dba_afish said:
yeah, they definitely don't. since portals behave like impenetrable surfaces there's going to be multiple situations where the shortest path has turns.

Plus, portals represent a cut in space and/or time, so the shortest path using a portal isn't a straight line, but a cut/segmented path that only appears connected from certain viewpoints.

Watsit said:
Plus, portals represent a cut in space and/or time, so the shortest path using a portal isn't a straight line, but a cut/segmented path that only appears connected from certain viewpoints.

it'd still be a straight, unbroken line, though, there's just some perspectives where it'd seem otherwise.

it's like if you could point a super laser pointer that ignores all matter and only cares about the topology of space. in euclidian space no matter where you position those points there's always one and exactly one way to position the laser so it crosses any two points in space. once you start introducing non-euclidian topology there are going to be situations where not all pairs of points are colinear and/or situations where a single pair of points share multiple lines.