Given an array of x,y points, how do I sort the points of this array in clockwise order (around their overall average center point)? My goal is to pass the points to a line-creation function to end up with something looking rather "solid", as convex as possible with no lines intersecting.
For what it's worth, I'm using Lua, but any pseudocode would be appreciated.
Update: For reference, this is the Lua code based on Ciamej's excellent answer (ignore my "app" prefix):
function appSortPointsClockwise(points)
local centerPoint = appGetCenterPointOfPoints(points)
app.pointsCenterPoint = centerPoint
table.sort(points, appGetIsLess)
return points
end
function appGetIsLess(a, b)
local center = app.pointsCenterPoint
if a.x >= 0 and b.x < 0 then return true
elseif a.x == 0 and b.x == 0 then return a.y > b.y
end
local det = (a.x - center.x) * (b.y - center.y) - (b.x - center.x) * (a.y - center.y)
if det < 0 then return true
elseif det > 0 then return false
end
local d1 = (a.x - center.x) * (a.x - center.x) + (a.y - center.y) * (a.y - center.y)
local d2 = (b.x - center.x) * (b.x - center.x) + (b.y - center.y) * (b.y - center.y)
return d1 > d2
end
function appGetCenterPointOfPoints(points)
local pointsSum = {x = 0, y = 0}
for i = 1, #points do pointsSum.x = pointsSum.x + points[i].x; pointsSum.y = pointsSum.y + points[i].y end
return {x = pointsSum.x / #points, y = pointsSum.y / #points}
end