Spaces
Tier 1 - Cartesian Coordinate Spaces
| Space | Dim. | Why It’s Core | Aliases | Translation Vector | What It Means |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UV Space | 2D | Texture sampling, blending, animation, atlases, UI masking | Texture space, Texcoord space, 2D UVs | (0.5, 0.5) |
The center of a texture or sprite (50% across U and V) |
| Object Space | 3D | Local mesh space — used in modeling, rigging, deformation | Local space, Model space, Mesh space | (1, 0, 0) |
1 unit to the right of the object’s pivot (local X axis) |
| World Space | 3D | Scene-level effects, decals, VFX, projection, positioning | Global space, Scene space, Absolute space | (10, 2, -5) |
A point 10 units right, 2 up, 5 back from world origin |
| Camera Space | 3D | Needed for physical camera simulation, lighting, billboarding, fresnel | View space, Eye space, View-relative space | (0, 0, -3) |
A point 3 units in front of the camera |
| Screen Space | 2D | UI layout, screen shaders, post-process FX tied to resolution | Pixel space, Raster space, Framebuffer space | (1920, 1080) |
Bottom-right corner of a 1920x1080 screen |
| Viewport Space | 2D | Resolution-independent layout, fullscreen FX, responsive shaders | Normalized screen space, 0–1 screen space, Screen UVs | (0.25, 0.75) |
25% from the left, 75% from the bottom of the screen (normalized) |
| Tangent Space | 3D | Local shading basis — used for normal maps, decals, and detail lighting | Surface space, Texture tangent space, TBN space | (0, 0, 1) |
A direction pointing "out" from the surface (local Z axis) |
| Bone Space | 3D | Used in rigging, skinning, animation — defines how vertices are deformed | Joint space, Skinning space, Bind pose space | (0, 1.2, 0) |
A vertex 1.2 units above a bone’s local origin (e.g., a joint's Y axis) |
| Space | Origin |
|---|---|
| UV Space | Bottom-left of the texture → (0, 0) in UV coords |
| Object Space | The pivot point of the object (usually center or base in modeling) |
| World Space | The global scene origin — Unity's (0, 0, 0) in the world |
| Camera Space | The camera’s position → camera is at (0, 0, 0) and looks down -Z |
| Screen Space | Bottom-left of the screen (0,0) in Unity (unless it's top-left in other systems) |
| Viewport Space | Bottom-left of screen in normalized space → (0.0, 0.0) |
| Tangent Space | The origin is the current surface point, defined per-fragment or per-vertex |
| Bone Space | The origin is the base of the bone/joint — local to that bone |
🥈 Tier 2
| Space | Dim. | Why It’s Useful | Also Known As / Aliases | Example Vector | What It Means |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clip Space | 4D | Final stage before rasterization; output of MVP transform in vertex shader | Homogeneous clip space, Post-projection space | (-1, 1, 0.5, 1) |
Top-left corner of screen in clip space (with depth = 0.5) |
| NDC Space | 3D | Screen-aligned normalized coords after perspective divide | Normalized Device Coordinates | (0, 0, 0.5) |
Center of screen in normalized screen space (Z = 0.5 depth) |
| Local-to-Parent | 3D | Relative transforms for procedural rigs or hierarchy animation | Parent-relative space, Local hierarchy space | (0, 1, 0) |
1 unit above the parent bone or object |
| Bone Bind Pose Space | 3D | Base pose of mesh before animation; used to calculate skin deformation | Inverse bind space, Rest pose | (0.2, 0.5, 0) |
Original vertex position relative to its joint’s bind pose |
| Camera-Relative Space | 3D | Used for large-world precision, eye-relative motion, and virtual cameras | Eye-relative, Floating origin space | (0, 0, -50000) |
A point 50,000 units in front of the camera — used for planetary scale scenes |
| Screen UV Space | 2D | For fullscreen shaders and distortion FX | NDC → UV, Normalized screen space | (0.5, 0.5) |
Center of the screen (used in post-processing and image effects) |
| Spherical / Polar Space | 2D/3D | Custom projections, procedural effects, panorama/fisheye mapping | Angular space, Radial coordinates | (θ = 1.57, r = 3) |
A point 3 units away at 90° from the origin (polar coordinates) |
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