Tech Tree Co-ordinates

[septemberWaves]

Looking at Nertea's Community Tech Tree, I notice that the co-ordinate system for the tech tree has some strange properties, which lead me to having several questions:

1. Why does the tech tree use three co-ordinates for a two-dimensional screen?
2. Where is the reference point for 0,0,0 (setting a node to be positioned at 0,0,0 places it so far below the screen that it is impossible to see even at maximum zoom)?
3. What is the unit of measurement used by the co-ordinate system?

[Tyko]

@Nertea @SpinkAkron @GrubbyZebra - I know you three have moved nodes around...

[JadeOfMaar]

@septemberWaves @Tyko I have some experience moving tech nodes. It's just enough that I can tell you that the third coordinate is most likely (assumed) the layer that it's drawn on, like layers in Photoshop or GIMP. In case of overlap with another icon, the game knows which is above which. The unit of measurement seems to be pixels at 100% zoom. It could be different but I never tried placing a node at 0, 0, 0 and judging the result. Why the tech tree doesn't start at 0, 0, 0 (rather, 0, 0, 1?) is anyone's guess.

[SpinkAkron]

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@septemberWaves @Tyko I have some experience moving tech nodes. It's just enough that I can tell you that the third coordinate is most likely (assumed) the layer that it's drawn on, like layers in Photoshop or GIMP. In case of overlap with another icon, the game knows which is above which. The unit of measurement seems to be pixels at 100% zoom. It could be different but I never tried placing a node at 0, 0, 0 and judging the result. Why the tech tree doesn't start at 0, 0, 0 (rather, 0, 0, 1?) is anyone's guess.

That's pretty much my experience. The 3rd values doesn't seem to be of any use. I set all mine to 0, but CTT has them at -1. I didn't find that it made in any difference.  Maybe it did at one time. I read something in the CTT thread about flickering icons.  The origin is at the lower right corner.  I moved the starting node way over to the left and it's at  pos = -3800,1505.5,0.   The total area is around 4000x2300, probably measured in pixels.  I also found the line/arrow graphic doesn't work when linking a node going down, for whatever reason. I think it still works otherwise.

Edited February 18, 2019 by SpinkAkron

[SpinkAkron]

I found a use for the third pos parameter. I was trying to add tier numbers to the top of my tech tree. It was causing apparently unrelated lines between other nodes to disappear. When I changed the new nodes to -1, it cleared it up.