calling both int and float versions vectors is in keeping with the industry convention established b

calling both int and float versions vectors is in keeping with the industry convention established by multiple even most graphics apis which silk intends to bind to

Perksey•10/21/23, 10:08 PM

anyway i didn't mean to derail the discussion, just wanted to make sure that there are use cases being considered should we generalise to "N-length array of Ts"

Ttannergooding the consideration is that Vector has some core concepts that are basically a req...

Kai•10/21/23, 10:08 PM

hmm... Normalize really doesn't make much sense, but I think all the others do - Length makes total sense.
Of course we could make Point(2<int>, idk)Point(2<int>, idk) return a Vector on subtraction, and then that way the difference is clear (like DateTime and Timespan

).
But idk, that seems hard

Kkhitiara calling both int and float versions vectors is in keeping with the industry conv...

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:09 PM

yes, but at the same time most people writing games don't use DirectX or OGL or Vulkan
they use a higher level engine which abstracts those, and often introduces its own different concepts and such

Ttannergooding yes, but at the same time most people writing games don't use DirectX or OGL or ...

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:09 PM

in which case why are they using silk

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:09 PM

silk is low level bindings

Kkhitiara in which case why are they using silk

Perksey•10/21/23, 10:09 PM

this is a bad take for maths specifically

Perksey•10/21/23, 10:09 PM

maths is the only namespace we provide that is truly standalone and generally applicable
e.g. these guys use it quite extensively https://github.com/asc-community

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:09 PM

ok yeah fair hadnt considered that

Kkhitiara calling both int and float versions vectors is in keeping with the industry conv...

Aqua•10/21/23, 10:09 PM

i can see tanner's point (haha)
in math, a point represents a point in space, whereas a vector represents a distance from something else
a point does not have a magnitude, a vector does

Aqua•10/21/23, 10:10 PM

and quite often the use of an integer vector is as a point in space

KKai hmm... Normalize really doesn't make much sense, but I think all the others do -...

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:10 PM

You can't really compute a "usable" length for Vector2<int>Vector2<int> because it loses data
it's like division, in that it is implicitly lossy and needs a pair (remainder) so that you can recover the lost information

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:10 PM

it's also the same reason we don't expose PowPow for integers, it is fundamentally lossy and ill suited for most needs

Kai•10/21/23, 10:11 PM

again I wouldn't know where to make the difference there also - like, I fully agree that for an int type it can make sense to have some alternative "distance" think with manhattan distance etc.
But then that either returns (int, int) which is super annoying if I want to compare / find the max / min etc, since then I get to manually stuff that into Vector2<float>Vector2<float> and do the conversions
Or it returns Vector2<int> leading back to the original problem
or it returns Vector2<float>, but that makes the case of getting each individual integer stupid (and might drop some precision)
Or it returns another point, but then I think the relative vs absolute idea is super muddied

AAqua i can see tanner's *point* (haha) in math, a point represents a point in space, ...

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:11 PM

theyre the same thing though, a point does have a magnitude insofar as it is also a 3-array in euclidean space. maybe its just me but im fundamentally incapable of describing an actual difference between points and vectors

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:11 PM

maybe its because im an abstract math person

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:11 PM

but the two are just fundamentally the same to me

KKai again I wouldn't know where to make the difference there also - like, I fully ag...

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:11 PM

right, which is why you separate the types
so you have things that can do T in, T outT in, T out and represent the concepts in a way that works well for the common needs

Ttannergooding You can't really compute a "usable" length for `Vector2<int>` because it loses d...

Kai•10/21/23, 10:11 PM

I mean yes, but we still have integer division and remainder separately and I would think the number of users that frequently use the combined function for that are low. Most people still expect to be able to divide integers like normal, ignoring the loss

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:12 PM

using it combined is the number one way to do it

Ttannergooding right, which is why you separate the types so you have things that can do `T in,...

Kai•10/21/23, 10:12 PM

not sure I get this - if I have a separate point type what does - return?

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:12 PM

also we cant even define length for vector2<int> rn because int doesnt implement IRootFunctions

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:13 PM

and we cant conditionally use static virtuals

Aqua•10/21/23, 10:13 PM

extension methods

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:13 PM

which brings us right back to the start

Ttannergooding using it combined is the number one way to do it

Kai•10/21/23, 10:13 PM

That is a bit surprising. Not sure but I have used the combined integer division maybe once. (ignoring things in algorithms I didn't come up with)
like finding the average of integers I think is super common to just do integer division cause the precision isn't that important

KKai not sure I get this - if I have a separate point type what does - return?

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:13 PM

Point2<T>.DistancePoint2<T>.Distance returns a Point2<T>Point2<T>, which represents the per dimension stepping
which then allows you to do the correct and efficient thing for integers

and for floating-point, you can convert to Vector2<T>Vector2<T> to get it in terms of length (at the same total cost)
or to do per dimension stepping, which is incredibly useful for interpolation (especially with physics)

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:14 PM

where we have a loosely constrained type with few members and a bunch of extensions as we have been considering the whole time

Aqua•10/21/23, 10:14 PM

that's how my math library works

Aqua•10/21/23, 10:14 PM

and it works well for me

Aqua•10/21/23, 10:14 PM

i can't say on a global scale but

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:14 PM

yeah and that was the thing being worked on hours ago

Ttannergooding `Point2<T>.Distance` returns a `Point2<T>`, which represents the per dimension s...

Kai•10/21/23, 10:14 PM

Right, but if Point2<T>.Distance returns Point2 again, then we can't really say Point is the absolute type, since that returned point is meaningless without the source it came from

Kai•10/21/23, 10:15 PM

it'll find us some point on the grid that just doesn't have any meaning at all

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:15 PM

before the argument started on whether vector3<int> should be permissable out of almost nowhere

Aqua•10/21/23, 10:15 PM

have we considered that we may be overthinking this

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:16 PM

yeah im with just continuing as is, allowing vector3<int> is easy within the framework as proposed and anything more involved is probably overthinking imo

KKai That is a bit surprising. Not sure but I have used the combined integer division...

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:16 PM

division isn't often used for things like computing averages, at least not for integers
you typically use floating/fixed point (user facing apps, they expect fractional results)

in practice it gets used for things like bucketing and finding the relevant offset in an array
which includes using the remainder to get the actual final offset

KKai Right, but if Point2<T>.Distance returns Point2 again, then we can't really say ...

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:17 PM

there ends up having to be some allowances in the type system, in a way that makes sense
nothing is going to be perfect, it's more a question of can you separate the two core needs enough
so that you aren't ending up with a type that can do 10% of the functionality if you have an integer and 100% with a float

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:17 PM

because having a type where the user doesn't have access to 90% of the functionality, isn't good design

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:17 PM

especially if that is expected/common functionality

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:18 PM

i feel like you might be overestimating how much gamedevs expect a vector-ish type to have length

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:18 PM

is that because gamedev has bad conventions? yes

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:18 PM

but still

khitiaraOP•10/21/23, 10:18 PM

idk for sure

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:19 PM

maybe I'm contrasting AAA vs indie development too much

but, length is a core need for using vectors correctly and efficiently

Kkhitiara where we have a loosely constrained type with few members and a bunch of extensi...

Perksey•10/21/23, 10:19 PM

this is the closing remark on which my brain has shut off here

Perksey•10/21/23, 10:19 PM

but these are all important discussion points, as it's bad to have a preconceived conlusion without considering all relevant factors

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:19 PM

as is normalization, if you aren't normalizing your vectors and local coordinate space
then you're likely losing precision and introducing physics and rendering bugs/quirks

tannergooding•10/21/23, 10:20 PM

(and lots of rubber banding/jitter)

Ttannergooding because having a type where the user doesn't have access to 90% of the functiona...

Kai•10/21/23, 10:20 PM

Yeah I mean this I fully agree with. I'm just not sure separating into multiple types is the way I want out of this.
I like the 2.X idea of allowing anything on anything, but obviously "try it and see what happens" isn't great.
The current 3.0 design IMO goes too much into having too many things unavailable.
Having more types is of course a solution, but then we have to somehow get the user to choose the correct types.

calling both int and float versions vectors is in keeping with the industry convention established b

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