Until yesterday I thought that math was useless in programming, now I’m studying for a Master’s degree as a Game Developer:
<pre><code class="language-C++">void AAnimatedPlatform::Tick(float DeltaTime)
{
	Super::Tick(DeltaTime);

	ElapsedTime += DeltaTime;
	FVector NewLocation = GetActorLocation();
	NewLocation.X = InitialPosition.X + Amplitude * FMath::Sin(Speed * ElapsedTime);

	SetActorLocation(NewLocation);
}
</code></pre>
<img src="https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1TmNvwA5--/f_auto/v1733669854/ugc/content_fb05b53a-5908-4f11-a65f-1d2c02fe7c72" alt="{7B6F9705-DB1E-4E5B-9D21-2C97AABCC213}">
Like everything… It depends on what you have to do…

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The author shares their newfound realization about the importance of math in programming, particularly in the context of game development. They provide a C++ code snippet demonstrating the use of mathematics to animate a platform in a game by adjusting its position using trigonometric functions.

Math in programming...

Yeah I agree, but it depends on what you do, to make 2d platformer you don’t need practically ANY math. but if you make a complex strategy (like me :D) or simulation etc. you absolutely need to know at least the basics. BTW, your example doesn’t seem to complex XD

It may doesn’t look like much but in the early days, sin and cos calculations on floats are a time consuming task if done in every frame. try rounding to 1 or 2 decimals and precalculate your sin and cos in an array for create a kind of lookup table :)

are you moving it in a wave pattern using amplitude for distance and the speed and time elapsed for the degree of the curves??

Not sure about that ElapsedTime counter could be a big number after some time, but generally quite nice snippet. ;-)