Moving Part To A Target In An Arc

[PhosphamicDev (phospamic)]

Hello! I’m trying to make a basketball-like game but I’m stuck on one part. How would I make one part (the basketball) shoot up and eventually land in the hoop (second part)? I want it to be like the arc you get when you shoot a basketball in real life.

Excuse the great drawing. Ik it’s easy to make it follow the red path into the target, but I need it to follow the blue path from any point on the map. How could i do this?

Thank you for helping

[DudeW0rld (Guest_4666)]

We can do it with a little bit of math: math.sin(math.pi * t)!

For X and Z, we can lerp normally but we will use the math above to modify Y to make the arc.

local accumDt = 0
local lerpTime = 5

function lerp(a, b, t)
	return a + (b - a) * t
end

local startPart = workspace.Start
local finishPart = workspace.Finish

local movePart = workspace.Move

local yOffset = 5 -- add height to ball, for making arc

local renderConnect:RBXScriptConnection

renderConnect = game:GetService("RunService").Heartbeat:Connect(function(dt)
	accumDt = math.min(accumDt + (dt / lerpTime), 1) -- maximum 1
	
	local lerpedPos = startPart.Position:Lerp(finishPart.Position, accumDt)
	
	local lerpedPosY = lerpedPos.Y -- modify Y position to not make it go straight like X and Z axis
	local slerpYOffset = math.sin(math.pi * accumDt) * yOffset -- arc math here
	
	movePart.Position = Vector3.new(lerpedPos.X, lerpedPosY + slerpYOffset, lerpedPos.Z) -- assemble again!
	
	if accumDt == 1 then
		renderConnect:Disconnect()
		print("finished!")
	end
end)

You can check out the demo below:
Arc Fly.rbxl (53.4 KB)

[PhosphamicDev (phospamic)]

Thanks I’m going to try it. Thanks for helping

[DudeW0rld (Guest_4666)]

No problem. Ask if you don’t understand.

[PhosphamicDev (phospamic)]

Oh yeah btw is there a way I could make it collide with things since right now if there is something like an obstacle in the way it phases through it thanks

[DudeW0rld (Guest_4666)]

Then, you are going to need to make your own physics by using raycasts

[silencemotions (cons)]

Not gonna lie, thats just moving the part to a desired location without any physics meaning it cant miss or anything so nothing like a basketball. If you are looking for phyics thats different

[MysteryX2076 (DrMystery)]

For your slerpYOffset, the equation is basically y = 5sin(πx) with an amplitude of 5 and a period of π radians right

[ModernWarSciFite (LittleBoy12)]

Instead of setting the movePart.Position to the next location, you can make a Tween that does it over the dt timeframe.

If it’s a basketball, you can add this basketball:Touched function

movePart.Touched:Connect(function(otherPart)
if otherPart == Backboard then
           stopArc = true -- check this boolean when calculating the position of ball, 
--so that it stop its arc when landing in the goal, in the function where 
--you are calculating the ball arc

 -- Normal gravity physics will take over since stopArc = true, 

--the basketball can hit the backboard and still later fall through the goal
-- You may want to apply the velocity that the ball should have here 
--so that the ball doesn't just unnaturally start falling down with an 
--initial velocity of 0 after obviously travelling through the air
end 
else if otherPart == Goal then    -- Have a part in the goal that will detect if a 
-- basketball lands in the hoop
        stopArc = true  
        goalLanded = true   -- check this boolean when calculating the position
 --of ball, so it sets up the flag for checking to add score
end
-- Here you can do another Tween that will animate the ball from a place 
--defined inside the hoop to below on the ground

if goalLanded then
          Score()    -- some score function to add point to whatever team scored
)