Can someone help me to understand what vector3.lerp does and can be used for

ive seen a tutoiral on youtube on a smooth gun movement script what the script does is every time i turn left of right the gun is alittle slower then catches up to the camera to make ait look more realistic but i want to know how this actually works to maybe implement it somewhere else

transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(start, to, t);

It is an interoplation between start and to by t.

In human word, it means you take the start(transform.position) and you look at to (target.position). Then you move the object by the amount of t. If you give t= 1 it moves suddenly from start to to. If you give 0.5 it will move 1/2 each frame.

Often it is used like this:

function Update(){
    transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, target.position, Time.deltaTime);
    }

If there would be 10 m between transform(0) and target(10) and deltaTime is 0.2 (20%) then you get:

  1. 20% of target-transform (10-0) = 2m so transform = 2
  2. 20% of target-transform (10-2) = 1.6m so transform = 3.6
  3. 20% of target-transform (10-3.6) = 1.28m so transform = 4.88
  4. And so on

Hopefully you get the idea.

Lerp - is short version of Linear Interpolation

What it does: it takes 2 vectors and an float variable from 0f to 1f.

If you give 0 then the function returns the first given vector, if you give 1f it returns the second vector. If you give for instance 0.3f, the function returns (interpolated \ crossfaded \ blended) vector of those two, where are 0.3 parts of the first one and 0.7 parts of the other.

Example: Lerp( (10,0,0), (0,10,10), 0.5f ) = 5,5,0