How to clamp head when looking at object in Unity

Question

I have a Unity NavMeshAgent that walks around the player. The agent has a "head" that looks at the player independent of the body. This works except when it walks past the player the head rotates way too much - it isn't clamped. I need to clamp the rotation so that it only turns as much as a human neck.

I tried clamping it myself which works fine when the agent is looking straight ahead but when the agent rotates, my clamping is off:

    void LateUpdate()
    {
            Vector3 playerHead = GetPlayerHead();

            head.LookAt(playerHead);

            float clampedAngleY = head.eulerAngles.y;

            if (clampedAngleY >= 180 && clampedAngleY <= 315)
            {
                clampedAngleY = 315;
            }
            else if (clampedAngleY >= 45 && clampedAngleY <= 315)
            {
                clampedAngleY = 45;
            }

            head.eulerAngles = new Vector3(head.eulerAngles.x, clampedAngleY, head.eulerAngles.z);
    }

How do I factor in the agent's rotation?

I've tried subtracting the agent's rotation, performing my clamping then re-applying the rotation but that just behaves odd:

    void LateUpdate()
    {
            Vector3 playerHead = GetPlayerHead();

            head.LookAt(playerHead);

            float clampedAngleY = head.eulerAngles.y - transform.eulerAngles.y;

            if (clampedAngleY >= 180 && clampedAngleY <= 315)
            {
                clampedAngleY = 315;
            }
            else if (clampedAngleY >= 45 && clampedAngleY <= 315)
            {
                clampedAngleY = 45;
            }

            clampedAngleY = transform.eulerAngles.y + clampedAngleY;

            head.eulerAngles = new Vector3(head.eulerAngles.x, clampedAngleY, head.eulerAngles.z);
    }

Pretzel Pretzel · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-20T22:47:52

Did you try to use „Mathf.clamp” method? It seems like something that you are looking to. [Docs]

Example usage:

SomeValue = Mathf.Clamp(value, min, max);

How to clamp head when looking at object in Unity

1 Answers