So I was curious how a computer knows when you click on save in a window in one spot on the screen that it is the same function when the window is on a different spot on the screen.It knows it is in two completely different places but how does it know this? does anybody have any good material they could reference me too?

it doesn`t know, what your seeing is a visual representation made After of what it Does "know".

 

as for Refs I have no idea, but a search for "GUI" or "WIMP" and "Collision detection" may prove helpful.

Simply put... The screen is split into pixels, the computer knows in what pixel the mouse is is, and what else is in the pixel, so when you click it puts the two bits of information together and knows what you want to do.

I programmed a ray trace for a 3D world. Taking the camera position, the field of view and the position on the flat plane where the mouse was clicked a ray could be traced and a target could be acquired in a 3D game world. It was kind of fun. You can find a bunch of info on both of these concepts(2D & 3D) in the Source(Valve gaming engine) forum.

---

Merged post follows:

Consecutive posts merged

Mathematics for 3D Game Programming & Computer Graphics by Eric Lengyel

 

Good read for 3D....................

Edited March 1, 200916 yr by buttacup
Consecutive posts merged.