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What is the easiest way to calculate position of balls on collision?

I'm trying to make some simple pool game in java script. I have made it but I do not love way of checking if two balls will collide in next frame. I would like to have more easier way to calculate coordinates of balls when collision occurs. I found lot of answers base on collision kinematics, how to handle velocities and directions after collision, but no calculating a position when collision occurs.
As you can see in sample diagram, gold ball is moving slower than a blue ball, and with distance that each ball will have to move on next frame will not be considered as collision. But, as you can see, they should collide (dashed lines).
In that cause I have divided each movement into sectors and calculating if distance between the points is equal or smaller than ball diameter, which is slowing down process when many balls (like in snooker) have to be calculated in each frame, plus that way is not always 100% accurate and balls can go in inaccurate angles after hit (not a big difference, but important in snooker).
Is there any easier way to calculate those (XAC,YAC) and (XBC,YBC) values with knowing start positions and velocities of each ball without dividing ball paths into sectors and calculating many times to find a proper distance?

It is worth to precalculate collision event only once (this approach works well with reliable number of balls, because we have to treat all ~n^2 pairs of balls).
The first ball position is A0, velocity vector is VA.
The second ball position is B0, velocity vector is VB.
To simplify calculations, we can use Halileo principle - use moving coordinate system connected with the first ball. In that system position and velocity of the first ball are always zero. The second ball position against time is :
B'(t) = (B0 - A0) + (VB - VA) * t = B0' + V'*t
and we just need to find solution of quadratic equation for collision distance=2R:
(B0'.X + V'.X*t)^2 + (B0'.X + V'.Y*t)^2 = 4*R^2
Solving this equation for unknown time t, we might get cases: no solutions (no collision), single solution (only touch event), two solutions - in this case smaller t value corresponds to the physical moment of collision.
Example (sorry, in Python, ** is power operator):
def collision(ax, ay, bx, by, vax, vay, vbx, vby, r):
dx = bx - ax
dy = by - ay
vx = vbx - vax
vy = vby - vay
#(dx + vx*t)**2 + (dy + vy*t)**2 == 4*r*r solve this equation
#coefficients
a = vx**2 + vy**2
b = 2*(vx*dx + vy*dy)
c = dx**2+dy**2 - 4*r**2
dis = b*b - 4*a*c
if dis<0:
return None
else:
t = 0.5*(-b - dis**0.5)/a ##includes case of touch when dis=0
return [(ax + t * vax, ay + t * vay), (bx + t * vbx, by + t * vby)]
print(collision(0,0,100,0,50,50,-50,50,10)) #collision
print(collision(0,0,100,0,50,50,-50,80,10)) #miss
print(collision(0,0,100,0,100,0,99,0,10)) #long lasting chase along OX axis
[(40.0, 40.0), (60.0, 40.0)]
None
[(8000.0, 0.0), (8020.0, 0.0)]

Regarding to MBo's solution, here is a function in java script that will calculate coordinates of balls on collision and time in which collision will happen:
calcCollisionBallCoordinates(ball1_x, ball1_y, ball2_x, ball2_y, ball1_vx, ball1_vy, ball2_vx, ball2_vy, r) {
let dx = ball2_x - ball1_x,
dy = ball2_y - ball1_y,
vx = ball2_vx - ball1_vx,
vy = ball2_vy - ball1_vy,
a = Math.pow(vx, 2) + Math.pow(vy, 2),
b = 2 * (vx * dx + vy * dy),
c = Math.pow(dx, 2) + Math.pow(dy, 2) - 4 * Math.pow(r, 2),
dis = Math.pow(b, 2) - 4 * a * c;
if (dis < 0) {
//no collision
return false;
} else {
let t1 = 0.5 * (-b - Math.sqrt(dis)) / a,
t2 = 0.5 * (-b + Math.sqrt(dis)) / a,
t = Math.min(t1, t2);
if (t < 0) {
//time cannot be smaller than zero
return false;
}
return {
ball1: {x: ball1_x + t * ball1_vx, y: ball1_y + t * ball1_vy},
ball2: {x: ball2_x + t * ball2_vx, y: ball2_y + t * ball2_vy},
time: t
};
}
}

Calculate angle based on x, y position

I am trying to calculate the angle for an arrow on a ball, based on the position where it is going to.
The arrow moves, but in a total unexplainable direction, can anybody give some pointers?
Codepen available: Codepen
I added the full code on here (EDITED based on input):
I added a step to make the difference bigger for the angle calculation, not sure if that is the right way to go, but it seems a bit more functional. Plus added the +/- 90 in the angle method, but that doesnt seem to fix it. It is still feeling odd.
class Throwable {
constructor(){
this.throwObject = null;
this.canDrag = null;
this.initialDiffX = 0;
this.initialDiffY = 0;
this.previousX = 0;
this.previousY = 0;
this.intervalCounter = 0;
}
set x(input) {
this.throwObject.style.left = input + 'px';
}
set y(input) {
this.throwObject.style.top = input + 'px';
}
set rotation(input) {
this.throwObject.style.transform = `rotate(${input}deg)`;
}
init(){
this.throwObject = document.querySelector('.throwable');
this.throwObject.addEventListener('mousedown', this.activateDrag.bind(this));
this.throwObject.addEventListener('mouseup', this.deactivateDrag.bind(this));
document.addEventListener('mousemove', this.drag.bind(this));
}
activateDrag(event) {
this.canDrag = true;
this.initialDiffX = event.clientX - this.throwObject.offsetLeft;
this.initialDiffY = event.clientY - this.throwObject.offsetTop;
}
deactivateDrag() {
this.canDrag = false;
}
drag(event) {
if(this.canDrag === true) {
if(this.intervalCounter >= 30) {
this.intervalCounter = 0;
}
if(this.intervalCounter === 0) {
this.previousX = event.clientX;
this.previousY = event.clientY;
}
this.intervalCounter++;
this.y = event.clientY- this.initialDiffY;
this.x = event.clientX - this.initialDiffX;
this.rotation = this.angle(event.clientX, event.clientY, this.previousX, this.previousY);
}
}
angle(ex, ey, cx, cy) {
var dy = ey - cy;
var dx = ex - cx;
return Math.atan2(dy, dx) * 180 / Math.PI + 90;
}
// Untility
log(logObject) {
let logStr = '';
for(let key in logObject) {
logStr += `${key}: ${logObject[key]}<br>`;
}
document.getElementById('log').innerHTML = logStr;
}
}
let throwable = new Throwable();
throwable.init();
I made a mistake in comparing two different values, I fixed that, it is working way better, still have some odd behavior sometimes, seems like it doesnt know where to go in some points. But working better than before.

Maybe you have some mistakes in your angle function. This works for me:
angle(cx, cy, ex, ey) {
var dy = ey - cy ;
var dx = cx - ex ;
return Math.atan2(dx, dy) * 180 / Math.PI;
}

When you call this.angle() you give it twice this.throwObject.offset..., once directly and once via px and py:
let px = this.throwObject.offsetLeft;
let py = this.throwObject.offsetTop;
this.rotation = this.angle(this.throwObject.offsetLeft, this.throwObject.offsetTop, px, py)
That will result in dx and dy to be 0 in angle() making the result of Math.atan2() unpredictable.
I'm not sure about the rest of your code, but maybe you meant to call angle() like this:
this.rotation = this.angle(this.x, this.y, px, py);

There are a couple small issues that I can see.
First, the angle method is calculating radians in range of -180 to 180 and you want it to be 0 to 360. So after angle calculation you'll want to convert something like this:
angle(ex, ey, cx, cy) {
var dy = ey - cy;
var dx = ex - cx;
var theta = Math.atan2(dy, dx) * 180 / Math.PI;
if (theta < 0) theta += 360; // convert to [0, 360]
return theta;
}
Second, the starting angle of your element at 0 degrees is not the actual 0 degrees calculated by this method due to how js coordinates work. A quick fix is to add 90 degrees to make it match:
set rotation(input) {
this.throwObject.style.transform = `rotate(${input + 90}deg)`;
}
It's still a little janky after these conversion but I think it's a start on the right calculations. My guess is part of the issue is having such close points for calculation.

This happens because there's a difference how angles are measured between Math.atan2() and the CSS rotate transformation.
For us humans it's natural that the 12 o' clock position on an analog clock refers to the angle 0 - same for CSS rotate.
Math.atan2() however measures the angle starting from the horizontal x axis. So depending on your input coordinates it would be the 3 or 9 o' clock position.
There's an easy fix however.
After calculating the angle
Math.atan2(dy, dx) * 180 / Math.PI
just subtract 90 degrees like
Math.atan2(dy, dx) * 180 / Math.PI - 90

What happens when intervalCounter become 0? The previus point moved to the event point, so dy, dx becomes 0 and you have a jitter: -180 + 90, +180 + 90, 0 + 90 as defined in Math.atan2. After that, the previus point is fixed until intervalCounter < 30 and you have some inceasing distance between the previus and event points, so the angle is close to the expected one.
Anyway, this is a bad coordinate filter. You can improve it by implementing simple exponential filtering or by using fixed size (30 in your case) queue for event point.

Need to find a (x,y) coordinate based on an angle

So I'm stumped. I didn't know trigonometry before this, and I've been learning but nothing seems to be working.
So a few things to note: In html, cartesian origin(0,0) is the top left corner of the screen. DIVS natural rotation is 0deg or ---->this way.
I need to find the x,y point noted by the ? mark in the problem.
$('#wrapper').on('click', function(e){
mouseX = e.pageX;
mouseY= e.pageY;
var angle = getAngle(mouseX,Rocket.centerX,mouseY,Rocket.centerY);
var angleDistance = Math.sqrt((Math.pow((mouseX - (Rocket.left+Rocket.halfX)),2)) + (Math.pow((mouseY-(Rocket.top+Rocket.halfY)),2)));
var cp2Angle = -90 +(angle*2);
var invCP2Angle = 90+ angle;
var cp2Distance = angleDistance*.5;
//Red Line
$(this).append('<div class="line" style="transform-origin:left center;width:'+(Math.round(angleDistance))+'px;top:'+(Rocket.top+Rocket.halfY)+'px;left:'+(Rocket.left+Rocket.halfX)+'px;transform:rotate('+(Math.round(angle))+'deg);"></div>');
//Blue Line
$(this).append('<div class="line" style="background:#0000FF;transform-origin:left center;width:'+Math.round(cp2Distance)+'px;top:'+(mouseY)+'px;left:'+(mouseX)+'px;transform:rotate('+(Math.round(cp2Angle))+'deg);"></div>');
}
function getAngle(x2,x1,y2,y1){
var angle = Math.degrees(Math.atan2(y2-y1,x2-x1));
return angle;
}
Math.degrees = function(radians) {
return (radians * 180) / Math.PI;
};
So this might be confusing. Basically when I click on the page, i calculate the angle between my custom origin and the mouse points using Math.atan2(); I also calculate the distance using Math.sqrt((Math.pow((x2 - x1),2)) + (Math.pow((y2-y1),2)));
The blue line length is half the length of the red line, but the angle changes, based on the angle of the red line.
When the red line angle = 0deg(a flat line), the blue line angle will be -90(or straight up, at red line -45 deg, the blue line will be -180(or flat), and at Red Line -90, the blue line will be -270 deg(or straight down). The formula is -90 +(angle*2)
I need to know the other end point of the blue line. The lines only exist to debug, but the point is needed because I have an animation where I animate a rocket on a bezier curve, and I need to change the control point based on the angle of the mouse click, if there's abetter way to calculate that without trigonometry, then let me know.
I read that the angle is the same as the slope of the line and to find it by using Math.tan(angle in radians). Sometimes the triangle will be a right triangle for instance if the first angle is 0 deg, sometimes it won't be a triangle at all, but a straight line down, for instance if they click -90.
I've also tried polar coordinates thought I wasn't sure which angle to use:
var polarX = mouseX-(cp2Distance * Math.cos(Math.radians(invCP2Angle)));
var polarY = mouseY- (cp2Distance * Math.sin(Math.radians(invCP2Angle)));

I do not know javascript well, so instead of giving you code, I'll just give you the formulae. On the figure below, I give you the conventions used.
x3 = x2 + cos(brownAngle + greenAngle) * d2
y3 = y2 + sin(brownAngle + greenAngle) * d2
If I understand you correctly, you have already d2 = 0.5 * d1, d1, (x2, y2) as well as the angles. This should then just be a matter of plugging these values into the above formulae.

Let A, B and C be the three points.
AB = ( cos(angle1), sin(angle1) ) * length1
B = A + B
BC = ( cos(angle1+angle2), sin(angle1+angle2) ) * length2
C = B + BC
In your case,
A = ( 0, 0 )
angle1 = 31°
length1 = 655
angle2 = 152°
length2 = 328
Then,
C = ( Math.cos(31*Math.PI/180), Math.sin(31*Math.PI/180) ) * 655 +
( Math.cos(152*Math.PI/180), Math.sin(152*Math.PI/180) ) * 328
= ( Math.cos(31*Math.PI/180) * 655 + Math.cos(183*Math.PI/180) * 328,
Math.sin(31*Math.PI/180) * 655 + Math.sin(183*Math.PI/180) * 328 )
= ( 233.8940945603834, 320.1837454184)

Why isn't my homing missile algorithm working?

I've taken code that's heavily inspired by this answer but my projectile is not homing in the way I expect. The initial projectile direction is often perpendicular to the target. At which point, it does seem to home in on his direction, but if it "passes" him, it seems to get stuck in place like it's frozen at a point but then seems to follow the movements the target makes without moving at its intended speed. I've commented a line of code that I'm concerned about. He's using V3 and V4 in his algorithm which I suspect is a typo on his part but I'm not sure. If anyone can help me with what I'm doing wrong here, I'd be very grateful.
normalizedDirectionToTarget = root.vector.normalize(target.pos.x - attack.x, target.pos.y - attack.y) #V4
V3 = root.vector.normalize(attack.velocity.x, attack.velocity.y)
normalizedVelocity = root.vector.normalize(attack.velocity.x, attack.velocity.y)
angleInRadians = Math.acos(normalizedDirectionToTarget.x * V3.x + normalizedDirectionToTarget.y * V3.y)
maximumTurnRate = 50 #in degrees
maximumTurnRateRadians = maximumTurnRate * (Math.PI / 180)
signOfAngle = if angleInRadians >= 0 then 1 else (-1)
angleInRadians = signOfAngle * _.min([Math.abs(angleInRadians), maximumTurnRateRadians])
speed = 3
attack.velocity = root.vector.normalize(normalizedDirectionToTarget.x + Math.sin(angleInRadians), normalizedDirectionToTarget.y + Math.cos(angleInRadians)) #I'm very concerned this is the source of my bug
attack.velocity.x = attack.velocity.x * speed
attack.velocity.y = attack.velocity.y * speed
attack.x = attack.x + attack.velocity.x
attack.y = attack.y + attack.velocity.y
Edit: Code that Works
normalizedDirectionToTarget = root.vector.normalize(target.pos.x - attack.x, target.pos.y - attack.y) #V4
normalizedVelocity = root.vector.normalize(attack.velocity.x, attack.velocity.y)
angleInRadians = Math.acos(normalizedDirectionToTarget.x * normalizedVelocity.x + normalizedDirectionToTarget.y * normalizedVelocity.y)
maximumTurnRate = .3 #in degrees
maximumTurnRateRadians = maximumTurnRate * (Math.PI / 180)
crossProduct = normalizedDirectionToTarget.x * normalizedVelocity.y - normalizedDirectionToTarget.y * normalizedVelocity.x
signOfAngle = if crossProduct >= 0 then -1 else 1
angleInRadians = signOfAngle * _.min([angleInRadians, maximumTurnRateRadians])
speed = 1.5
xPrime = attack.velocity.x * Math.cos(angleInRadians) - attack.velocity.y * Math.sin(angleInRadians)
yPrime = attack.velocity.x * Math.sin(angleInRadians) + attack.velocity.y * Math.cos(angleInRadians)
attack.velocity = root.vector.normalize(xPrime, yPrime)
attack.velocity.x *= speed
attack.velocity.y *= speed
attack.x = attack.x + attack.velocity.x
attack.y = attack.y + attack.velocity.y

According to me, if you have a vector (x,y) and you want to rotate it by angle 'theta' about the origin, the new vector (x1,y1) becomes:
x1 = x*cos(theta) - y*sin(theta)
y1 = y*cos(theta) + x*sin(theta)
(the above can be derived using polar coordinates)
EDIT: I'm not sure if I understand correctly, but if you know the speed and the absolute value of the final angle (say phi), then why can't you simply do:
Vx = speed*cos( phi )
Vy = speed*sin( phi )
EDIT 2: also, while taking cos-inverse, there can be multiple possiblities for the angleinradians. You may have to check the quadrant in which both vectors lie. Your maximum turning rate is 50 degrees in either direction. Hence, the cosine for that angle shall always be positive. (cosine is negative only for 90 to 270 degrees.
EDIT 3: I think to get information about +ve turn direction or -ve turn direction, cross product is a better idea.
EDIT 4: Vx / Vy should work if you carry out the following:
initialAngleInRadians = Math.atan(normalizedVelocity.y / normalizedVelocity.x)
finalAngleInRadians = initialAngleInRadians + angleInRadians
Vx = speed*cos(finalAngleInRadians)
Vy = speed*sin(finalAngleInRadians)

Find column, row on 2D isometric grid from x,y screen space coords (Convert equation to function)

I'm trying to find the row, column in a 2d isometric grid of a screen space point (x, y)
Now I pretty much know what I need to do which is find the length of the vectors in red in the pictures above and then compare it to the length of the vector that represent the bounds of the grid (which is represented by the black vectors)
Now I asked for help over at mathematics stack exchange to get the equation for figuring out what the parallel vectors are of a point x,y compared to the black boundary vectors. Link here Length of Perpendicular/Parallel Vectors
but im having trouble converting this to a function
Ideally i need enough of a function to get the length of both red vectors from three sets of points, the x,y of the end of the 2 black vectors and the point at the end of the red vectors.
Any language is fine but ideally javascript

What you need is a base transformation:
Suppose the coordinates of the first black vector are (x1, x2) and the coordinates of the second vector are (y1, y2).
Therefore, finding the red vectors that get at a point (z1, z2) is equivalent to solving the following linear system:
x1*r1 + y1*r2 = z1
x2*r1 + y2*r2 = z2
or in matrix form:
A x = b
/x1 y1\ |r1| = |z1|
\x2 y2/ |r2| |z2|
x = inverse(A)*b
For example, lets have the black vector be (2, 1) and (2, -1). The corresponding matrix A will be
2 2
1 -1
and its inverse will be
1/4 1/2
1/4 -1/2
So a point (x, y) in the original coordinates will be able to be represened in the alternate base, bia the following formula:
(x, y) = (1/4 * x + 1/2 * y)*(2,1) + (1/4 * x -1/2 * y)*(2, -1)

What exactly is the point of doing it like this? Any isometric grid you display usually contains cells of equal size, so you can skip all the vector math and simply do something like:
var xStep = 50,
yStep = 30, // roughly matches your image
pointX = 2*xStep,
pointY = 0;
Basically the points on any isometric grid fall onto the intersections of a non-isometric grid. Isometric grid controller:
screenPositionToIsoXY : function(o, w, h){
var sX = ((((o.x - this.canvas.xPosition) - this.screenOffsetX) / this.unitWidth ) * 2) >> 0,
sY = ((((o.y - this.canvas.yPosition) - this.screenOffsetY) / this.unitHeight) * 2) >> 0,
isoX = ((sX + sY - this.cols) / 2) >> 0,
isoY = (((-1 + this.cols) - (sX - sY)) / 2) >> 0;
// isoX = ((sX + sY) / isoGrid.width) - 1
// isoY = ((-2 + isoGrid.width) - sX - sY) / 2
return $.extend(o, {
isoX : Math.constrain(isoX, 0, this.cols - (w||0)),
isoY : Math.constrain(isoY, 0, this.rows - (h||0))
});
},
// ...
isoToUnitGrid : function(isoX, isoY){
var offset = this.grid.offset(),
isoX = $.uD(isoX) ? this.isoX : isoX,
isoY = $.uD(isoY) ? this.isoY : isoY;
return {
x : (offset.x + (this.grid.unitWidth / 2) * (this.grid.rows - this.isoWidth + isoX - isoY)) >> 0,
y : (offset.y + (this.grid.unitHeight / 2) * (isoX + isoY)) >> 0
};
},

Okay so with the help of other answers (sorry guys neither quite provided the answer i was after)
I present my function for finding the grid position on an iso 2d grid using a world x,y coordinate where the world x,y is an offset screen space coord.
WorldPosToGridPos: function(iPosX, iPosY){
var d = (this.mcBoundaryVectors.upper.x * this.mcBoundaryVectors.lower.y) - (this.mcBoundaryVectors.upper.y * this.mcBoundaryVectors.lower.x);
var a = ((iPosX * this.mcBoundaryVectors.lower.y) - (this.mcBoundaryVectors.lower.x * iPosY)) / d;
var b = ((this.mcBoundaryVectors.upper.x * iPosY) - (iPosX * this.mcBoundaryVectors.upper.y)) / d;
var cParaUpperVec = new Vector2(a * this.mcBoundaryVectors.upper.x, a * this.mcBoundaryVectors.upper.y);
var cParaLowerVec = new Vector2(b * this.mcBoundaryVectors.lower.x, b * this.mcBoundaryVectors.lower.y);
var iGridWidth = 40;
var iGridHeight = 40;
var iGridX = Math.floor((cParaLowerVec.length() / this.mcBoundaryVectors.lower.length()) * iGridWidth);
var iGridY = Math.floor((cParaUpperVec.length() / this.mcBoundaryVectors.upper.length()) * iGridHeight);
return {gridX: iGridX, gridY: iGridY};
},
The first line is best done once in an init function or similar to save doing the same calculation over and over, I just included it for completeness.
The mcBoundaryVectors are two vectors defining the outer limits of the x and y axis of the isometric grid (The black vectors shown in the picture above).
Hope this helps anyone else in the future