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Snazz@lemmy.world 2 hours agoQuaternions are useful, but no means necessary or intrinsic to 3d graphics.
They are useful for describing rotations in 3d space, but the same can be done with a matrix, or even Euler angles. It’s just a more calculations.
That said, basically all the major game engines use quaternions, so unless you are creating your own 3d renderer, you have to learn at least the basics about them.
Quaternions really shine at spherical interpolation (Slerp - yes thats the real terminology) between two rotations.
blackbelt352@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I’d say Quaternions are necessary purely because they avoid gimbal locking common with 3 axis Euler rotations.
I know in Blender all other rotation options are really just quaterinions under the hood. But an advantage Euler rotations have over quaternions is continuous rotation. I can set 2 key frames with linear extrapolation and have them just continue along each axis forever. Everything quaternion ideally should be bounded to the 4d unit circle.