viewspace

Viewspace, in the context of computer graphics, refers to the coordinate system in which the camera is located at the origin and oriented along a standard viewing direction. It is also called view space, camera space, or eye space. This space is obtained by applying the view (or camera) transformation to world coordinates, effectively reexpressing scene points relative to the camera’s position and orientation.

In a typical graphics pipeline, data flows from world space to view space, then to clip space, and finally to screen space. The view transformation uses the inverse of the camera’s world transform, aligning the scene so that the camera remains at the origin and looks down a principal axis. When points are in view space, calculations such as projection and depth testing become more straightforward.

View space is also commonly used for lighting and shading computations. By transforming positions, normals, and sometimes light vectors into view space, developers can simplify calculations that depend on the camera’s position and direction. Some rendering engines perform these computations in view space to keep results consistent with the camera’s viewpoint.

Notes and synonyms: the term viewspace is often used interchangeably with camera space or eye space, though naming conventions vary by graphics API and engine. Understanding the distinctions between world space, view space, clip space, and screen space helps clarify how vertices and attributes are transformed throughout the rendering process.