Question Apply direction between mouse pointer and screen center to player transform

I want to rotate my player around the Y-axis, normally I would just get the world position of the pointer and look at it, but I am overlaying my entire screen with a render texture to get a pixel effect, so I need to use screen space.

I can get the direction between my pointer and screen center, but I am struggling how to apply that direction to the player. i.e if pointer is at the north of the screen, the player should look north.

What I have so far, which does rotate the player but not in the right direction:

Code (CSharp):

1. public Vector3 GetDirectionBetweenCenterAndMouse()
2.         {
3.             // Get the mouse position in screen coordinates
4.             Vector3 mousePosition = Input.mousePosition;
5.  
6.             // Calculate the center of the screen
7.             Vector3 screenCenter = new Vector3(Screen.width / 2f, Screen.height / 2f, 0f);
8.  
9.             // Calculate the direction vector from the center to the mouse
10.             Vector3 direction = mousePosition - screenCenter;
11.  
12.             // Normalize the direction vector if needed
13.             direction.Normalize();
14.  
15.             // Now 'direction' contains the direction from the center of the screen to the mouse
16.             Debug.Log("Direction: " + direction);
17.  
18.             // Calculate the angle in radians
19.             float angleRadians = Mathf.Atan2(direction.y, direction.x);
20.  
21.             // Convert the angle to degrees
22.             float angleDegrees = angleRadians * Mathf.Rad2Deg;
23.  
24.             // Ensure the angle is between 0 and 360 degrees
25.             if (angleDegrees < 0)
26.             {
27.                 angleDegrees += 360f;
28.             }
29.  
30.             Debug.Log("Angle in degrees: " + angleDegrees);
31.  
32.             cube.transform.eulerAngles = new Vector3(0, angleDegrees, 0);
33.  
34.             return direction;
35.         }

 

If something is rotating in the wrong direction then you can negate the rotation value like so:

Code (CSharp):

1. cube.transform.eulerAngles = new Vector3(0, -angleDegrees, 0);

 

Or try this:

Code (CSharp):

1.     void CursorLook()
2.     {
3.         Vector3 direction=Input.mousePosition-new Vector3(Screen.width/2,Screen.height/2,0);
4.         cube.transform.LookAt(cube.transform.position+new Vector3(direction.x,0,direction.y));
5.     }

 

It’s more than just the opposite direction, the math is off somewhere

 

Okay instead of negating the rotation, try flipping the x direction on line 19.

Like so:

19. float angleRadians = Mathf.Atan2(direction.y, -direction.x);

 

And change line 22 to:

22. float angleDegrees = (angleRadians * Mathf.Rad2Deg)-90;

 

Thanks I’ll give all of this a try once I get on the comp!

 

This "Almost" works, but for some reason I get this weird offset, not sure what is causing it.



EDIT: Weirdly I get the exact same offset issue with the other solution.

 

Solved! I had to account for my isometric angle

Thank you!

Although for some reason when I replace screen center with an object being rendered at the center of the camera, it stops working. But Ill dig into that tonight!

Vector3 direction = Input.mousePosition - Camera.main.WorldToScreenPoint(GameobjectInCenterOfView);