Getting player horizontal velocity

[honytawk]

How would I get the horizontal speed of a player?

I am using getvelocity
%PSpeed = mAbs(getWord(%player.getvelocity(), 0)) + mAbs(getWord(%player.getvelocity(), 1));
This works correctly if the player is moving on the x or y axis, but going diagonal gives a higher number.

Going at a speed of 20 on the x axis gives: 19.9... and 0.1... combined gives 20
Going at a speed of 20 diagonally gives: 13.5... and 12.5... combined gives 25 for some reason

Is there a better way or what am I doing wrong?

[Ad Bot]

[Ipquarx]

Well the reason it's giving incorrect results is because you're using simple addition.

What you need to do is use the pythagorean formula for finding the hypotenuse of a triangle. That would be the sqrt(A²+B²)

[otto-san]

or, do VectorLen(getWords(%velocity, 0, 1) SPC 0), which is essentially the same thing that Ipquarx said in one shorter statement

p sure appending 0 isn't necessary but

[honytawk]

Of course, why didn't I think of that!
Thanks Ip and otto

So my final code is:
    %Vec1 = mAbs(getWord(%player.getvelocity(), 0));
    %Vec2 = mAbs(getWord(%player.getvelocity(), 1));

    %PSpeed = msqrt((%Vec1*%Vec1) + (%Vec2*%Vec2));

[boodals 2]

Its worth noting that vectorLen(getWords(%player.getVelocity(), 0, 1)) is more efficient not only in physical space, but also to be executed, as vectorLen is an engine level function, which lets it run a lot faster than doing the math yourself in torquescript. While there's no noticable difference normally, if you start running this script thousands of times a second, then it will start to add up.

[Zeblote]

Also worth nothing that there's no reason to use mAbs if you're going to square the result, as the sign will drop away anyways.