What signs can you look for to determine if a game is tile based and which type of mapping it uses? For example Baldur''s Gate and Diablo. Are they tile based? How can you tell? I am asking because those two games are among my favorites, and I would like to create something like them. This question goes along with my other question on how to create seamless, large environments in a tile based game. Thanks, Shawn

Diablo is definitely tile-based in some form. If you want to see exactly how you would have to look at the background very closely. You will probably see minor details that are repeated every so often. Also, any game that generates terrain randomly is probably tile-based. I don''t know of any other way it can be done.

Diablo and Diablo II are both tile based. The Baldur''s Gate engine games (I forget the exact name of the engine) are not. They just use huge images with collision and path data for the maps.

Another indicator is that tile based games always have their structures (buildings, roads, ...) aligned to a grid, while baldurs gate has it''s collision objects non-aligned (i.e. they have all sort of angle walls). This means they have to use a full polygon collision detection algorithm.
You can often see this in tile based games - a tile is either passable or not. In seamless games the object collisions are pixel-precise, i.e. you can slide along an angled wall.

Diablo is certainly tile-based. Otherwise random maps would be next to impossible. Also note that it nicely matches my tile-based criteria.

regards,

BuschnicK


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Original post by BuschnicK
You can often see this in tile based games - a tile is either passable or not. In seamless games the object collisions are pixel-precise, i.e. you can slide along an angled wall.

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A tile-based game *can*, however, also deal with background/object collisions on a pixel level. For instance the Scrolling Game Development Kit supports sloped tiles (at 45-degree angles).


"All you need to do to learn circular logic is learn circular logic"

Just note that random maps don''t guarantee a tile-based game. There''s even a random map generator for single-player Half-Life (which obviously isn''t tile-based ).

cu,
Prefect


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