Change wording "World Origin" to "Scene Origin" or "Scene Center"
EDIT: after negative feedback and discussion it actually makes more sense to change the name of "world" data block to something like "environment", since "world origin" seems to be wide accepted 3D nomenclature even outside Blender.
TLDR: "World origin" is in fact "Scene origin" and we should call it like that for interface consistency's sake.
"World" is a data block that might or might not be used in a scene it holds information about the background color, can have a volume, mist etc.
Scene however contains all the objects and might or might not use the world data block. So you can have a scene without the "world", yet we snap our objects and cursor to "world origin" while "origin" has no practical value to "world" data block. That means that the "World Origin" that we snap our dear cursor to or that we consider global 0,0,0 is in fact "Scene origin" or "Scene center".
Since "world" is such a broad term, yet quite narrow in Blender, it is dangerous to use it in the wrong place. It would help to understand the data structure better if we would call "Scene Origin" - "Scene Origin" and not "World Origin".
Small but important change for all newcomers, and for our poor Blenderhead's brains.
9 Comments
Hello,
You've highlighted an interesting ambiguity, but I don't think your suggestion fully resolves it. Calling it "Scene Origin" would imply, to me, that if I create a new scene, I can change the origin. After all, it is the "Scene" origin, not some other origin. Since this is not the case, calling it "Scene" would not work.
Additionally, you mention the one node called "World," but the term "World" is used as a title for a properties panel, right below Scene Properties. And this is where I lost track of the question at hand.
All that World Properties stuff can be changed per scene, and so they are really Scene-World Properties. The "World Origin" is in a category all its own. Perhaps "Universal Origin" would be most accurate as the Origin is independent of both World and Scene.
Phillip just to clarify "World" as data block in blender is actually scene "agnostic" you can have many worlds and pick which one is presently used in any scene. Hence many scene can use same world, or a scene can have many worlds, that you can switch (notice the dropdown menu). I you imply that it would be beter to move "world properties" into "Scene properties" tab, I agree, that would indicate indeed, that world selection is indeed a scene property.
the world data block has no transform, so there's no ambiguity. this seems a bit pedantic to me.
This is not ambiguity in programmer sense, but in UX sense. I am writing a highschool handbook at the moment, and just noticed this problem, and realised that it used to confuse me in earliest days of learning Blender, and now I realised why. Try to explain this to a beginner without stumbling with "this is world orgin but in fact this is not world origin, since there is "world" in blender but it doesn't have an origin" It is one of those things we "get used to" but they don't actually make sense, nor do they make things easier to use. Being pedantic in these most basic concepts is not a bad thing at all, I think.
Thanks for the context of teaching high school aged 3D artists. When we start learning a specialized trade, it tends to come with specialized language. High schoolers can readily grasp basic Euclidean geometry, which concerns coordinate space. If they want to communicate with other 3D artists, then they will need to learn the accepted nomenclature and “world origin” is readily understood by professionals in the field. If anything, I’d petition for Blender to rename “world” settings to “Environment” settings. Good fortune to your students! Tell them to hang in there. Learning the lingo is just one hurdle to mastery.
You are right, changing the "world" to "environment" would make more sense.
Whenever I hear "world origin", there's no ambiguity or confusion. Likewise if it's called "global origin" since these are the most common and precise ways to describe the point of lowest value in a spatial coordinate system.
I think the key word is "origin", which I am comfortable with in CG since it comes from mathematics / Euclidean geometry. In regard to confusing it with something to do with Blender's "World", that is pretty much the opposite of global origin, since it deals with the "Environment"; conceptually existing at the infinite extent of coordinate space.
Ha, if anything, I have a bigger beef with a node or object's local position transform being called an "origin" since I think of the origin as something that is singular to all of 3-space.
There is no confusion because we are used to it, however, while trying to explain this to my students who are beginning to learn blender it becomes obvious that there is something wrong with this term. Maybe my suggested change is not good either, but it IS confusing for newcomers, that this "world origin" is not in fact origin of the "world" since "world" in blender does not have origin/transform. Scene then confuses the thing further, since it is in fact of higher hierarchical order than "world" - hence my suggestion to call it "Scene Origin" then at least we know where we are, and name "world" is reserved for what "world" data block is in blender.
Disagree.
World Origin is a standard term in 3D applications, with the same meaning as is currently in blender. The naming should stay as-is.