There is a semantic difference between a “point” and a “vector”. A point represents a specific location in space, but does not include a sense of direction. A vector represents a specific direction, but does not include a sense of location.
This semantic difference is implicit throughout Panda, even in the use of two different classes: Point3() and Vec3(). For instance, Point3() + Vec3() -> Point3(), and Point3() - Point3() -> Vec3().
So, getRelativePoint() converts a relative location, while getRelativeVector() converts a relative direction.
David