say (5, 5, 5). The direction that the vector represents is (0, 0, 0) to (5, 5, 5).
A (Rotation) Matrix on the other hand is almost a Vector, but with rotation in the fourth argument, generally named w, eg (x, y, z, w).

Therefore you couldn’t have a Vector that represents rotation because vectors only contain direction. I suppose if you want you could make a variable named w or rotation in your vector class but that really makes no sense…

Maybe I misunderstood you, would you mind elaborating on what you are trying to do?

#3

I’ve standardized my game using matrixes for storing the rotation / position of my models.
but sometimes i need to do math based on the pitch, yaw, ect.

so i need to be able to convert from the matrix to 3 single angular values.

j.

#4

may have found my answer

public Vector3f getRotation(){
float yaw = 0.0f;
float pitch = 0.0f;
float roll = 0.0f;
if(matrix.m10 == 1.0f || matrix.m10 == -1.0f){
yaw = (float)Math.atan2(matrix.m12, matrix.m33);
//pitch and roll remain = 0;
}else{
yaw = (float) Math.atan2(-matrix.m30, matrix.m10);
pitch = (float) Math.asin(matrix.m20);
roll = (float) Math.atan2(-matrix.m22, matrix.m21);
}
return new Vector3f(yaw, pitch, roll);
}

#5

correction to the code i posted
cause i hate posting code that has errors and thus miss leads other who may follow my examples


public Vector3f getRotation(){
		float yaw = 0.0f;
		float pitch = 0.0f;
		float roll = 0.0f;
		if(matrix.m00 == 1.0f || matrix.m00 == -1.0f){
			yaw = (float)Math.atan2(matrix.m02, matrix.m23);
			//pitch and roll remain = 0;
		}else{
			yaw = (float) Math.atan2(-matrix.m20, matrix.m00);
			pitch = (float) Math.asin(matrix.m10);
			roll = (float) Math.atan2(-matrix.m12, matrix.m11);
		}
		return new Vector3f(yaw, pitch, roll);
	}
#6

I’m no maths expert, but I’m pretty sure you’re mistaking Quaternions with Matrices.
A quaternion has 4 elements, x, y, z and w.
A matrix (in the case of the OP’s mentioned matrix, a Matrix4f, which is a class in LWJGL used for representing 4x4 matrices) has 4x4 elements in the OP’s case. The identity matrix of a 4x4 matrix for example looks like this:

#7

I don’t know where you picked this up from, but how would you store 3d rotation in one variable? What you describe wouldn’t be a Quaternion either.

#8

Quoting the english Wikipedia here:[quote]
In practical applications, they are frequently represented as a vector paired with a scalar, which encode an un-normalized direction and an orientation around that direction, respectively.
[/quote]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion)

Sounds like about what he said…

#9

Sorry if I was giving false information, I’m no math expert either. And I suppose I was mixing the two up.