Calculating height at an arbitrary position on a quad

In short: calculate the plane of the quad. Solve the plane equation for Y.

An attempt at a few more details...

Solving for y: a plane equation is in the form Ax + By + Cz + D = 0, so y = -(Ax + Cz + D) / B.

Plane for the quad: the cross product of two adjacent edges in the quad gives the normal of the plane (A, B, C) and then any point in the quad can be used to solve for D.

[indent=1]N = (Q2 - Q1) x (Q1 - Q0)

[indent=1]A = Nx
[indent=1]B = Ny
[indent=1]C = Nz
[indent=1]D = -(N dot Q0)

(where Q0 through Q3 are the points of the quad. D could be rewritten as D = -(A*x + B*y + C*z) where x,y,z are the components of Q0, if that makes more sense to you.)

so expanding it out a bit:

[indent=1]Py = -(Nx * Px + Nz * Pz - (N dot Q0)) / Ny


I'm sure a google search or two could explain the details better than I have, but hopefully this is enough info to get you going.

Given that the quad is a square on the X/Z plane, formed by V1, V2, V3 and V4 (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right) you can do:


s=(Px-V1.x) / (V2.x-V1.x)
t=(Pz-V1.z) / (V3.z-V1.z)

y1 = V1.y + s*(V2.y-V1.y)
y2 = V3.y + s*(V4.y-V3.y)

Py = y1 + t*(y2-y1)


In effect, you are calculating the parameters s and t that correspond to the point, P, on the plane. Then you are using these parameters to interpolate the Y values of the 4 points.

Hey all,

Thanks for the help! I was able to figure out the solution using Ray/Plane intersection, which looks similar to what you guys did. Here is the code snipit that performs the primary calculations, for future people:


vec4 S = vec4(Px, 0.0f, Pz, 1.0f); // Ray start position
vec4 V = vec4(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); // Ray directional

vec3 N = glm::normalize(glm::cross(P1 - P0, P2 - P0)); // Normal Vector
vec4 L = vec4(N, glm::dot(-N, P0)); // Plane Vector
float Py = -(glm::dot(L, S) / glm::dot(L, V)); // Calculate final Y value
return Py;


Thanks again for the response.