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Local Global Co-ordinates Confusion
Hello all,
I'm a newbie in game dev . I am getting confused with the two options Local/Global Coordinate system and Centre/Pivot options displayed. I want to know specifically which mode i should select while developing and whether my choice will affect the game in anyway.
Or is this option only for user convinience and will not hamper the development process of the game.I'm clueless in this .I would be grateful if you can provide me with any help.
Thnx in advance .. :)
Answer by aldonaletto · Oct 29, 2012 at 10:59 AM
These options only affect the axes you see in the Editor when some object is selected, and have no effect in the actual object during runtime. When you click a scene object, the Editor shows 3 arrows (XYZ, colors red, green and blue). If Global is selected, the arrows are aligned to the world axes; if it's in Local mode, the arrows show the object direction (the blue arrow shows its forward direction, for instance). The Centre option shows the arrows at the object center, while the Pivot option shows them at the object pivot - this makes a lot of difference when the object pivot is far away from its center, or when the object have children.
In general, the options Local and Pivot are more useful, since they help you to position and orient objects: if you want to add a weapon to a character, for instance, you must know in which direction it's pointing.
Answer by Rosonator · Oct 29, 2012 at 10:41 AM
The local coordinates are very important in parental relations. When you have a game object inside a map, for example, you usually want to know what position has that object in the map, not in the whole world. The same relationship works in Scale and Rotation.
It's also particularly important when the object that your gameObject is related to is in movement, because you won't ever find the correct position working with global coordinates.
I'll give you an example, in the game I am currently developing I'm moving a ball through a labyrinth which is moved with the rotation of the mobile phone. I must relate my ball to the map, so that the ball isn't disturbed with the weird movements of the mobile. That forces me to use the local coordinates when happens any interaction between the ball and the labyrinth elements as doors, teleportations, etc, because no one of the elements has a static position in the global.
I hope you this serves, greetings
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