How to Add a Space Ship Mouse Pivot Function to a 3D Game using Three.js

In a 3D game, creating realistic movement for a space ship can greatly enhance the player's experience. One way to achieve this is by using a pivot object to control the rotation of the space ship.

A pivot object is created by instantiating a new THREE.Object3D() and setting its position to match that of the space ship. The space ship is then added as a child of the pivot object. By using the pivot object, you can control the rotation of the space ship in a more realistic way. For example, you can make the space ship rotate around its own center of mass instead of its origin, which would look more realistic when the ship is accelerating or decelerating.

The onMouseMove function is used to track the change in mouse position and update the targetShipRotationY and targetShipRotationX variables. These variables are then clamped to a specific range using the THREE.Math.clamp() function, this will limit the maximum and minimum rotation of the ship in the y and x axis.

In the render loop, the THREE.Math.lerp() function is used to smoothly interpolate the currentShipRotationY and currentShipRotationX variables from their current values to the target values. The lerpShipValue variable determines the speed of the interpolation, with a value of 0.05 resulting in a slow, smooth rotation.

By using this technique you can make the movement of the space ship more realistic, as it will rotate around its center of mass when accelerating or decelerating, and the rotation will be smooth and gradual, which will enhance the player's experience and immersion in the game. Additionally, this code snippet can be integrated with other functionalities to make your space ship move, accelerate, fire and collide with other objects in the game. You can also adjust the sensitivity of the ship's rotation by changing the value of the event.movementX and event.movementY properties and adjust the rotation speed by changing the value of lerpShipValue. Overall, using a pivot object to control the rotation of a space ship in a 3D game can greatly enhance the realism and overall gameplay experience for the player.