Better way of getting distance between two points?

[GameMaster4268 (Game)]

So I want to calculate the distance from the part’s origin to the direction it is given to reach point2.

Example:

My Code:

local partA = workspace.PartA
local partB = workspace.PartB

local function GetOutsidePosition(part1, part2)
	local direction = (part2.Position - part1.Position).Unit
	local outsidePosition = part1.Position + direction
	return outsidePosition
end

local function GetDistance(part1, part2)
	local outsidePosition = GetOutsidePosition(part1, part2)
	
	workspace.Point.Position = outsidePosition
	
	local rayOrigin = outsidePosition
	local rayDirection = (part2.Position - outsidePosition).Unit * 50
	local raycast = workspace:Raycast(rayOrigin, rayDirection)
	
	if raycast then
		return raycast.Distance
	end
end

local function Update()
	local cframe1 = partA.CFrame
	local cframe2 = partB.CFrame
	local distance = GetDistance(partA, partB)

	print(distance)
end

while true do
	Update()
	task.wait(0.1)
end

[Soulx_xFlame (AVGC)]

if you already have the specific points

(point1.Position - point2.Position).Magnitude -- or reveresed (point2.Position - point1.Position).Magnitude

should do the trick, I think.

[colorblindcrayon]

Are you talking about getting the distance between the closest sides to 2 parts? For parts with uneven geometry (like meshparts, non-spheres, non-blocks basically), a raycast is probably the best solution.

For blocks,
a quick search with the right question led me to this post:

Most efficient way to get the distance from a shape's edge?

To get the distance from a point to some (block-shaped) part, you can find the closest point on that part to the point, and then calculate the distance between those points. As for finding the closest point on the part to the point, I wrote some code in reply to a similar post which does this. I have also provided an explanation of how it works: From there, you just need to take that point and calculate the distance to your original point. Note that this will not work for non block-shaped p…

[GameMaster4268 (Game)]

Well, no. It doesn’t calculate it accurately when scaling the part so I don’t have the proper points of the part yet.

[GameMaster4268 (Game)]

Would that get the point of the direction like:

[colorblindcrayon]

Yes that is correct.

Basically imagine you’re getting that red vector’s direction only, but you don’t know how long it has to be to reach the edge. You move it beyond the edge but since you know how big your block has to be (why? because you can calculate what coordinates are along the edge with some vector addition from the origin), you clamp it back to the edge.

[GameMaster4268 (Game)]

Thank you!

I before have looked at that post but it didn’t work but now it works now!

local partA = workspace.PartA
local partB = workspace.PartB

local function ClosestPointOnPart(part, point)
	local Transform = part.CFrame:PointToObjectSpace(point)
	local HalfSize = part.Size / 2
	
	return part.CFrame * Vector3.new(
		math.clamp(Transform.x, -HalfSize.x, HalfSize.x),
		math.clamp(Transform.y, -HalfSize.y, HalfSize.y),
		math.clamp(Transform.z, -HalfSize.z, HalfSize.z)
	)
end

local function GetDistance(part1, part2)
	local point = ClosestPointOnPart(part1, part2.Position)
	
	workspace.Point.Position = point
	
	local rayOrigin = point
	local rayDirection = (part2.Position - rayOrigin).Unit * 50
	local raycast = workspace:Raycast(rayOrigin, rayDirection)
	
	if raycast then
		return raycast.Distance
	end
end

local function Update()
	local cframe1 = partA.CFrame
	local cframe2 = partB.CFrame
	local distance = GetDistance(partA, partB)

	print(distance)
end

while true do
	Update()
	task.wait(0.1)
end