# Entity orientation

**URL:** <https://community.cesium.com/t/entity-orientation/3700>\
**Category:** CesiumJS\
**Created:** [February 10, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/entity-orientation/3700 "2016-02-10T14:51:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Eric\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/82dd89/32.png) [@Eric\_Burns](https://community.cesium.com/u/Eric_Burns)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/entity-orientation/3700/1 "2016-02-10T14:51:18Z")

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Where can I look to see what kind of values can be stored in an entity’s orientation property? The [documentation](https://cesiumjs.org/Cesium/Build/Documentation/Entity.html) just mentions that it is a Property.

If I call entity.orientation.getValue( viewer.clock.currentTime ) … with the return value always be a Cesium.Quaternion?

Is there any way to get back an entity’s heading?

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**Author:** ![Eric\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/82dd89/32.png) [@Eric\_Burns](https://community.cesium.com/u/Eric_Burns)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/entity-orientation/3700/2 "2016-02-10T15:00:53Z")

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The reason I ask is that I’m trying to get the camera to assume the first-person view of an entity. However, since the entity and camera orientations are handled differently, I can’t find a way to take the entity’s orientation and set it on the camera (the entity returns a Quaternion to me, and the camera.setView property wants a heading, pitch, roll, or a view, right, and up axis).

Any pointers on how I can set the camera from an entity’s orientation?

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**Author:** ![Eric\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/82dd89/32.png) [@Eric\_Burns](https://community.cesium.com/u/Eric_Burns)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/entity-orientation/3700/3 "2016-02-10T15:15:52Z")

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I suppose that I could get the entity’s orientation quaternion and then use:

Cesium.Matrix3.fromQuaternion(quaternion, result)

… to turn it into a rotation matrix, and then pull out the appropriate columns to set as the direction and up on the camera.

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**Author:** ![Eric\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/82dd89/32.png) [@Eric\_Burns](https://community.cesium.com/u/Eric_Burns)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 4:25pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/entity-orientation/3700/4 "2016-02-10T16:25:02Z")

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That worked. :o)