On a previous post i asked about information on where to find info for iso's and etc...now i believe i am ready to start buiding it, I am doing it in DOS/800x600x24bit for now cause i really need to brush up on my raw 2d skills. Anyway the question is where would be a good place to initially start programming the isometric engine (besides graphic routines)
and what would be a good way to go by creating/loading map... if anyone could help i'd appreciate it...Thanx

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1) I'd prefer using DirectDraw, because it's easy, fast and DOS is dead. But that depends on you.

2) First think about it, how will you store the data ? All in a big offscreen surface ? All buildings in different maps or in one big one ?

3) You should use a 2D array in the game to store the data, which tile should be rendered. So you should create an editor to save this, if you use a big map, save the positions of the numbers, if you use several maps, simply save the maps where the image is stored in.

4) Having the structures you need created before starting is much less work. Do it like this way for example :

code:

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typedef struct _IsoStruct{ int TileMap[WIDTH][HEIGHT]; int Items[WIDTH][HEIGHT]; ...} _IsoStruct;

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In the TileMap variable, there is stored with building is gonna be blittet on the screen.

5) Create an editor for the depends, it's better, because you can check your engine out and don't code around one week without knowing if it works or not.

6) Alternatively, you could use square tiles with isometric buildings and things like that. Geoff uses them, because it's easier to handle and less work for the artist. It's a good idea for a RPG, I think.

I hope I could help a bit.

CU

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