Odd question. Directions?

[Mudbill]

This might seem a bit random and unrelated, but I'd like to use it in a little project of mine. It's more English than anything technical. Does anyone know what you call the cardinal directions when not relating to a compass?

Basically, something to use for north, east, west, south opposed to diagonally.

Let me try to explain with this figure:



If the red lines are called diagonals, what are the blue ones called? Looking from above, both red and blue are horizontal, but only the red are diagonal. I don't know what the blue ones are called xP

I tried Googling it, but didn't find anything. Not too sure what to search for anyway, because it's not the opposite of diagonal, but it's related I guess.

PS: I'm looking for a common word for it. Width and height would be awkward and sides I feel doesn't relate to diagonal, but rather corner.

[RaideX]

The only words i can throw in here would be

- "across" from left to right (personally i would just say "horizontal") and
- "perpendicular" from top to bottom

The red ones would be "crosswise". But what do i know.. ._.

Not sure if that is what you're looking for

[Mudbill]

Well, as I said this is from a top-down perspective, so horizontal wouldn't really work. Horizontal would work for both X and Z axises and vertical would work for the Y axis. Considering both the diagonals and the sides are flat on the X and Z axises, it's all part of the horizon.

I'm also looking for 1 word to describe both directions.

[eliasfrost]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_direction

This might be what you're looking for?

EDIT: Saw that you already used that term. My bad. What about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_direction

[MrBehemoth]

Axials? Orthogonals?

[Daemian]

sides? sideways? laterals? cross sounds good for me.

both red and blue are horizontal, but only the red are diagonal. I don't know what the blue ones are called.

I guess if you have your plane like floating in space without sense of direction, all lines are horizontal or vertical until you decide which is which and turn the plane to the angle you picked.
I know in chess, being a 2d plane, they pick whites' side as the base and they still use vertical, diagonal, horizontal to name the movements the pieces do.

[MrBehemoth]

laterals?

Yup, that's the word I would have suggested if I could have remembered it.

[Mudbill]

Thanks for the suggestions xP
I was wondering if I had forgotten a common word for something like this, but these seem kinda uncommon, at least to me. Most of these words have many meanings, so for the sake of confusion, I might just not use them.

Basically the situation I need this in, is where the player must stand at a certain angle from the box object in the middle. In some cases they must stand at the diagonals, and other cases from straight ahead. The player can move around the whole thing, so there won't be any left or right because it differs at every turn.

I think what I might do is to just use diagonal/not diagonal instructions. For example "This can only be done diagonally" or "this can not be done diagonally." That might work the best, unless there is something else that is more obvious. Pretty sure most people know what diagonals are.