Can a Three.js raycaster intersect a group?

EJW picture EJW · Apr 12, 2016 · Viewed 8.8k times · Source

I want to know if my raycaster is looking at an OBJ that I've loaded. Due to the way exported from Cinema4D, I believe the OBJ is a THREE.Group with 3 children, instead of a THREE.Object. Can I just change my raycaster line of code to look for this group instead of an object?

raycaster.set(controls.getObject().position, controls.getDirection(), 0, 40)

var intersects = raycaster.intersectObjects(scene.children, true);

     if (intersects.length > 0) {
      //CURRENTLY INTERSECTING SOMETHING
      for (var i = 0; i < onOffCubes.length; i++) {
      //if the first thing the raycaster sees is a one of my cubes
        if (intersects[0].object == onOffCubes[i]) {
                ExperiencesData[i].userClose = true
            }
         }
       }

onOffCubes is an array of 6 OBJs/THREE.js Groups:

enter image description here

Console.log(onOffCubes[0]) is this: enter image description here

Answer

Chris Buck picture Chris Buck · May 14, 2016

So close. The intersect object is a mesh, the parent of that mesh is the group. You need to match the parent object of the intersect rather than the object of the intersect. That is:

intersects[ 0 ].object.parent === onOffCubes[ i ]

rather than:

intersects[ 0 ].object === onOffCubes[ i ]

TL;DR

To test with a similar structure, I generated six groups of three meshes each, with each group of meshes sharing the same material. Note that onOffCubes isn't a THREE.js group, it's an array of groups. This is like the original poster's onOffCubes:

var onOffCubes = []
for ( var i = 0; i < 6; i++ ) {
    var material = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({ color: 0xee55aa })
    var group = new THREE.Group()
    for ( var j = 0; j < 3; j++ ) {
        var mesh = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );
        mesh.position.x = Math.random() * 100 - 50;
        mesh.position.y = Math.random() * 100 - 50;
        mesh.position.z = Math.random() * 200 - 200;
        group.add( mesh );
    }
    onOffCubes.push( group )
    scene.add( group )
}

Check full scene

var intersects = raycaster.intersectObjects( scene.children, true );

or check just onOffCubes

var intersects = raycaster.intersectObjects( onOffCubes, true );

Essentially the same code as original poster with the one fix:

if (intersects.length > 0) {
    for (var i = 0; i < onOffCubes.length; i++) { 
        if (intersects[ 0 ].object.parent === onOffCubes[ i ]) {
            // What I tested with
            //intersects[ 0 ].object.material.color.set( 0xff0000 )
            // Your code
            ExperiencesData[i].userClose = true
        }
    }
}