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# Objective
- For curves that also include derivatives, make accessing derivative
information via the `Curve` API ergonomic: that is, provide access to a
curve that also samples derivative information.
- Implement this functionality for cubic spline curves provided by
`bevy_math`.
Ultimately, this is to serve the purpose of doing more geometric
operations on curves, like reparametrization by arclength and the
construction of moving frames.
## Solution
This has several parts, some of which may seem redundant. However, care
has been put into this to satisfy the following constraints:
- Accessing a `Curve` that samples derivative information should be not
just possible but easy and non-error-prone. For example, given a
differentiable `Curve<Vec2>`, one should be able to access something
like a `Curve<(Vec2, Vec2)>` ergonomically, and not just sample the
derivatives piecemeal from point to point.
- Derivative access should not step on the toes of ordinary curve usage.
In particular, in the above scenario, we want to avoid simply making the
same curve both a `Curve<Vec2>` and a `Curve<(Vec2, Vec2)>` because this
requires manual disambiguation when the API is used.
- Derivative access must work gracefully in both owned and borrowed
contexts.
### `HasTangent`
We introduce a trait `HasTangent` that provides an associated `Tangent`
type for types that have tangent spaces:
```rust
pub trait HasTangent {
/// The tangent type.
type Tangent: VectorSpace;
}
```
(Mathematically speaking, it would be more precise to say that these are
types that represent spaces which are canonically
[parallelized](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallelizable_manifold). )
The idea here is that a point moving through a `HasTangent` type may
have a derivative valued in the associated `Tangent` type at each time
in its journey. We reify this with a `WithDerivative<T>` type that uses
`HasTangent` to include derivative information:
```rust
pub struct WithDerivative<T>
where
T: HasTangent,
{
/// The underlying value.
pub value: T,
/// The derivative at `value`.
pub derivative: T::Tangent,
}
```
And we can play the same game with second derivatives as well, since
every `VectorSpace` type is `HasTangent` where `Tangent` is itself (we
may want to be more restrictive with this in practice, but this holds
mathematically).
```rust
pub struct WithTwoDerivatives<T>
where
T: HasTangent,
{
/// The underlying value.
pub value: T,
/// The derivative at `value`.
pub derivative: T::Tangent,
/// The second derivative at `value`.
pub second_derivative: <T::Tangent as HasTangent>::Tangent,
}
```
In this PR, `HasTangent` is only implemented for `VectorSpace` types,
but it would be valuable to have this implementation for types like
`Rot2` and `Quat` as well. We could also do it for the isometry types
and, potentially, transforms as well. (This is in decreasing order of
value in my opinion.)
### `CurveWithDerivative`
This is a trait for a `Curve<T>` which allows the construction of a
`Curve<WithDerivative<T>>` when derivative information is known
intrinsically. It looks like this:
```rust
/// Trait for curves that have a well-defined notion of derivative, allowing for
/// derivatives to be extracted along with values.
pub trait CurveWithDerivative<T>
where
T: HasTangent,
{
/// This curve, but with its first derivative included in sampling.
fn with_derivative(self) -> impl Curve<WithDerivative<T>>;
}
```
The idea here is to provide patterns like this:
```rust
let value_and_derivative = my_curve.with_derivative().sample_clamped(t);
```
One of the main points here is that `Curve<WithDerivative<T>>` is useful
as an output because it can be used durably. For example, in a dynamic
context, something that needs curves with derivatives can store
something like a `Box<dyn Curve<WithDerivative<T>>>`. Note that
`CurveWithDerivative` is not dyn-compatible.
### `SampleDerivative`
Many curves "know" how to sample their derivatives instrinsically, but
implementing `CurveWithDerivative` as given would be onerous or require
an annoying amount of boilerplate. There are also hurdles to overcome
that involve references to curves: for the `Curve` API, the expectation
is that curve transformations like `with_derivative` take things by
value, with the contract that they can still be used by reference
through deref-magic by including `by_ref` in a method chain.
These problems are solved simultaneously by a trait `SampleDerivative`
which, when implemented, automatically derives `CurveWithDerivative` for
a type and all types that dereference to it. It just looks like this:
```rust
pub trait SampleDerivative<T>: Curve<T>
where
T: HasTangent,
{
fn sample_with_derivative_unchecked(&self, t: f32) -> WithDerivative<T>;
// ... other sampling variants as default methods
}
```
The point is that the output of `with_derivative` is a
`Curve<WithDerivative<T>>` that uses the `SampleDerivative`
implementation. On a `SampleDerivative` type, you can also just call
`my_curve.sample_with_derivative(t)` instead of something like
`my_curve.by_ref().with_derivative().sample(t)`, which is more verbose
and less accessible.
In practice, `CurveWithDerivative<T>` is actually a "sealed" extension
trait of `SampleDerivative<T>`.
## Adaptors
`SampleDerivative` has automatic implementations on all curve adaptors
except for `FunctionCurve`, `MapCurve`, and `ReparamCurve` (because we
do not have a notion of differentiable Rust functions).
For example, `CurveReparamCurve` (the reparametrization of a curve by
another curve) can compute derivatives using the chain rule in the case
both its constituents have them.
## Testing
Tests for derivatives on the curve adaptors are included.
---
## Showcase
This development allows derivative information to be included with and
extracted from curves using the `Curve` API.
```rust
let points = [
vec2(-1.0, -20.0),
vec2(3.0, 2.0),
vec2(5.0, 3.0),
vec2(9.0, 8.0),
];
// A cubic spline curve that goes through `points`.
let curve = CubicCardinalSpline::new(0.3, points).to_curve().unwrap();
// Calling `with_derivative` causes derivative output to be included in the output of the curve API.
let curve_with_derivative = curve.with_derivative();
// A `Curve<f32>` that outputs the speed of the original.
let speed_curve = curve_with_derivative.map(|x| x.derivative.norm());
```
---
## Questions
- ~~Maybe we should seal `WithDerivative` or make it require
`SampleDerivative` (i.e. make it unimplementable except through
`SampleDerivative`).~~ I decided this is a good idea.
- ~~Unclear whether `VectorSpace: HasTangent` blanket implementation is
really appropriate. For colors, for example, I'm not sure that the
derivative values can really be interpreted as a color. In any case, it
should still remain the case that `VectorSpace` types are `HasTangent`
and that `HasTangent::Tangent: HasTangent`.~~ I think this is fine.
- Infinity bikeshed on names of traits and things.
## Future
- Faster implementations of `SampleDerivative` for cubic spline curves.
- Improve ergonomics for accessing only derivatives (and other kinds of
transformations on derivative curves).
- Implement `HasTangent` for:
- `Rot2`/`Quat`
- `Isometry` types
- `Transform`, maybe
- Implement derivatives for easing curves.
- Marker traits for continuous/differentiable curves. (It's actually
unclear to me how much value this has in practice, but we have discussed
it in the past.)
---------
Co-authored-by: Alice Cecile <alice.i.cecile@gmail.com>
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| src | ||
| Cargo.toml | ||
| clippy.toml | ||
| README.md | ||
Bevy Math
