ChocolateJake's Profile Comments

Now, you're probably what I'm going to need all this speed for. After all, I do build up speed for 12 hours.

But to answer that, we need to talk about parallel universes. And if you thought my other tangents were complicated, just you wait.

Okay, so Mario's position is a floating point number, but it's converted into a short when the game uses it to test for collision with floor triangles. In other words, Mario's position can be any number, but it's converted to an integer between -32,768 and 32,767 inclusive. So, any fractional portion is truncated and numbers too big or too small are moved into this range using a modulo operator. Graphically, that means that the position used for floor detection is always inside of this box. ([the box] (http://i.imgur.com/l7hyfw7.png)) So if Mario's in that box, then his actual position and the position used for floor detection are the same. Albeit, maybe off by a single fraction due to the truncation.

If Mario is outside of that box, then his position and the position used for floor detection will separate, since the position for floor detection will just loop around to remain in that box.

So I ask you: If Mario is way out there, but the position used for floor detection is still in the box, can he still stand? The answer is yes. As far as the game sees it, Mario is in fact above land out here, because the game checks for floor detection back over there. ["There" is the actual course.] So for all intensive purposes there is land over here! This is known as a parallel universe, or a PU for short.