[Question | TheNextWeek]How are 2 vectors enough to define an AABB?

[manas96]

I understand that if slabs in all 3 axis overlap, the ray hits the bounding volume. However, the aabb class only stores 2 vectors. I don't understand how only two vectors are enough to represent a 3D cuboid.
Also, is there a dedicated forum for asking questions such as these? Although this is not the correct place to ask such a question, this was the only public place I could find.

[hollasch]

Recall that the vec3 class generally represents any triple of values, including vectors, points, and colors. In the aabb case, since we're defining slabs of known orientation (perpendicular to each of the three Cartesian axes), we need six real values to define such a bounds: Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, Ymax, Zmin, and Zmax. The three minimum values (Xmin, Ymin, Zmin) represent one of the eight corners with all minimum coordinates, and similarly for (Xmax, Ymax, Zmax).

The constructor for aabb thus takes two points: the point at the minimum corner, and the point at the maximum corner.

[manas96]

D'oh. I see now.
Would you be willing to consider using typedef vec3 point; and typedef vec3 color; and using those names when appropriate?

[hollasch]

Not a bad suggestion. Spawning issue #422