Minecraft Forums

By default, OpenGL treats the X and Y coordinates as screen coordinates, and the Z coordinate as the "third dimension" which comes out of your monitor, or goes inside of it.

That makes sense when using OpenGL for something very simple like a stationary scene, you know, a rotating cube or teapot. But not for a world in which you can walk around in, and look around in every direction, like every first person computer game is.

Y for height in a world is stupid and confusing, and it's a shame Minecraft chose for this convention.

It is extremely easy with OpenGL to choose your own camera matrix, as well as to define the names and meanings of axes. So nothing is in the way of choosing the more logical names.

I wish Minecraft would have chosen their axis names according to the real world:

X and Y for horizontal movement and Z for height
or
Longitude and Latitude for horizontal movement and Height for height

Quote from Zeemvel

By default, OpenGL treats the X and Y coordinates as screen coordinates, and the Z coordinate as the "third dimension" which comes out of your monitor, or goes inside of it.

That makes sense when using OpenGL for something very simple like a stationary scene, you know, a rotating cube or teapot. But not for a world in which you can walk around in, and look around in every direction, like every first person computer game is.

It is extremely easy with OpenGL to choose your own camera matrix, as well as to define the names and meanings of axes. So nothing is in the way of choosing the more logical names.

I wish Minecraft would have chosen their axis names according to the real world:

X and Y for horizontal movement and Z for height
or
Longitude and Latitude for horizontal movement and Height for height

Y iz zuppozed to be up,

Quote from Gothic-Burn

Y iz zuppozed to be up,

Nope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_coordinates#In_three_dimensions

"The standard orientation, where the xy-plane is horizontal and the z-axis points up (and the x- and the y-axis form a positively oriented two-dimensional coordinate system in the xy-plane if observed from above the xy-plane) is called right-handed or positive."

In same article (note the lack of "z"): "Note that positions on a surface in navigation use latitude and longitude in a similar two dimensional system. However the co-ordinates are written in the opposite sequence, effectively (y,x)."

Also, the standard representation of a world is a map, which is a 2D sheet of paper, on which you'd obviously use X and Y coordinates, not X and Z coordinates.

Quote from souljabri557

Did you take basic geometry?

This is not an issue of geometry, but of geography.

I think this whole thread is pointless. You want Jeb to swap two letters that shouldn't be looked at excessively and don't affect gameplay in any way.

Quote from souljabri557

*facepalm*

Actually, you're wrong. Minecraft is an ever-expanding flat plane; the Earth is a sphere. Meaning the rules that apply in geography usually fail in Minecraft. However, Minecraft takes third-dimensional Euclidean geometry rules very well, and thus:
x is width
y is length (height)
and z is depth

Minecraft *represents* a world.

Plus see the wikipedia links which talk about the convention where x/y is horizontal and z is up. If you want to say that y represents "height" somewhere, then also provide a link which claims that in Euclidean rules, y indeed means height, because my link says that in Euclidean rules, z is height. And I can give one more (see picture there): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_space

It is easier to think in X and Y when navigating, than in X and Z. That is what my suggestion is all about.

I still think this thread is pointless.

This same thing has bothered me for years in minecraft.

I am a machinist and program them.

The positive direction of X dimension is left to right Y dimension is from you going away from you and Z dimension is up from origin.

But what can you do, but make a mod to change it or, rethink life.

I just deal with the fact in minecraft sugar makes paper

It makes no sense for Y to suddenly change from up and down to (depth?) just because you added a third dimension, and it is perfectly consistent with screen coordinates - in 2D X is left and right and Y is up and down, right? Then shouldn't Y still be up and down in 3D? The rendering code is entirely consistent with this - all sources say, that "glVertex3f" accepts coordinates as XYZ, and indeed, when rendering 2D elements, like GUIs, it only uses the first two coordinates (note that Z is always 0.0F):

GL11.glTexCoord2f(var8 / 256.0F, var9 / 256.0F);
GL11.glVertex3f(this.posX + var11, this.posY, 0.0F);
GL11.glTexCoord2f(var8 / 256.0F, (var9 + 15.98F) / 256.0F);
GL11.glVertex3f(this.posX - var11, this.posY + 7.99F, 0.0F);
GL11.glTexCoord2f((var8 + var10) / 256.0F, var9 / 256.0F);
GL11.glVertex3f(this.posX + var10 / 2.0F + var11, this.posY, 0.0F);
GL11.glTexCoord2f((var8 + var10) / 256.0F, (var9 + 15.98F) / 256.0F);
GL11.glVertex3f(this.posX + var10 / 2.0F - var11, this.posY + 7.99F, 0.0F);

If other systems actually change them then I wonder why people aren't frustrated with that - imagine how many errors must occur due to forgetting to swap Y and Z (never mind that in Minecraft and OpenGL Y increases from bottom to top while image editors are the opposite, with the origin in the upper-left; and indeed, the Y coordinates of a texture are reversed when rendering the side faces of a block).

I have to admit it is confusing...such a mess to work with coordinates.