Looking for an English word

[Humus]

Is there a collective word for "up or down", or for "forward or backword"?
For "left or right" there's "side", but I can't think of any suitable word describing the other dimensions without resorting to multiple words. On top of my head, I can't come up with any in Swedish either, so I wouldn't be too surprised if there simply are no such collective word.

I'm asking because I'm adding joystick/gamepad support to my framework, and I would like to find a single word to descibe each axis for the configure dialog. With the keyboard "left" and "right" are separate keys, but for a gamepad it's a single axis, so I'd like a single word.

I've considered using the words "horizontal" and "vertical", but then I lack a word for the z dimension (or is there one?). Unfortunately I don't have any games installed with enough degrees of freedom to get any good suggestions from their menus.

 

[AlphaWolf]

not that I can think of, you could maybe go with velocity.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Why not the ever popular (at least with me!) slash? Go with a "right/left" & "forward/back"?

 

[ShaidarHaran]

You could always go with the ever-popular x and y axis descriptions

 

[pocketmoon66]

vertical, lateral and longitudinal ?

 

[Zaphod]

Elevation and depth?

 

[epicstruggle]

elevation , lateral, motion?

 

[Mintmaster]

I've considered using the words "horizontal" and "vertical", but then I lack a word for the z dimension (or is there one?). Unfortunately I don't have any games installed with enough degrees of freedom to get any good suggestions from their menus.

Why do you need a z-dimension for a joystick/gamepad configuration menu? The only time you have more than two axes is with either dual joysticks or with throttle control.

 

[Ty]

height?

 

[Humus]

not that I can think of, you could maybe go with velocity.

Could work.

Why not the ever popular (at least with me!) slash? Go with a "right/left" & "forward/back"?

Well, it's mostly about aesthetics. Looks better with a single word so I don't get very big buttons just to fit the text on them.

You could always go with the ever-popular x and y axis descriptions

That's something I've considered, although the movement is orientation dependent so it's not that accurate.

Why do you need a z-dimension for a joystick/gamepad configuration menu? The only time you have more than two axes is with either dual joysticks or with throttle control.

Most gamepads these days have two sticks and throttle. Single stick joysticks probably won't be too useful. You'll want one stick for orientation and one for strafing and throttle for forward/backward.

 

[Skrying]

Up and down is certainly elevation. Lateral is movement to the side I do believe, so that wouldn't work. I would personally go with elevation, velocity is a pretty distant second.

 

[mito]

Vector?

 

[Davros]

yep veloctity would indicate speed + direction (any direction) so i wouldnt use that

 

[Dominik D]

plumb-line (up/down)
horizon (left/right)
depth (forward/back)

But the best thing you can do is to use the stuff that's easiest to understand: up/down, left/right, forward/back. Just because you can end up with some fancy and to the point words doesn't mean ppl will like it. Use obvious, not shortest.

 

[3dcgi]

The best thing I can think of is Nod. You nod your head up and down, but never left or right. Of course I've never heard of anyone nodding anything besides their head. Unless it's nodding their mind off to sleep.

As with plumb-line (which I've never heard of) it might confuse people at the expense of aesthetics.

 

[nelg]

altitude

 

[Babel-17]

Pitch and Roll and Yaw?

http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal109/NEWHTF/HTF541B.HTM

I remembered how in the movie The Right Stuff the German scientist dude (Von Braun?) was muttering his concession how he could maybe allow the astronauts to control the functions Pitch and Yaw.

 

[Blazkowicz]

or X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis

 

[Arwin]

Is there a collective word for "up or down", or for "forward or backword"?
For "left or right" there's "side", but I can't think of any suitable word describing the other dimensions without resorting to multiple words. On top of my head, I can't come up with any in Swedish either, so I wouldn't be too surprised if there simply are no such collective word.

I'm asking because I'm adding joystick/gamepad support to my framework, and I would like to find a single word to descibe each axis for the configure dialog. With the keyboard "left" and "right" are separate keys, but for a gamepad it's a single axis, so I'd like a single word.

I've considered using the words "horizontal" and "vertical", but then I lack a word for the z dimension (or is there one?). Unfortunately I don't have any games installed with enough degrees of freedom to get any good suggestions from their menus.

It really depends on who you are targeting with your description. This is what Wiki does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_freedom

But for programmers x, y, and z axis and pitch, yaw and roll are what most people understand best. In the context of specific movement there are alternatives (strafe equals movement over the x-axis, at least if you're describing it from the perspective of the camera)

But considering the context you give, it should be x,y, and z axis.

 

[Sxotty]

altitude and elevation are the same thing really.