UKismetMathLibrary::MakeRotFromZ

function Engine Blueprint Since 4.0

#include "Kismet/KismetMathLibrary.h"

Access: public Specifiers: staticBlueprintPure

Description

Builds a rotator whose up axis aligns with the given vector, leaving X and Y arbitrary but orthonormal. Useful for aligning decals or objects to a surface normal.

Caveats & Gotchas

• When the desired Z axis is nearly parallel to world-up (0,0,1), the resulting X and Y orientations may flip unexpectedly due to Gram-Schmidt instability near the pole.
• X and Y axes are not deterministic across engine versions; use MakeRotFromZX or MakeRotFromZY if you need a specific secondary axis.

Signature

static UE_INL_API FRotator MakeRotFromZ(const FVector& Z);

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Default
Z	const FVector&	The desired up (Z) axis direction. Does not need to be normalized.	—

Return Type

FRotator

Example

Align a decal to a surface normal C++

FVector SurfaceNormal = HitResult.ImpactNormal;
FRotator DecalRot = UKismetMathLibrary::MakeRotFromZ(SurfaceNormal);
DecalComp->SetWorldRotation(DecalRot);

Version History

Introduced in: 4.0

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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