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How to get cardinal mouse direction from mouse coordinates

is it possible to get the mouse direction (Left, Right, Up, Down) based on mouse last position and current position? I have written the code to calculate the angle between two vectors but I am not sure if it is right.

Can someone please point me to the right direction?

    public enum Direction
    {
        Left = 0,
        Right = 1,
        Down = 2,
        Up = 3
    }

    private int lastX;
    private int lastY;
    private Direction direction;

    private void Form1_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        lastX = e.X;
        lastY = e.Y;
    }
    private void Form1_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        double angle = GetAngleBetweenVectors(lastX, lastY, e.X, e.Y);
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(angle.ToString());
        //The angle returns a range of values from -value 0 +value
        //How to get the direction from the angle?
        //if (angle > ??)
        //    direction = Direction.Left;
    }

    private double GetAngleBetweenVectors(double Ax, double Ay, double Bx, double By)
    {
        double theta = Math.Atan2(Ay, Ax) - Math.Atan2(By, Bx);
        return Math.Round(theta * 180 / Math.PI);
    }
like image 576
Ioannis Avatar asked Nov 06 '09 18:11

Ioannis


1 Answers

Computing the angle seems overly complex. Why not just do something like:

int dx = e.X - lastX;
int dy = e.Y - lastY;
if(Math.Abs(dx) > Math.Abs(dy))
  direction = (dx > 0) ? Direction.Right : Direction.Left;
else
  direction = (dy > 0) ? Direction.Down : Direction.Up;
like image 147
Aaron Avatar answered Sep 28 '22 07:09

Aaron