Direction (Flowgraph Node)

Overview

• Node Name: Direction
• Category: simple
• File: extensions/flowgraph/nodes/math/quaternion/direction.lua

Converts an angle in degrees into a quaternion representing rotation around the Z axis (clockwise).

Pin Schema

Input Pins

Output Pins

Internals

How It Works

1. The node takes a degree value and converts it to radians: (deg / 180) * π.
2. A quaternion is set from Euler angles (0, 0, radians) - rotation around Z only.
3. The result is cached: the quaternion is only recalculated when the input changes.
4. Output is the quaternion as a table via rot:toTable().

Lua Example

-- Input: deg = 90
-- Output: quaternion representing 90° clockwise rotation around Z
-- Equivalent to: quat():setFromEuler(0, 0, math.pi/2)

-- Use case: Orient a vehicle or camera to face a compass direction
-- 0° = forward, 90° = right, 180° = backward, 270° = left

Key Dependencies

• quat / setFromEuler - quaternion math primitives
• _flowgraph_createNode() - standard flowgraph node registration

Additional Methods

C:init()

Initializes the node, setting up pins and default properties.

C:work()

Main work function called each frame/tick when the node is active.

See Also

• Look At (Flowgraph Node) - Related reference
• FlowGraph Guide - Guide