Take the 2-minute tour ×

I'm making a simple space game in JavaScript, but now I've hit a wall regarding vectors.

The game view is top-down on a 2d grid. When the user clicks on the grid, the space ship will fly to that spot.

So, if I have two sets of points:

{ x : 100.2, y : 100.6 }; // the ship
{ x : 20.5,  y : 55.95 }; // the clicked coordinates

If the game loop ticks at 60 iterations per second, and the desired ship velocity is 0.05 points per tick (3 points per second), how do I calculate the new set of coordinates for the ship for each tick of the game loop?

p.s. I do not want to account for inertia, or multiple vectors affecting the ship, I just want the ship to stop whatever it is doing (i.e. flying one way) and move to the clicked coordinates at a static speed.

share|improve this question

3 Answers 3

up vote 3 down vote accepted

In Pseudocode:

speed_per_tick = 0.05
delta_x = x_goal - x_current
delta_y = y_goal - y_current
if (dist > speed_per_tick)
    ratio = speed_per_tick / goal_dist
    x_move = ratio * delta_x  
    y_move = ratio * delta_y
    new_x_pos = x_move + x_current  
    new_y_pos = y_move + y_current
    new_x_pos = x_goal 
    new_y_pos = y_goal
share|improve this answer
So easy to follow. Thank you! –  Stephen Feb 6 '12 at 4:35
@Tristan: Do you mean goal_dist in your if condition? –  Nate W. Mar 16 '13 at 6:33

LERP - Linear Interpolation

I gave this answer for a similar problem some days ago, but here we go:

Linear Interpolation is a function that gives you a number between two numbers, based on the progress. You could actually, get a point between two points.

The Great Formula - How to calculate it

The general LERP Formula is given by pu = p0 + (p1 - p0) * u. Where:

  • pu: The result number
  • p0: The initial number
  • p1: The final number
  • u: The progress. It is given in percentage, between 0 and 1.

How to get percentage

You may be wondering, "How can I get this percentage!?". Don't worry. It is like this: How many time the point will take to travel for start vector to finish? Ok, divide it by the time that has already passed. This will give you the percentage.

Look, something like this: percentage = currentTime / finalTime;

Calculating Vectors

To get a resultant vector, all you need to do is apply the formula two times, one for X component and one for Y component. Something like this:

point.x = start.x + (final.x - start.x) * progress;
point.y = start.y + (final.y - start.y) * progress;

Calculating variate time

You may want to have your points to travel at a 0.5 points speed, yea? So let's say, a longer distance will be traveled in a longer time.

You can do it as follow:

  • Get the distance length For it, you'll need two things. Get the distance vector, then transform it in a length value.

    distancevec = final - start;
    distance = distancevec.length();

I hope you know vectors math. If you don't, you can calculate a vector lenght by this formula d = sqrt(pow(v.x, 2) + pow(v.y, 2));.

  • Get the time it will take and update finaltime. This one is easy. As you want to each tick you get a 0.5 length, we just have to divide and get how many ticks we got.

    finalTime = distance / 0.5f;


NOTICE: Maybe, this may not be the intended speed for you, but this is the right. so you have a linear movement, even on diagonal moves. If you wanted to do x += 0.5f, y += 0.5f, then read a vector math book and re-check your plans.

share|improve this answer
+1 for awesomeness. Thanks! –  Stephen Feb 6 '12 at 4:31

This can be done by computing the normal of the direction and then computing the current position via the parametric equation

newPoint = startPoint + directionVector * velocity * t

Where t is the time elapsed since the ship started traveling in the desired direction. You can also perform this per update via

newPoint = currentPoint + directionVector * velocity * timeDelta

And you just calculate this at every frame/physics/etc. update until the ship reaches its destination.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer


