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@xem
Last active February 26, 2026 09:38
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Maths & trigonometry cheat sheet for 2D & 3D games

Conventions

  • A = [xA, yA] is a point on the 2D plane. Same for B, C, ...
  • lengths are in any unit (ex: pixels)
  • code snippets are in JavaScript

Degrees to radians

angleRad = angleDeg * Math.PI / 180;

Radians to degrees

angleDeg = angleRad * 180 / Math.PI;

2D

Distance between two points (Pythagore)

  • dist = function(A,B){ return Math.sqrt((xB - xA)*(xB - xA) + (yB - yA)*(yB - yA)) } // ES5
  • dist = (A, B) => Math.hypot(xB - xA, yB - yA) // ES6

Line passing through 2 points

  • line equation: y = ax + b
  • a = (yB - yA) / (yB - yA) = tan θ
  • θ = angle between line and x axis
  • b = yA - a * xA (because yA = a * xA + b)

Intersection of 2 secant lines

  • line 1: y = a * x + b
  • line 2: y' = a' * x + b'
  • intersection point P:
    • xP = (a - a')/(b' - b);
    • yP = a * xP + b;
  • Ex with y = 5*x+1 & y' = 2*x+8:
    • xP = 7/3;
    • yP = 12.666;

Angle in radians between the x axis at the origin and a point on the plane

angle = Math.atan2(Ax, Ay)

Angle in radians between two points and the origin

angle = Math.atan2(By - Ay, Bx - Ax);

Rotate a point (angle in radians)

  • Anew_x = Ax * Math.cos(angle) - Ay * Math.sin(angle)
  • Anew_y = Ax * Math.sin(angle) + Ay * Math.cos(angle)
  • It's the same as applying the following rotation matrix:
vec2 (
    +cos(a), -sin(a)
    +sin(a), +cos(a)
)

Project a point on the trigonometric circle

  • Anew_x = Math.cos(atan2(Ax, Ay))
  • Anew_y = Math.sin(atan2(Ax, Ay))

Intersections between a line and the grid (2D raycasting)

Projection of a plane on a sphere (on a 2D canvas)

2D jumps / gravity (ex: for side-view platform games)

  • let x, y the position of the object (ex: 0, 0)
  • let vx, vy the horizontal and vertical speed of the object (ex: 0, 0)
  • let g, the gravity (which is a downwards acceleration, ex: -10)
  • during the frame at the start of the jump: set vy to a high value, ex: 50
  • during all the frames of the jump:
    • Add g to vy (ex: 40, 30, 20, 10, 0, -10, ...)
    • Add vy to y (ex: 40, 70, 90, 100, 100, 90, ...)
    • place the object at [x,y]

Also applicable to all kind of accelerations in x or y directions.

Framerate-independant 2D jumps

Use time instead of frames to make the animation. Demo: https://jsfiddle.net/subzey/p1ftrar0/

Distance between a point and a line

  • line: a *x + b * y + c = 0
  • point: xA, yA
  • distance: d = Math.abs(a * xA + b * yA + c) / Math.sqrt(a * a + b * b)

Lerp (Blend / shortest path between two angles)

lerpDeg = function(start,end,amt){
	ver dif=end-start;
	dif = dif%360;
	if(dif>180.0)	{
		dif-=360.0;
	}
	else if (dif<-180.0)	{
		dif+=360.0;
	}
	return start+dif*amt;
}

3D

3D rotations

In order to create a 3d rotation, just take the idenity matrix:

vec3 (
    1, 0, 0,
    0, 1, 0,
    0, 0, 1
)

And fill in the sines and cosines:

vec3 (
    +cos(a), -sin(a), 0,
    +sin(a), +cos(a), 0,
     0     ,  0     , 1
) // Rotation in XY plane

vec3 (
    +cos(a), 0, -sin(a),
     0     , 1, 0      ,
    +sin(a), 0, +cos(a)
) // Rotation in XZ plane

vec3 (
    1,  0     ,  0     ,
    0, +cos(a), -sin(a),
    0, +sin(a), +cos(a)
) // Rotation in YZ plane

Sphere trigonometry

http://bit.ly/bm1ftU

@NaxeCode
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Sweet! Thanks a ton!

@zsumair
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zsumair commented Jul 18, 2016

Awesome... Thanks

@Siorki
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Siorki commented Jul 19, 2016

Line thru 2 points should be a = (yB - yA) / (xB - xA) , not (yB - yA) / (yB - yA)

@xem
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Author

xem commented Aug 13, 2016

thanks @Siorki!

@Julien-laville
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https://jsperf.com/hypotvstrigonometric/1
best perf using hypot than trigonometric to normalize vector

@terkelg
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terkelg commented Oct 23, 2017

Nice gist!

@hinell
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hinell commented Mar 19, 2019

Would be nice if someone adds normal/dot/cross production calculations.

@hinell
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hinell commented Jun 5, 2019

You must also must add easing functions to make this list complete:
https://gist.github.com/gre/1650294

@xem
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xem commented Jun 5, 2019

ooh thanks @hinell

@farteryhr
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better to also have a "rotation along arbitrary axis", length being radians to rotate, no singularity at zero.
even more, somehow in favor of quaternion "slerp" because i think quaternion describes "state" or "instant transformation" but not the dynamic, continuous "rotation".
for reference and free copy: http://farter.cn/math/rotvec3/

@hinell
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hinell commented May 30, 2022

@farteryhr Quaternions are good, thanks for sharing.

@weijuer
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weijuer commented Jul 17, 2025

awesome

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