Why is a brush called a brush?
by John Courte · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 08/18/2004 (8:49 am) · 8 replies
This is an utter noob question, but this has been bugging me since I started playing with QuArK a couple of years ago. Why is a brush called a brush? Is it something from CSG, or is it a grouping of branches and leaves of a BSP tree (like a broom), or is it just some arbitrary tag somebody hung on it when the world was still covered in molten rock and sulfur? If the last is the case, who and why?
#2
08/18/2004 (9:16 am)
Because "Closed Convex Volume" is a bit wordy? 
#3
10/25/2004 (6:04 am)
Matt is such a killjoy.. :P
#4
11/05/2004 (12:25 pm)
You would think block would be a better word.
#5
11/05/2004 (12:40 pm)
Block means like a dozen other things in programming already and they probably wanted a unique name. When it comes down to it, you have to call it something
#6
11/05/2004 (12:53 pm)
"Chunk" would be good. Or "lump". I think either of those would reflect the experience of working with them more accurately than the elegant sounding "brush". 
#7
So there you go... from the horse's mouth. The term 'brush' should have been chucked long ago.
11/15/2004 (11:24 pm)
I happened to ask Carmack this question some time back.Quote:
At 04:03 PM 10/13/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm curious why the term "brush" is used for primitives in CSG operations?
>Several people have attributed the term to you during the development
>of Quake. If so what was your reasoning behind the term? Thanks, John.
>
> Tom
It is a horrible term that stems from the very first experimental editor for Quake that was structly additive CSG, where a shape was used like a "brush" to paint with in 3D. That original concept was abandoned very early in Q1 development, and I wish we had changed to a more descriptive term a long time ago...
John Carmack
So there you go... from the horse's mouth. The term 'brush' should have been chucked long ago.
Torque Owner Erik Madison