Absolute Value in Unity: A Comprehensive Overview

As a Unity developer, you must have heard of an "absolute value". As a beginner, it is easy to get confused by it. This is a common problem. You are not alone. The absolute value is a fundamental mathematical concept. It is not as complex as it may sound. In this article, we will explain what the absolute value is. And, we will show you how to use it in your game.

:::info What you need to know

• Absolute value is a basic math concept.
• You use this concept to measure how far a number is from zero.
• The absolute value can make some calculations easier.
• Use Mathf.Abs() for floats and integers.
• Use my extension method for Vectors.

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What is an absolute value?

The absolute value of a number is its distance from zero on the number line. When the number is positive, the absolute value is positive. When the number is negative, the absolute value is also positive. Whether the number is positive or negative, the absolute value is always positive. For example, the absolute value of ‘5’ is ‘5’. And, the absolute value of ‘-5’ is also ‘5’. This is because both ‘5’ and ‘-5’ are 5 units away from ‘0’.

When can I use the absolute value?

In Unity game development, you can use absolute value to simplify some operations. I will give you some examples.

• Guarantee that an object scale is always positive.
• Determine the error between predicted and actual values.
• Calculate the size of an input value.

Some practical examples of using absolute value in Unity

In this section, I will go through some practical examples for absolute value. These examples should help you understand how to use the absolute value in your project.

Compare the distance between one object and another

The distance between two objects will always be a positive number. You can use the absolute value to calculate the distance between two objects. For example, Mathf.Abs(positionA - positionB). In this case, you don’t need a signed result. So, using the absolute value guarantees that you get a positive result every time.

Trigger gameplay events based on the size of a change

You can use the absolute value to calculate the size of a value. When you apply a damage (-5) or healing (+3) effect to a character, the value may be negative or positive. You can calculate the size of this effect. Then, you can use the size of the effect as a gameplay trigger. Let’s say that you want to give a player bonus if they take a lot of damage. You also want to give them the same bonus if they take a lot of healing. You can use the absolute value to check if the size of the damage or healing meets your threshold.

How do I get the absolute value?

To calculate the absolute value of a scalar in Unity, use the Mathf.Abs() function.

To use the function, you pass the input value as the parameter.

Then, the function returns the absolute value of the input parameter.

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Here’s a simple example in code: