0. Helpful Math functions

The Mathf class

• Important classes: Mathf class
• Script reference: Mathf class
• Unity has a built-in Mathf class that includes important methods and constants
• Before diving deeper, let’s introduce just a few of them

Abs

• Mathf.Abs(number)
• gives the absolute value of a number
• negative numbers become positive, positive numbers stay positive

    Mathf.Abs(-3.0f) 	// returns 3.0f
    Mathf.Abs(2.5f) 	// returns 2.5f
  

• good for magnitude comparisons where your value can be negative or positive
  • e.g., if you want to do stuff only when velocity is under a maximum value:

    if (Mathf.Abs(rb.velocity) < maxVelocity)
    {
        // do stuff
    }
    

  • how would this behave without Abs?

Min and Max

• Mathf.Min(value1, value2)
  • returns the smaller of the two given values
  • use if you want that some value shouldn’t be greater than an upper limit

    HP = Mathf.Min(HP, maxHP) // makes sure HP is never greater than maxHP
    

• Mathf.Max(value1, value2)
  • returns the greater of the two given values
  • use if you want that some value shouldn’t be smaller than a lower limit

    HP = Mathf.Max(HP, 0.0f) // makes sure HP is never smaller than zero
    

Clamp

• Mathf.Clamp(value, min, max)
  • a combination of Min and Max
  • if you want a value to always be between a lower and an upper limit, use this!
  • we can combine the previous HP examples into one:

    HP = Mathf.Clamp(HP, 0.0f, maxHP) // HP is never smaller than zero or greater than maxHP