GPP Dev Diary 5

Curves and splines

After looking at available options I decided to use Bézier curves. Bézier curves are relatively simple and widely used in computer graphic. I started by implementing necessary math formulas for linear, quadratic and cubic curves. This is all we need because I'll be combining those lower order curves to create more complex splines. We use this approach because higher order curves are very computationally expensive. With the math formulas added I worked on adding the functions that would handle combining multiple sections into one large curve.

Next I started working on providing an easy way to crate and modify the curves. I ended up crating a custom inspector that will create the controls points for you so all you have to do is simply drag them to the desired position.

The last thing to do was to add a follower script so that object can actually fallow the spline. I create an example follower that continuously follows the curve with a uniform speed across the whole cure and rotates to follow the curvature. This follower can be directly used for some simple use cases or extended to create more advanced behaviors