No Clip refers to the common command for "no clipping" entered into the debug consoles of PC games that turns off collision detection so that the player may pass through solid objects in the rendered environment.
No clip is most often used as a debugging tool for programmers, allowing them to see the entirely of a level from a different perspective. It is also used to speed progress in testing, so that a programmers does not have to replay an entire level to experience a single segment. It was likely implemented by id Software for the first time in the platformer Commander Keen for this reason.
The term is a bit of a misnomer from how it is actually used, as "noclip" refers to turning off clipping—an optimization technique of not rendering objects until they are in the playfield to save resources. In this case, turning off clipping renders all surfaces in a level so that it may be observed in a different camera perspective.
In older games, noclip would let players pass through walls, leaving the ground intact. Noclip in the "true" 3D rendered environments of modern games allow for movement along any axis, which gives the appearance of floating through the level.
The command "noclip" has become the most common console entry, though others have been used. In Doom, for example, id Software changed noclip to IDSPISPOPD (" Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris"), an inside joke referring to a comment id received on a USENET group posting proposing an alternative silly name for their next game.
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