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Swizzling is accessing the values within vector types (Real2, Integer3, etc.) in any order. The term swizzling originated as the name for a technique used for doing the same thing, but within shaders.

Understanding a Swizzle

To swizzle a vector, refer to its values as if they were data members, using the letters X, Y, Z, and W for the corresponding elements. These can be combined in any permutation or combination.

var a = Real3(0,1,2);
Console.WriteLine("Example 1: a.X: `a.X`");
Console.WriteLine("Example 2: a.XYZ: `a.XYZ`");
Console.WriteLine("Example 3: a.XY: `a.XY`");
Console.WriteLine("Example 4: a.YX: `a.YX`");
Console.WriteLine("Example 5: a.XXY: `a.XXY`");
Console.WriteLine("Example 6: a.ZYXZ: `a.ZYXZ`");

Example 1: a.X: 0
Example 2: a.XYZ: (0, 1, 2)
Example 3: a.XY: (0, 1)
Example 4: a.YX: (1, 0)
Example 5: a.XXY: (0, 0, 1)
Example 6: a.ZYXZ: (2, 1, 0, 2)

In this example a is a simple real3:

  • Example 1 constructs a Real containing the value of a.X
  • Example 2 constructs a by-value copy of a.
  • Example 3 constructs a real2 containing the X and Y values of a.
  • Example 4 constructs a real2 with X as the value of a.Y, and Y as the value of a.X.
  • Example 5 constructs a real3 where the X and Y are set to the value of a.X and Z is set to the value of a.Y.
  • Example 6 constructs a real4 with the same X, Y, and Z values as the original vector a, but whose W value is the value of a.Z.

Assigning With Swizzles

Extracting portions of a vector as seen above is a fairly common operation even outside of shader development. An example may be centering the camera object while not affecting its zoom in a 2D game.

//0 out the XY axis and maintain the Z axis values
var cameraOffset = this.Camera.Transform.LocalTranslation;
cameraOffset.XY = Real2.Zero;
this.Camera.Transform.LocalTranslation = cameraOffset;

If we tried to assign into the swizzle constructed by-value from the member variable, however, it would not work:

this.Camera.Transform.LocalTranslation.XY = Real2();

In this example .XY returns a by-value copy of the LocalTranslation's X and Y values as a Real2. So in this example when we assign the Real2() into it we are assigning into a copy instead of the member variable itself.

Related Materials

Manual

Reference

Task

  • T950
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