Why in 3D software (like games or 3D modeling apps) if you get too far away from the center point (0, 0 ,0) things get really glitchy and broken?
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In a computer you only have a certain number of “bits,” to use to store a single number. These bits work just like digits do in normal math, so I’ll use those in this example instead of binary since it’s the same concept.
Imagine we have 4 digits to work with: `0000`. With those 4 digits, we can store any number from `0000` to `9999`. We can also put a decimal place anywhere within those 4 digits, so technically we can also go from `.0001` to `9999.`. This proves to be a problem though, since as the number we need to represent gets bigger, we need to move the decimal place further to the right, losing precision.
**Practical example:** We have 2 objects in our game which are `0.100` units away from each-other. Object_1 is at position `0.100` and Object_2 is at position `0.200`. We then want both of these objects to move 1000 units away, so we take `0.100 + 1000 = 1000.1` and `0.200 + 1000 = 1000.2`, except **uh oh,** we’re now using 5 digits when we can only use 4!
This means the digits to the right side have to get cut off, so `1000.1 -> 1000.` and `1000.2 -> 1000.`. **Uh oh** **again!** Now both of our objects are occupying the same position! It’s not hard to see how this can lead to problems in games when you start dealing with large scales.
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