Vector API in Core

Core has special types of data structures for vectors. The types have useful constructors, properties, and functions that can be found using the Core API page.

Vector Dimensions

In Core, there are three different vector types: Vector2, Vector3, and Vector4. The numbers correspond to the amount of components each vector holds.

Constructors

A vector can be created using a special function named constructor. There are many different options for the parameter values that can be passed into a constructor function to assign the components a starting value.

Here are examples to create each type of vector:

--Create a Vector2 with the values (0, 0)
local v2 = Vector2.New()

--Create a Vector3 with the values (40, 0, 100)
local v3 = Vector3.New(40, 0, 100)

--Create a Vector4 with the values (40, 0, 100, 85)
local v4 = Vector4.New(v3, 85)Code language: Lua (lua)

Constants

The vectors also have useful presets for quickly creating vectors with common component values. These are known as constants.

Here are some examples using constants to create vectors:

--Create a Vector 2 with the values (0, 0)
local v2 = Vector2.ZERO

--Create a Vector3 with the values (1, 0, 0)
local v3 = Vector3.FORWARD

--Create a Vector 4 with the values (1, 1, 1, 1)
local v4 = Vector4.ONECode language: JavaScript (javascript)

Properties

Once a vector is created then it will have property values available to be accessed. These include the components of the vector and the size of the vector.

Here are a couple of examples of accessing the properties of a Vector3:

--Create a Vector3 with the values (30, 500, -1)
local v3 = Vector3.New(30, 500, -1)

--print the y component
print(v3.y)

--print the size of the vector
print(v3.size)Code language: PHP (php)

Functions

A vector has functions that can perform actions on the vector.

A common example is to normalize a vector, like so:

----Create a Vector3 with the values (30, 500, -1)
local v3 = Vector3.New(30, 500, -1)

--Create the normalized vector of v3
local normalizedV3 = v3:GetNormalized()Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Operators

Math can be done on vectors, similar to numbers. The API will show the correct syntax to perform a certain operation. It’s important to keep the order of operands in mind for some operations.

Here are some common examples:

--Add two vectors to make a sum vector
local sum = Vector3.UP + Vector3.RIGHT

print(sum)
 --(0, 1, 1)

--Subtract two vector to make an offset vector
local offset = Vector2.New(20, 10) - Vector2.New(1, 5)

print(offset) --(19, 5)

--Multiply a vector by a number
local scaledVector = Vector3.New(0, 1, 2) * 100

print(scaledVector) --(0, 100, 200)

--Get the dot product of two vectors
local dotProduct = Vector3.UP .. Vector3.RIGHT

print(dotProduct) --0Code language: PHP (php)

Lerp

Lerp is short for linear interpolation. For Core vectors, it’s a class function that can transition from one vector to another.

This can be useful to move an object between two position vectors, such as in the video below: