Is there any way to get the farthest hit of a raycast?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

I was wondering if there is any way I can get the farthest hit on a ray cast. How would I go about achieving this?

Thank you.

#2

You probably need to use the “sorted” behavior

  • “any” — Return one result, but not necessarily the closest one.

  • “closest” — Return only the closest hit from the starting point, if any. This is the default behavior.

  • “unsorted” — Return all results in no particular order.

  • “sorted” — Return all results, sorted from closest to farthest.

    local hits = physics.rayCast( fromX, fromY, endX, endY, “sorted”) 

Then you can go about calling the last value in the table hits. Such as

If hits then farthestHit = hits[#hits] -- since this is a sorted list from closest to farthest, the final value is gonna be the farthest one. end

Or you could go about comparing each hits x or y coordinate with the previous.

Example:-

if hits then local farthest = hits[1] if #hits == 1 then return end for i=2, #hits do if farthest.position.x \< hits[i].position.x then -- You could also go about doing y axis or both depending upon your needs. farthest = hits[i] end end end

I’m just giving you a rough idea on how you could go about finding the farthest hit. The code is not tested, so maybe you can change it according to your needs.

#3

You probably need to use the “sorted” behavior

  • “any” — Return one result, but not necessarily the closest one.

  • “closest” — Return only the closest hit from the starting point, if any. This is the default behavior.

  • “unsorted” — Return all results in no particular order.

  • “sorted” — Return all results, sorted from closest to farthest.

    local hits = physics.rayCast( fromX, fromY, endX, endY, “sorted”) 

Then you can go about calling the last value in the table hits. Such as

If hits then farthestHit = hits[#hits] -- since this is a sorted list from closest to farthest, the final value is gonna be the farthest one. end

Or you could go about comparing each hits x or y coordinate with the previous.

Example:-

if hits then local farthest = hits[1] if #hits == 1 then return end for i=2, #hits do if farthest.position.x \< hits[i].position.x then -- You could also go about doing y axis or both depending upon your needs. farthest = hits[i] end end end

I’m just giving you a rough idea on how you could go about finding the farthest hit. The code is not tested, so maybe you can change it according to your needs.