PMAT(nged)

💅 PMAT(nged) — bestie's guide to the perspective projection matrix 🎀

okay so real talk, this is a BRL-CAD User Commands page, it lives in the nged manual section, and it's literally just about peeking at (or yeeting a whole new value into) the perspective projection matrix for your current view. iconic behavior honestly ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

pmat — get or set the perspective projection matrix. that's it. that's the whole vibe 🫶

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pmat
pmat "m0 m1 m2 ... m15"

two modes, bestie: look 👀 or set 💅

---

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the pmat command gets or sets the perspective projection matrix for the current view. it's giving "small command, big responsibility" ngl.

• No arguments — it returns the current projection matrix as a 16-element space-separated floating-point string representing the 4×4 matrix in row-major order. this matrix is the main character that controls perspective rendering 🔥
• One argument — it sets the projection matrix from a provided 16-element space-separated string. the string must contain exactly 16 floating-point values — not 15, not 17, exactly 16, no cap. the view is updated immediately after the change, like instant glow-up ✨

the perspective matrix is normally managed automatically by the perspective command, which sets it from a field-of-view angle. so think of perspective as the auto-pilot 🛫 and pmat as the manual override 🎮 — use pmat to inspect the current matrix or to provide a custom projection matrix directly. iykyk 💅

and here's the little fun fact you need: when perspective is disabled (perspective 0), the projection matrix is the identity and pmat returns:

1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1

slay. that's the identity matrix, the "no thoughts, head empty" of matrices 🎀

---

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

🌈 Example 1. Retrieve the current perspective matrix

mged> pmat

returns the current perspective projection matrix as 16 numbers. when perspective is active (e.g. after perspective 45), this will be a non-identity matrix; when orthographic, it will be the identity. literally the vibe check of matrices 👑

🍓 Example 2. Inspect the matrix after setting perspective

mged> perspective 60 mged> pmat

sets the perspective angle to 60° and then retrieves the resulting projection matrix to examine the constructed values. set it, then peek at it — the way that combo just works 💖

🧚 Example 3. Set the perspective matrix explicitly

mged> pmat "1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1"

sets the projection matrix to the identity, equivalent to perspective 0. the quoted string must contain exactly 16 space-separated values — count them, bestie, fr fr 🔢

⚠️ don't be out here submitting 15 values or 17 values and expecting it to hit. exactly 16. the manpage said what it said 💀

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

BRL-CAD Team — the ones who built all this 🫶

---

📬 BUG REPORTS 📬

reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org. if something's acting up, tell the devs, not the group chat 🙈

---

that's the whole page, bestie — go forth and inspect your matrices responsibly 🦋✨

BRL-CAD made this one, and the page signs off as PMAT(nged) — periodt 💅🎀