How do i orient my bullets in the right direction?

Question

I'm really stuck on this. The trajectory of the bullets are perfect but the triangle should point in the same direction as the player. Is there any way i can make this possible. Here is my program so far:

boolean up, right, down, left;
int x =-500;
int y =-500;
ArrayList<Bullet> bullets =  new ArrayList<Bullet>();
float a;

void setup()
{
  size(600, 600);
  smooth();
}

void draw()
{
  background(0);
  pushMatrix();
  translate(300, 300);
  a = atan2(mouseY-300, mouseX-300);
  rotate(a);
  fill(255);
  for (int i = x; i < x+800; i+=40)
    for (int j = y; j < y+800; j+=40)
      rect(i, j, 40, 40);
  for (Bullet b : bullets) b.update();
  popMatrix();
  fill(0, 0, 0);
  triangle(285, 300, 300, 250, 315, 300);
  if (up) 
  {
    x += sin(a)*5; 
    y += cos(a)*5;
  }
  if (left) 
  {
    y -= sin(a)*5; 
    x += cos(a)*5;
  }
  if (down) 
  {
    x -= sin(a)*5; 
    y -= cos(a)*5;
  }
  if (right) 
  {
    y += sin(a)*5; 
    x -= cos(a)*5;
  }
  if (mousePressed && frameCount % 8 == 0) bullets.add(new Bullet(a));
}

void keyPressed()
{
  if (key=='w')up=true;
  if (key=='a')left=true;
  if (key=='s')down=true;
  if (key=='d')right=true;
}

void keyReleased()
{
  if (key=='w')up=false;
  if (key=='a')left=false;
  if (key=='s')down=false;
  if (key=='d')right=false;
}

class Bullet
{
  float a;
  int y = 0;
  int x = 0;
  Bullet(float a)
  {
    this.a=a;
  }
  void update()
  {
    y-=cos(a)*6;
    x-=sin(a)*6;
    fill(255, 0, 0);
    triangle(x-3, y, x, y-10, x+3, y);
  }
}

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

If you want to get an angle between 2 points you can use atan2 the following way:

angle = atan2(playerY - bulletY, playerX - bulletX); //This angle is not returned in radians, to convert it simply use the function:
angle = degrees(angle);

Of course afterwards you have to draw the triangle like this:

pushMatrix();
translate(centerOfTriangleX, centerOfTriangleY);
rotate(angle); //in radians, not in degrees
triangle(trX1 - centerOfTriangleX, trY1 - centerOfTriangleY...);
popMatrix();

To calculate the centre of the triangle, there is a post on stack overflow already for polygons: Finding the centroid of a polygon? Wikipedia for Triangle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centroid#Of_triangle_and_tetrahedron

How do i orient my bullets in the right direction?

1 Answers1