Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Old school Isometric RPG hardship

Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
Good! Any updates? Try to focus on content for just one screen, like very good backgrounds and characters, to get people hyped.

Yeah...I'm kind of deciding on a palette - its a tough choice which "look" to go for. So I'm making a lot of skeleton tiles but I haven't decided how to actually colour them.
For example I might go small palette with dither.
yQPqCmq.png
 

Krice

Arcane
Developer
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
1,291
Makes no sense to limit the palette with modern computers... by the way, if you want more "realistic" style you should decrease the saturation of colors (you can even find pictures of castles etc. and match the color) and maybe add some kind of bump/noise map, it's an easy/quick way to fix those cartoonish/cutesy graphics you were talking about. You see this problem actually quite often in indie projects and sometimes "artists" you find don't know it either, they are just improvising it to get $.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
Hopefully I get some time this year to continue. I need to change my work to part time and chill out a lot more in general. Life has been far too stressful moving around the world etc.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
Isometric stuff is a treatise to demons.
I am generating volumes based off visuals to be used for the random world generation. All objects bounds are treated as rectangular volumes.

The idea is:
1. Assume an isometric plane.
2. With the sprite loaded construct a line (black) on the iso plane SW.
3. Raise the line upward testing each pixel for colliding pixels.
4. If a threshold of collisions is reached we deem that line to be a bounding edge of the volume.
5. Repeat 2-4 (blue) SE for an opposite bounding edge.
6. Using black and blue construct opposite mirror lines (red).
7. Using red construct orange upwards. These are all the edges needed to describe the volume.

eiBmX1D.png
 

MF

The Boar Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Dec 8, 2002
Messages
892
Location
Amsterdam
Why would you want this? Much easier to define the volumes by hand based on the visuals. Creating art is much more time consuming than defining a few coordinate points, after all. This seems counter-productive. Once you have the points set, you can use the data for random world generation just the same. Are you also randomly generating art?
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
Why would you want this? Much easier to define the volumes by hand based on the visuals. Creating art is much more time consuming than defining a few coordinate points, after all. This seems counter-productive. Once you have the points set, you can use the data for random world generation just the same. Are you also randomly generating art?
Its a default volume generation. Volumes can be tweaked by hand if necessary. It has saved a lot of time.
 

Bigg Boss

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
7,528
This isn't gonna be another one of those Cleve games is it? I would like to try it in the next 10 years if possible. ;)
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
Pleased to say the basic engine is playable. Can pretty much play a game with lots of bugs. Combat, computer generated maps, etc.

The depth of presence (e.g. combat) is lacking, and am taking a break to rethink everything. The scale of the project is now sinking in. I am thinking about pushing the release back a bit.
 

d1nolore

Savant
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
662
Looks really great, love the graphics style. Stick at it you’ve got something worthwhile there.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
An unscripted ramble here. I have been spending some time just improving the engine. I want to spend until the end of the year doing so.

Doorways are terrifically difficult to do, or at least very time consuming to set up. Which is why I guess many isometric games do away with door arches altogether. I may not go with this approach due to the time taken to "setup" a single doorway. I might instead do away with arches altogether - if I cannot easily template the solution.

The closed nature of the doorway, together with very close together geometries of the opposite walls creates complexities. The sprite cannot be rendered (e.g. over/under walls) in consistently the same manner, as when he is not passing through a doorway.

Part of the problem are the shadows, should they be ignored by geometry or not? If so, how should they be treated?

Theres not the same freedom as in a 3D world, and isometric worlds are balancing act. The solutions become unstable if the sprite grows too large (what about soliders carrying large pikes? Horses?).

 

CanadianCorndog

Learned
Joined
Feb 2, 2021
Messages
147
Making an isometric game by yourself is ambitious. I would just use Unity with Tiled or the built-in isometric support or Love2D with libraries personally. You could also mix in some 3D stuff to ease the burden.
You probably don't have shaders so you have fewer options for stuff like shadows and layering and blending tiles.
Most isometric engines have multiple layers. Infinity Engine had seven. This lets you fiddle with what is in front and behind. Things like circles around players feet require at least three layers (front half of circle, player, back half or circle).
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
1,898
Making an isometric game by yourself is ambitious. I would just use Unity with Tiled or the built-in isometric support or Love2D with libraries personally. You could also mix in some 3D stuff to ease the burden.
You probably don't have shaders so you have fewer options for stuff like shadows and layering and blending tiles.
Most isometric engines have multiple layers. Infinity Engine had seven. This lets you fiddle with what is in front and behind. Things like circles around players feet require at least three layers (front half of circle, player, back half or circle).
I will NEVER EVER use Unity for development. They are filthy scammers (I do use it for the convenience of minor maintenance tasks however). Woke Godot, etc and can also flush him/herself down the toilet.

I have trialed many engines and no engine that I tried, has come close in terms of isometric functionality for my needs. That's why I am doing what I am doing. Actually, in fact there isn't really a great amount of work remaining to do with the isometric engine aspect of things. I'm pretty happy with that as I mentioned in a previous post. I have moved onto planning, content creation, system design, and so on.
 
Self-Ejected

Davaris

Self-Ejected
Developer
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
Messages
6,547
Location
Idiocracy
Making an isometric game by yourself is ambitious. I would just use Unity with Tiled or the built-in isometric support or Love2D with libraries personally. You could also mix in some 3D stuff to ease the burden.
You probably don't have shaders so you have fewer options for stuff like shadows and layering and blending tiles.
Most isometric engines have multiple layers. Infinity Engine had seven. This lets you fiddle with what is in front and behind. Things like circles around players feet require at least three layers (front half of circle, player, back half or circle).
I will NEVER EVER use Unity for development. They are filthy scammers (I do use it for the convenience of minor maintenance tasks however). Woke Godot, etc and can also flush him/herself down the toilet.

I have trialed many engines and no engine that I tried, has come close in terms of isometric functionality for my needs. That's why I am doing what I am doing. Actually, in fact there isn't really a great amount of work remaining to do with the isometric engine aspect of things. I'm pretty happy with that as I mentioned in a previous post. I have moved onto planning, content creation, system design, and so on.

Good for you. This guy says similar, and offers other reasons why programmers should roll their own engines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOtxjOLst2k
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom