8 replies to this topic

[TiagoCosta]

Just to know what other people use.

Thanks

[Sirisian]

I think you'll see a general consensus of 1 meter = 1.0. It's really the only logical choice if you're using metric since meter is the base unit.

[Danny02]

when using floating point numbers it really doesn't matter, you will always have the same amount of precision. So using 1.0 for 1 meter is just convenient to use, because you don't have to calculate how much meter 342 is when 1 meter is 4,7

[Hodgman]

I prefer to work in metres, but the games I've worked on have used:

• 1unit = 1m (work in metres)
• 1unit = 0.01m (work in centimetres)
• 1unit = 0.0254m (work in inches)

Obviously if you were doing an epic space sim, or a planet sim, or a bacteria game, or something of a non-human scale, then you probably wouldn't work in metres though.

[yckx]

I'm making a Pac-Man clone, so scale is an abstract concept for me at the moment. Although, if I were pressed to give a hard answer, based on how I have just imagined the maze if it were to be an actual physical object, I'd have to say 1 unit ~ 0.75 inches as a very rough estimate

[MrDaaark]

1 Unity = 1 Meter has pretty much become standard among all the DCC packages. All lighting and physics tools tend to assume 1U = 1M too. You should stick to it whenever possible, unless the scope of what you are working on prevents it.

[SimonForsman]

I use whatever suits the project, 1 Unit = 1 meter is a good option in most situations involving human sized objects , if your objects are much larger or smaller it becomes natural to think of their sizes using different units aswell and you really want to use the most natural scale to avoid the hassle of having to think about the scale all the time.

Making a bacteria model using 1U = 1m would be a bit insane since you'd end up with models in the 0.000001 unit size range (at this point the artists have to think about the scale to avoid making the objects the wrong size , 1U = 1 μm would be far easier to work with.)

[NEXUSKill]

While 1 to 1 is usually the used scale, I would suggest this is completely arbitrary and depends on the scale of your game, take spore for instance, if the size of the creatures is around 1x1x2 imagine the size of the planets!! you would loose precision like hell, the scale is whatever best fits your game while preserving as much precision as possible, you could fit entire worlds in a 1x1x1 box (not to mention the render pretty much does that).

[Danny02]

As said before, the scale of your system doesn't have to do anything with precision. You will always have problems with precision when dealing with great scale differences which have to be taken of.