A vector is a direction and magnitude (length). Vectors are used to represent many different things - for example, object motion or relative locations of objects. In 3D, vectors are used extensively in lighting.
We normally describe a vector as a pair of (X, Y) values (in 2 dimensions), or a triplet of (X, Y, Z) values (in 3 dimensions) - (vx, vy, vz) represents a vector that points vx units in the direction of the X axis, vy units in the direction of the Y axis, and vz units in the direction of the Z axis.
e.g., (2, 0, 0) is a vector pointing in the direction of the X axis, 2 units long. (1, 1, 0) is a vector pointing at a 45 degree angle between the X and Y axes, 1.414 units long.
The magnitude of a vector (x,y,z) is its Euclidean length - the square root of vx2 + vy2 + vz2.
Two vectors can be combined by adding their corresponding components
together.
i.e. (vx, vy, vz) +
(wx, wy, wz) is
(vx+wx, vy+wy, vz+wz
).
Or, written more expansively:
| vx | | wx | | vx + wx | | vy | + | wy | = | vy + wy | | vz | | wz | | vz + wz |
The result is a vector that is equivalent to sticking the vector W onto the end of vector V, and creating a new vector from the beginning of V to the end of W.
A vector can be multiplied by a single number (a "scalar") to change its length without changing its direction.
| vx | | s * vx | s * | vy | = | s * vy | | vz | | s * vz |
The dot product of two vectors is an operation defined as:
| x0 | | x1 | | y0 | * | y1 | = x0*x1 + y0*y1 + z0*z1 | z0 | | z1 |The result is a single number, which is equal to the product of the lengths of the two vectors and the cosine of the angle between them.
It can tell us how much two vectors point in the same direction - it is maximum when they point in exactly the same direction, and it's 0 when they're at right angles.
A vector can be used to represent the motion of an object.
The vector indicates the object's velocity - the direction of the vector is the direction that the object is moving, the magnitude of the vector is the speed.
The vector corresponds to how the object will move in one unit of time.
e.g., a velocity vector of (2, 0, 0) indicates that the object is
moving 2 meters/second along the X axis (assuming our units are meters
and seconds).
If it starts at (3, 1, 0), then after 1 second its position will be
(5, 1, 0). After 2 seconds, its position will be (7, 1, 0).
[Note that the choice of units is arbitrary, and is up to you when writing your programs; all that matters is that you be consistent within a program, and not, for instance, try to combine meters per second with miles per hour.]
In general, if an object starts at position P0, with velocity V, then after t time units, its position P(t) will be:
P(t) = P0 + t * V
Creating a vector class allows one to work with vectors more simply.
Vector operations just require a single statement, rather than a loop or separate statements for X, Y, & Z components.
a = Vector((1, 2, 3)) b = Vector((0, -1, 0)) c = a + 2 * b d = a.dot(b)
Some functions & classes: