can someone help me understand othographic mode (5 on the numpad)?

as far as I can tell, all 3d rendering is orthographic, so why is there a special orthographic mode, and why does it matter? why does my model look different in orthographic mode? if used in a game engine, like unreal, will my model look like it does in normal mode, or orthographic mode?

Rendering is done in perspective view which means objects farther away from the camera will appear smaller. Unless you changed the camera to an orthographic one. Orthographic mode doesnt distort your image that way. It’s pretty handy for modelling. Game engines typicaly render in perspectiv view so your model should look the same as in Blender perspective.

so what is orthographic mode used for? why does it exist?

Personaly I use it while modeling in front, top or side view. It gives me a easier understandable and to work with representation of my model. Especially when working with geometric forms. Or building up to reference images. But you don’t have to use it if you don’t like it…

Lots of reasons. Orthographic mode is great!

For one thing, you can have an orthographic camera, which will produce orthographic images. Very useful for all sorts of things, including creating flat animations, producing architectural drawings, making old-style games, or just making artistic images.

But in terms of using orthographic mode in the blender interface itself, it provides a more accurate view of what you’re working on. In perspective mode, the position of the viewport has a strong influence on the appearance of the model, even to the point of making things look like they line up when they don’t. In orthographic mode, if something looks like it lines up, it does line up.

One way to use orthographic mode is to do most of your modeling work in it, and then switch to perspective mode when you want to see how it might look to an observer. This is useful because as m_squareGFX said, orthographic mode doesn’t distort your image. It lets you see exactly what changes you’re making.

In orthographic view all components are the same size - regardless of their distance to the camera. This is tremendously helpful for lining up objects/geometry correctly in full front/side/top/bottom views.

Perspective view - while being more “realistic” - can be deceiving in those situations.

Orthographic enables precise placement without perspective distortion. Additionally, particularly if you are working with architectural stuff especially for blueprints, orthographic is the norm (for artist visualisation you would use perspective).

okay, cool. thanks.