Trigonometry Functions
This is a repository of functions used in trigonometry - namely Sine, Cosine, Tangent, Arcsine, Arccosine, and Arctangent.
There are many methods of obtaining any or all of these, and each has its own benefits and drawbacks in terms of length, efficiency, and speed. This page is a work in progress - please add any scripts you have for approximating these functions. Please remember to comment them thoroughly and to use generic variable names.
Formulae
A + B + C = 180°
A + B = 90°
a² + b² = c²
sin(A) = a / c
cos(A) = b / c
tan(A) = a / b
tan(A) = sin(A) / cos(A)
Sine, Cosine, and Tangent
You can use a Taylor series to approximate the value of sine, cosine and tangent:
sin(x) = x^1/1! - x^3/3! + x^5/5! - x^7/7! + ...
cos(x) = x^0/0! - x^2/2! + x^4/4! - x^6/6! + ...
tan(x) = x^1/1! + x^3/3! + x^5/5! + x^7/7! + ...
Taylor Series Variant 1
ScriptName SineCosineTangent ; script originally by Galerion float ang float rad float cos float sin float tan float exp Begin {appropriate blocktype} ; how one sets ang depends on implementation. Here it is the player's Z rotation set ang to Player.GetAngle Z ; normalize angle if ( ang < -180 ) set ang to ( ang + 360 ) elseif ( ang > 180 ) set ang to ( ang - 360 ) endif ; approximate sine and cosine of the angle set rad to ( ang * 0.0174533 ) set cos to 1 set exp to rad ; 1st set sin to exp set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 2nd set cos to ( cos - exp / 2 ) set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 3rd set sin to ( sin - exp / 6 ) set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 4th set cos to ( cos + exp / 24 ) set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 5th set sin to ( sin + exp / 120 ) set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 6th set cos to ( cos - exp / 720 ) set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 7th set sin to ( sin - exp / 5040 ) set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 8th set cos to ( cos + exp / 40320 ) set exp to ( exp * rad ) ; 9th set sin to ( sin + exp / 362880 ) ; get tangent set tan to ( sin / cos ) End
This can be placed within your own code or run as a separate script and checked by yours (though the former is probably easier). The sin, cos, and tan variables are your outputs, ang is your input.
This script is more accurate than it needs to be. Galerion suggests that only the first seven steps are necessary.
Taylor Series Variant 2
ScriptName SineCosineTangent ; script originally by JOG float angle ; Input float sina ; Output Sin float cosa ; Output Cos float cosa ; Output Tan float t1 float t2 float t5 float t6 Begin {appropriate blocktype} set angle to player.getangle z if angle < -180 set angle to angle + 360 elseif angle > 180 set angle to angle - 360 endif set t1 to angle / 57.29577951 ; precalculate powers of "angle" set t2 to t1*t1 set t5 to t2*t2*t1 set t6 to t5*t1 set sina to t1 - t1*t2/6 + t5/120 - t5*t2/5040 + t6*t2*t1/362880 set cosa to 1 - t2/2 + t2*t2/24 - t6/720 + t6*t2/40320 set tana to sina/cosa end
Taylor Series Variant 3
The idea here is to approximate sin(z) and cos(z) with taylor. Since taylor works best with values close to 0, I think it's a good idea to use sin and cos periodicity as many times as possible. then I used taylor to approximate the functions. (Scripts by bifmadeinsabbioni)
ScriptName Sin(Z) set Angolo to AngleZ ; Angolo is the angle of which we want to calculate the sin set Sign to 1 ; it's the sign adjustment of the result if (Angolo > 180)&& (Angolo <=360) ; if 180<=z<=360 sin(z) = -sin(z-180) set Sign to Sign * (-1) set Angolo to (Angolo - 180) endif if (Angolo > 90)&&(Angolo <=180) ; if 90<=z<=180 sin (z) = sin (180-z) set Angolo to (180 - angolo) endif if (Angolo >45)&&(Angolo <=90) ; if 45<z<90 sin(z) = cos(90-z) set Angle to (90 - Angolo) set Angle to (3.14159265 * Angle / 180) ;now in radiants set X2 to Angle * Angle set X4 to X2 * X2 set X6 to X4 * X2 set X8 to X4 * X4 set SinZ to (1 - X2 / 2 + X4 / 24 - X6 / 720 + X8 / 40320) set SinZ to SinZ*Sign endif if (Angolo>=0)&&(Angolo<=45) set Angle to Angolo set Angle to (3.14159265 * Angle / 180) ;now in radiants set X to Angle set X3 to X*X*X set X5 to X3*X*X set X7 to X3*X3*X set X9 to X3*X3*X3 set SinZ to (X - X3 / 6 + X5 / 120 - X7 / 5040 + X9 / 362880) set SinZ to SinZ*Sign endif
ScriptName Cos(Z) set Angolo to AngleZ ; Angolo is the angle of which we want to calculate the cos set Sign to 1 ; it's the sign adjustment of the result if (Angolo > 180)&& (Angolo <=360) ; if 180<=z<=360 cos(z) = -cos(z-180) set Sign to Sign * (-1) set Angolo to (Angolo - 180) endif if (Angolo > 90)&&(Angolo <=180) ; if 90<=z<=180 cos (z) = -cos(180-z) set Angolo to (180 - Angolo) set Sign to Sign * (-1) endif if (Angolo >45)&&(Angolo <=90) if 45<z<90 cos(z) = sin(90-z) set Angle to (90 - Angolo) set Angle to (3.14159265 * Angle / 180) ;now in radiants set X to Angle set X3 to X*X*X set X5 to X3*X*X set X7 to X3*X3*X set X9 to X3*X3*X3 set CosZ to (X - X3 / 6 + X5 / 120 - X7 / 5040 + X9 / 362880) set CosZ to CosZ * Sign endif if (Angolo>=0)&&(Angolo<=45) set Angle to Angolo set Angle to (3.14159265 * Angle / 180) ;now in radiants set X2 to Angle * Angle set X4 to X2 * X2 set X6 to X4 * X2 set X8 to X4 * X4 set CosZ to (1 - X2 / 2 + X4 / 24 - X6 / 720 + X8 / 40320) set CosZ to CosZ * Sign endif
Arcsine, Arccosine, and Arctangent
Sin=Opp/Hyp - The arcsine is the angle between two points, when the distance is the hypotenuse of the triangle and the opposing side is either the x- or the y-difference (whatever is shorter). To get the z-angle (left/right) between two objects in Oblivion you can use the function GetHeadingAngle. But when you need the x-angle (up/down) you still have to calculate the arcsin.
Arcsine - Abramowitz/Stegun Approximation
Abramowitz and Stegun found this polynomal approximation for arcsine:
a0=1.5707288 / a1=-0.2121144 / a2=0.0742610 / a3=-0.0187293
arcsin(x) = 180/Pi * (pi/2 - sqrt(1 - x) * (a0 + a1*x + a2*x^2 + a3*x^3))
scriptname Arcsine ; script originally by JOG float x ; Input (Sine) float arcsinx ; Output (Angle) float n Begin {appropriate blocktype} set x to (player.getpos z - NPC.getpos z)/player.getdistance NPC set n to 1 - x ; arcsinx = SquareRoot(1-x) set arcsinx to n/2 set arcsinx to (arcsinx+(n/arcsinx))/2 set arcsinx to (arcsinx+(n/arcsinx))/2 set arcsinx to (arcsinx+(n/arcsinx))/2 set n to (arcsinx+(n/arcsinx))/2 set arcsinx to 57.2957795*(1.5707963-n*(1.5707288-0.2121144*x+0.0742610*x*x-0.0187293*x*x*x)) End
This approximation is very accurate (99.9% - 99.9999%) for angles of 45 degrees and higher. For smaller angles you can get a higher precision when you use a taylor series with 15+ iterations.
Arcsine - Approximation by Taylor Series
According to Wikipedia, arcsine can be found with this series:
This can be approximated by Oblivion using the following script:
scriptname Arcsine ;script originally supplied by DragoonWraith float z float z3 float z5 float z7 float arcsinz Begin {appropriate blocktype} ;z can be set depending on implementation ;here it is set to the number of places discovered by the player ;(a completely bizarre thing to find the arcsine of) set z to GetPCMiscStat 7 set z3 to ( z * z * z ) set z5 to ( z3 * z * z ) set z7 to ( z5 * z * z ) set arcsinz to ( z + (1/2)*(z3/3) + (3/8)*(z5/5) + (15/48)*(z7/7) ) End
More terms will increase accuracy. The larger the angle, the more terms are needed to get acceptable accuracy. As a rough guide use 3 terms for every 10° to get an accuracy of at least 1 decimal digit.
Arccosine
Arccos z = (PI / 2) - arcsin(z).
See above for method of obtaining arcsin. This may be useful when using the Law of Cosines to find the measure of an unknown angle, given three known sides.
Arctangent
Arctan z = z - (z^3/3) + (z^5/5) - (z^7/7) +...
This is very similar to the Taylor Expansion method of generating Arcsine, but without the extra multipliers, and with alternating signs.
scriptname Arctan ;modified from arcsine script supplied by DragoonWraith float z float z3 float z5 float z7 float arctanz Begin {appropriate blocktype} ;z can be set depending on implementation ;here it is set to the number of places discovered by the player ;(a completely bizarre thing to find the arcsine of) set z to GetPCMiscStat 7 set z3 to ( z * z * z ) set z5 to ( z3 * z * z ) set z7 to ( z5 * z * z ) set arctanz to ( z - (z3/3) + (z5/5) - (z7/7) ) End
Again, more terms equals more accuracy.
See Also
Elder Scrolls Forums - Trigonometry Function Workarounds?
Elder Scrolls Forums - Is there an actor for the target you are attacking currently?