A new name for RenderTarget::convertCoords

[Laurent]

Hi

Recently, I realized that the inverse of convertCoords (i.e. converting from world units to target pixels) would really be useful, and was tricky to implement with the current API. So I thought about adding it.

But I need a new name, because "convertCoords" is not clear at all about what is converted, and what it is converted to. So I need two names: a clearer replacement for convertCoords, and the corresponding name for the inverse function.

And... I can't find something good enough, that's why I ask here

[Ceylo]

Maybe this could help you. Here a Rect is a structure having both an origin and a size. But you could change it to an origin/point only. In the OS X API there are methods for this in the Window class:

Window::convertRectFromScreen(Rect) : Rect
Converts the rectangle from the screen coordinate system to the window’s coordinate system

Window::convertRectToScreen(Rect) : Rect
Converts the rectangle to the screen coordinate system from the window’s coordinate system.

There are also methods to do the same transformation but between widgets:

Widget::convertRectToWidget(Rect, Widget targetWidget) : Rect
Converts a rectangle from the receiver’s coordinate system to that of another widget.

Widget::convertRectFromWidget(Rect, Widget) : Rect
Converts a rectangle from the coordinate system of another widget to that of the receiver.

Note that I've modified the names a little bit, as it originally comes from an Objective-C documentation where Widgets are named Views.

Edit: after reading View Geometry: Transforming the Coordinate System I guess the second part (conversion from widget to widget) is a little bit too advanced for SFML.

[Foaly]

Ogre uses the rather long but discribtive name Ogre::Node::convertLocalToWorldPosition and Ogre::Node::convertWorldToLocalPosition.

See here: http://www.ogre3d.org/docs/api/html/classOgre_1_1Node.html#a57cd15b649fad2def94ba08e6ef230ed

[Laurent]

Maybe this could help you

So... RenderTarget::convertPointToWorld? That could work.

Ogre uses the rather long but discribtive name Ogre::Node::convertLocalToWorldPosition

Here it's not from local to global, it's from global to render-target.

[Ceylo]

Maybe this could help you

So... RenderTarget::convertPointToWorld? That could work.

Yup, looks fine to me.

[Hiura]

«World» sounds odd here, don't you think ?

What about convertPointToBase ? Base is vague enough but unlike world it doesn't make be think of the game/app environment (especially if there's a World class). In fact, when I hear/read «world» I don't think at a coordinate system at all. On the other hand, «base» is (mathematically) directly bound to the coordinates.

[FRex]

Maybe pixelsToUnits and unitsToPixels?

[Nexus]

toTargetCoords
toTargetPixels

toWorldCoords

[Mario]

I'd try to keep it short/simple:

sf::Point sf::View::transform(const &sf::Point);
sf::Point sf::View::inverse(const &sf::Point);

[Laurent]

The conversion needs both the RenderTarget and the View. So it must be a function of sf::RenderTarget (sf::View doesn't "know" sf::RenderTarget so I prefer this way).

And it's not clear that "inverse" is the inverse operation of "transform". And I prefer clear names rather than short names

[Nexus]

What about FRex' and my suggestions? If we know what doesn't please you, maybe we can come up with improvements

[Laurent]

Sorry

Your suggestions are ok too, that's why I said nothing about them.

[Nexus]

Okay, sorry for the misunderstanding. I never know if you have overlooked something if you don't comment it... But since it's a brainstorming thread, you're actually right

[Laurent]

I had almost forgotten this thread, sorry.

I don't like functions that begin directly with "to", because it feels like we're trying to convert the render-target itself to something.

The word "world" is very clear to me but this is because I worked a lot with engines with scenegraphs, and entities were always in the "world" or "scene". I don't know how this word would be interpreted by other users.

So... it could be:
convertCoordsToPixel
convertPixelToCoords

"Coords" is a little vague, maybe we could use "Unit" instead.

[Hiura]

what's your position on 'base' (cf my previous post) ?