User:DavidJCobb/Insides and Outsides

Fun fact: in video games, the inside of an object is not the same as the inside of the outside of an object. Let's use a glitch from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as an example..

Inside Lord Jabu-Jabu

The Inside Lord Jabu-Jabu glitch is a pretty clear demonstration of this. When you're in Zora's Fountain (where the big guy can be found), the outside of Lord Jabu-Jabu is there, but the inside of him (the dungeon) isn't -- there's nothing but empty space. Likewise, when you're inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, his outside isn't there -- if you could glitch your way outside of him, you'd find nothing but empty space.

But why?

Well, the reason why only Lord Jabu-Jabu's outside is present when you're in Zora's Domain is because...

Everything in 3D is hollow.

Spheres, cubes, everything except for flat surfaces. You see, objects in 3D are defined in terms of their faces (polygons), which in turn are defined in terms of their vertices (points).

Now, to make an object completely solid (as in real life), we'd need infinitely many layers; this is because of a geometric principle which states that between any two points, there is at least one other point. The same is true of numbers (because a point is just two or three numbers, depending on the dimension): between 1 and 2 is 1.5. Between 1 and 1.5 is 1.25. Between 1 and 1.25 is 1.125. And so on. Infinitely.

So, instead of finding a way to calculate infinitely many polygons for something whose interior is never going to be seen, 3D modelers and developers prefer to just leave things hollow and rely on collision detection to make sure you never see through their polygons -- it's the best option. We can see how well that's worked.

But why isn't Lord Jabu-Jabu's inside (dungeon) loaded?

This question has a simpler answer: it'd take too much memory to load the entire dungeon, all of its enemies, triggers, etc.. Plus, I don't think loading points can be used because I think the dungeon (Jabu-Jabu's inside) is actually bigger than Jabu-Jabu's outside.

The converse.

Yes, this principle also applies in reverse: the outside of an object's inside is not the same as the outside of the object. There are many glitches that demonstrate this.