Well, I agree with TANSTAAFL. If it looks iso, it is iso.

However, maybe I didn''t word my question right.

What I was asking is if Diablo and Starcraft used the same type of tile system in Super Mario Bros. (square), or the type used in Zaxxon (diamond)?

oh...not 100% sure Zaxxon used iso (diamond) tiles, but it kinda looks like it may have.

-Coleco

Rock the cradle of love!
You stupid WANKER!

well, i havent played much star craft so i can''t really speak for it, but diablo is definitely diamond tiles.

you can see it quite clearly in the lighting effects. (take a screen shot of a flaming arrow or something).

my curiosity is - how do you do an iso engine without using 2d tiles? whether they are square, rectangular, octagonal, diamond or whatever other shape, they are still just 2d tiles.
right?

personally, i think that you are better off using solid rectangular floor tiles (no color key blit) and overlaying the walls, objects and monsters (using color key blit) at whichever angles you wish...

quote: Original post by Dak Lozar

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

That ISO thing was a joke.. of course I know it is Isometric


-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

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quote: Original post by zenic

well, i havent played much star craft so i can''t really speak for it, but diablo is definitely diamond tiles.

you can see it quite clearly in the lighting effects. (take a screen shot of a flaming arrow or something).

my curiosity is - how do you do an iso engine without using 2d tiles? whether they are square, rectangular, octagonal, diamond or whatever other shape, they are still just 2d tiles.
right?

personally, i think that you are better off using solid rectangular floor tiles (no color key blit) and overlaying the walls, objects and monsters (using color key blit) at whichever angles you wish...

Um, the tiles themselves are 2D, but it is the method of which they are rendered. If you have a diamond ISO tile that you just Blit to the screen, then it is 2D iso. If you map a square tile to a 3D surface, then you have 3D ISO (I think that is the way?).

I believe that Diablo II is 3D ISO, but it is also 3D Perspective (if you set that option, but it looks a bit silly if you do ). Must say that the graphics look a heap better like that



-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

Check our site:
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quote: Original post by Dak Lozar

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

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

WHAT!?!

And I had an International Standards Organization guy here last week to review our labs... He told me that we had the OK on ISO-9001 game development. Crap, do you know how much the application fee was?



Does this mean I have to cancel my original plan to put their logo on our packaging?



ROFLMAO!

ManaSink

I would have thought it was ROFLMFAO material . ISO is a bunch of BS.... we are games programmers, so optimisations go against the grain of ISO... But that is a different topic


-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)

Check our site:
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