Mouse / Canvas X, Y to Three.js World X, Y, Z
Below is an ES6 class I wrote based on WestLangley's reply, which works perfectly for me in THREE.js r77.
Note that it assumes your render viewport takes up your entire browser viewport.
class CProjectMousePosToXYPlaneHelper
{
constructor()
{
this.m_vPos = new THREE.Vector3();
this.m_vDir = new THREE.Vector3();
}
Compute( nMouseX, nMouseY, Camera, vOutPos )
{
let vPos = this.m_vPos;
let vDir = this.m_vDir;
vPos.set(
-1.0 + 2.0 * nMouseX / window.innerWidth,
-1.0 + 2.0 * nMouseY / window.innerHeight,
0.5
).unproject( Camera );
// Calculate a unit vector from the camera to the projected position
vDir.copy( vPos ).sub( Camera.position ).normalize();
// Project onto z=0
let flDistance = -Camera.position.z / vDir.z;
vOutPos.copy( Camera.position ).add( vDir.multiplyScalar( flDistance ) );
}
}
You can use the class like this:
// Instantiate the helper and output pos once.
let Helper = new CProjectMousePosToXYPlaneHelper();
let vProjectedMousePos = new THREE.Vector3();
...
// In your event handler/tick function, do the projection.
Helper.Compute( e.clientX, e.clientY, Camera, vProjectedMousePos );
vProjectedMousePos now contains the projected mouse position on the z=0 plane.
In r.58 this code works for me:
var planeZ = new THREE.Plane(new THREE.Vector3(0, 0, 1), 0);
var mv = new THREE.Vector3(
(event.clientX / window.innerWidth) * 2 - 1,
-(event.clientY / window.innerHeight) * 2 + 1,
0.5 );
var raycaster = projector.pickingRay(mv, camera);
var pos = raycaster.ray.intersectPlane(planeZ);
console.log("x: " + pos.x + ", y: " + pos.y);
This worked for me when using an orthographic camera
let vector = new THREE.Vector3();
vector.set(
(event.clientX / window.innerWidth) * 2 - 1,
- (event.clientY / window.innerHeight) * 2 + 1,
0
);
vector.unproject(camera);
WebGL three.js r.89
You do not need to have any objects in your scene to do this.
You already know the camera position.
Using vector.unproject( camera )
you can get a ray pointing in the direction you want.
You just need to extend that ray, from the camera position, until the z-coordinate of the tip of the ray is zero.
You can do that like so:
var vec = new THREE.Vector3(); // create once and reuse
var pos = new THREE.Vector3(); // create once and reuse
vec.set(
( event.clientX / window.innerWidth ) * 2 - 1,
- ( event.clientY / window.innerHeight ) * 2 + 1,
0.5 );
vec.unproject( camera );
vec.sub( camera.position ).normalize();
var distance = - camera.position.z / vec.z;
pos.copy( camera.position ).add( vec.multiplyScalar( distance ) );
The variable pos
is the position of the point in 3D space, "under the mouse", and in the plane z=0
.
EDIT: If you need the point "under the mouse" and in the plane z = targetZ
, replace the distance computation with:
var distance = ( targetZ - camera.position.z ) / vec.z;
three.js r.98