Vector Meta

Vector utilities expand Garry's Mod's math library.

This document describes additional operations for 3D vectors.

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Overview

Vector meta functions provide calculations such as midpoints, distances and axis rotations to support movement, physics and placement tasks.

Center and RotateAroundAxis return new vectors without changing their inputs. Distance returns a number. Right and Up modify the vector they are called on and also return it.

Example Hook Usage

These helpers may be called from either client or server code.

The following snippet demonstrates rotating a camera offset every frame inside a CalcView hook:

hook.Add("CalcView", "TiltView", function(ply, pos, angles, fov)
    local offset = Vector(30, 0, 10):RotateAroundAxis(vector_up, 45)
    return {origin = pos + offset, angles = angles, fov = fov}
end)

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Center

Purpose

Returns the midpoint between this vector and the supplied vector.

Parameters

• vec2 (Vector): The vector to average with this vector.

Realm

Shared

Returns

• Vector: The center point of the two vectors.

Example Usage

-- Average two vectors to find the midpoint
local a = vector_origin
local b = Vector(10, 10, 10)
local result = a:Center(b)
print(result)

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Distance

Purpose

Calculates the distance between this vector and another vector.

Parameters

• vec2 (Vector): The other vector.

Realm

Shared

Returns

• number: The distance between the two vectors.

Example Usage

-- Measure the distance between two points
local p1 = vector_origin
local p2 = Vector(3, 4, 0)
local result = p1:Distance(p2)
print(result)

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RotateAroundAxis

Purpose

Rotates the vector around an axis by the specified degrees and returns a new vector without modifying the original.

Parameters

• axis (Vector): Axis to rotate around.

• degrees (number): Angle in degrees.

Realm

Shared

Returns

• Vector: The rotated vector.

Example Usage

-- Rotate a vector 90 degrees around the Z axis
local axis = Vector(0, 0, 1)
local result = Vector(1, 0, 0):RotateAroundAxis(axis, 90)
print(result)

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Right

Purpose

Derives a right-direction vector relative to an optional up reference. Internally it performs self:Cross(self, vUp) and normalizes the result, overwriting the vector in the process.

If this vector has no horizontal component it returns Vector(0, -1, 0) and leaves the original vector unchanged.

Parameters

• vUp (Vector, optional): Up direction to compare against. Defaults to vector_up.

Realm

Shared

Returns

• Vector: The calculated right vector.

Example Usage

-- Get the right direction vector
local forward = Vector(1, 0, 0)
local rightVec = forward:Right() -- forward is now the right vector
print(rightVec)

local vertical = Vector(0, 0, 1)
print(vertical:Right()) -- falls back to Vector(0, -1, 0); vertical is unchanged

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Up

Purpose

Generates an up-direction vector perpendicular to this vector and an optional up reference. The function first computes self:Cross(self, vUp) then self:Cross(vRet, self), normalizing the result and overwriting the vector each time.

When this vector lacks a horizontal component the function returns Vector(-self.z, 0, 0) and does not modify the original vector.

Parameters

• vUp (Vector, optional): Up direction to compare against. Defaults to vector_up.

Realm

Shared

Returns

• Vector: The calculated up vector.

Example Usage

-- Get the up direction vector
local forward = Vector(1, 0, 0)
local upVec = forward:Up() -- forward is now the up vector
print(upVec)

local vertical = Vector(0, 0, 1)
print(vertical:Up()) -- returns Vector(-1, 0, 0); vertical is unchanged

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