I'll leave this here for context (bottom right is the only sane one)
this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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Minecraft being the most influential of them all
Z is elevation. Any real world application, z goes up down. 3D applications SHOULD use it for elevation. I despise that many do not. It's so fucking confusing. 2D, sure y go brrr. But once that 3rd dimension is added, y needs to take several seats and quit trying to take on dimensions it doesn't have any right to.
Y-up sorta makes sense in games. Imagine a 2D platformer, Y is up and X is horizontal. Now add depth. Instead of flipping axis just use Z for depth.
But in top down 2D games you also use X and Y but now neither is up
True but I think it’s also because of screen coordinates, Y is always the vertical axis in screen coordinates. So programmers translated that to 3D coordinates because in real world space the screen doesn’t lie flat but is up right. It’s probably why Y is up in OpenGL and calls the depth buffer the Z-Buffer.
That's the core of my point though. Once you add depth it's not 2d space anymore (even though the screen is 2d, the represented field is 3D) and y becomes depth.
It all depends how you perceive the XY plane. Like if your job involves blueprints than XY plane lies flat and horizontal then it makes sense that Z axis is height. Hence why engineering software is all Z-Up. If the XY plane is upright, like screen coordinates, then Z is depth. Hence why many software that is used to create content for the screen is Y-Up. Like Maya, Houdini, Unity, OpenGL etc.
It makes more sense if you've ever drawn in CAD. Top view, x and y. Now side view, y and z or y and x. You look down on x and y, and if you are extruding you now create the z axis dimensions. For the people who draft on the side axis: you are true psychos (ok, unless you're using a lathe I suppose, or if the silhouette is more defined from the side... ok maybe not psycho, just odd)
User look sideways at item on shelf. Designers look down on paper. Both viewpoints are needed for it to be a good object.
Architects do both because they have all that math and something serious to prove.
I do use CAD software but always have my items resting on an x/y plane with z being height. I do some 3d printing and basic cad designs, so z being elevation still makes sense there.
You convinced me. Have an internet point.
Lol I was just ranting into the void but glad it resonated for you.
There are others, where there are way more arrows, and they are not at all orthogonal...
X is up, there now no one is happy.
I'm came here to talk shit about y-up but now I'm mad at you instead.
Z is depth, full stop, and I have my fists raised, Queensbury-style, to anyone who contends otherwise.
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Neither of these are right. X is forward, Y is to the right and Z is down.
Source: https://iansguides.com/tutorials/aircraft-coordinate-system-and-anatomy/
For me it's the top one. In a web browser, when using CSS and JavaScript, x is the horizontal axis, y is the vertical axis, and z is for depth. Hence the z-index CSS property which determines depth.
I would say the bottom one only makes sense if the stick figure were to hover in the air and look downwards. Then the z axis would be depth for him.
Above and below the page/plane is the z-axis.
But some people "hold" the page up in front of them, or down on the table.
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Right handed and left handed? (Top image doesn't follow right hand rule, Z should point towards camera)
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Weird didn't everyone learn XY on paper on a desk first? All they did was add z axis to that original concept for elevation which gives us the bottom image.
Top image is like if I held paper straight parallel to my face.
When working in 2 dimensions with gravity, it is common to treat Y as up. E.g, 2d video games, physics problems, computer screens.
That's basically what it comes down to: Is your XY plane a piece of paper that you look at from the top, or is it the pixel coordinates of the screen you are looking through?
That's why X is usually not contested, because it's the same on a piece of paper that you view top-down and on a screen that you view from the front.
Y is then one of the two potential axies for either a top-down or a side-scrolling view, and Z is the remaining axis.
I not educated in 2d game design so I guess Y is used for up on side strollers is what I think is happening. Least thats what is going on in gadot based on anothet commenter.
In 2D games X is right, Y is either up or down. I haven't seen any engine where X is inverted, but Y can be either direction. Interestingly, I haven't seen Y as down in any 3D environment yet.
Screens vs paper. It's why all the engineering software uses Z-up, since they came from a paper top-down view workflow. But many of the creative software uses y-up, since they exist to create art that gets consumed on a screen. Like animation and games.
Blender and UE4 uses z as up. Which was intuitive to me having been taught that in school but Looks like industry standard for 2d focused engines use Y up based on this comment from 2009. What a mess.
Maya and Unity both use the lefthand axis system which has Y as world up. Max is the one of the few that uses Z as up (DOH!!)
2022 comment:
Maya is fully able to translate between its own (Y up) and UE4’s (Z up) on export, so you can work “upright” in both without any alterations.
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y-up ftw
It's easier when writing 3d renderers cause the x and y coordinates of the 3d points eventually become the x and y coordinates of the 2d points on screen and it's easier to keep track of
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I legit had no idea anybody actually used the upper system until now. I had to read the comments just to see whether the upper system was just some sort of joke. I am horrified.
Almost the entirety of computer graphics uses the z coordinate for depth afaik.
Even Minecraft does it.
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No, just no. x is the variable for depth, y is the variable for width, and z is height. I learned that from multivariable calculus, no other convention is better.
Fuck you for showing me this, I'm now going to gauge my eyes out.
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One of my friends and I used to always have this debate because of our different backgrounds. I got used to +Y being up because of doing physics for several years and seeing side-on diagrams that needed to account for gravity. My friend has a background in geology, so he's used to top-down surveying maps where +Z is up. It all depends on your perspective.
But my way is right. We need to have standards, people.
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Thanks to 3D printing Z is firmly “up” in my brain even if the modeler I use does it differently.
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Technically, there's a lot more options. Any axis can have any name. The reason why these two main systems exist is because of 2D coordinates.
A 2D coordinate system can either be viewed top-down (piece of paper on a table) or from the front (pixels on a screen). So while X stays the same in both of these options (and thus isn't contested in 3D coordinates), Y is either up (on a screen) or ahead (on paper), and Z then gets whatever axis is left over.
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