Hey, I was recently told in the CDX mailing list (at egroups) that Diablo and Starcraft both use the same engine and that neither is a true ISO engine. Just very clever 2-D square tiles. Anyone know if that is true? Would be really nice if it were.... Thanks. -Coleco Rock the cradle of love! You stupid WANKER!

Yes, it's true. StarCraft was originally using a slightly enhanced version of WarCraft II's engine, but when Blizzard North (Blizzard's northern counterpart) released the Diablo Engine, Starcraft used that instead.

And those tiles aren't really isometric...

- DarkMage139
"Real game developers don't change the rules. Real game developers don't break the rules. Real game developers make the rules!"
"Originality (in games) is the spice of life!"

Edited by - DarkMage139 on July 4, 2000 1:41:01 PM

maybe i''m missing some of the terminology here, but...
how exactly do you do an isometric engine WITHOUT using 2d tiles?
i thought every isometric engine was based on 2d tiles.
i thought isometric meant ''looks 3d'' not ''is 3d, just birdseye''.
what does ISO stand for?

Isometric is when the two sides and the depth are all the same length. This means that your usual iso tile will be skewed to look like a diamond and the height of the base tile should be (approx.) half the width of the tile. Iso is not truly 3D, just a pre-projection (or a pre-render) of it. But it is fast and that's what counts right? (plus it is easier to implement ).

The tiles used in Diablo and SC are not ISO (they are too high aren't they?)

Thats enough outa me

Oh.. and ISO stands for International Standards Organisation I think?


-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
and our eGroup:
http://www.egroups.com/group/dwarfsoft

Edited by - dwarfsoft on July 5, 2000 7:02:33 AM

I''m laughing as I type this...

ISO in this forum doesn''t stand for International Standards Organization. Or, at least, it shouldn''t.

ISO here is derived from Isometric. Which from my days in engineering/architecture is a form of drawing. IIRC the standard isometric perspective is 30 degrees.
So... I assume that someone back in the late 70''s or early 80''s (when this type of engine first was created) decided to call it Isometric. I have also heard of this type of engine being called Axonometric (sp).

Still chuckling


Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

Doesn''t the iso in isometric stand for "single" or something like that, making isometric mean "single measurement" - the two sides and the depth are all the same length.

Think of "isolation" and... well I can''t come up with any more examples, but I think it''s correct.

//Ksero

AWWW... the second time that happens to me...

I click "back" to look at the thread again, and then I forget that my password disappears

Diablo is real ISO.
Starcraft uses square tiles.

quote:
Doesn''t the iso in isometric stand for "single" or something like that, making isometric mean "single measurement" - the two sides and the depth are all the same length.

Ksero, yes I think your right. The isometric drawings that I slaved over, way back when, had the sides on 30 degree angles. I suppose that is where they pulled this name from.



Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

just a minor clarification. if something LOOKS iso, it IS iso, whether you use square tiles, rectangular tiles, or the traditional diamond shaped tiles. how it gets there doesnt matter, only what it looks like once it gets there.