Quote: "Your game looks really impressive!"
Thanks! Your game is looking rather fantastic. You've done a lot of work on it.
Quote: "@Cash Curtis II: Yes I've considered this before. I was thinking of a top town isometric view, which i seem to rember convincing myself it was right to do. You opinion on this would be greatly appreciated. "
I've spent a lot of time on this problem. I prefer the top down isometric view for RPGs. However, this simply wouldn't work with the buildings that I was using. I'd bought the pack from Arteria games. They seemed perfect - decent looking fantasy type buildings, ready for my game.
However, I couldn't do anything that satisfied me. They're only suitable for an FPS. As a single mesh, the only thing I can do is have a butt-cam, or just a floating camera.
I studied some older 2D isometric games. Generally, when you enter a building, the roof simply vanishes. Too simple, but impossible with single mesh .x models. I begged Steve from Arteria to help me out with the models that I'd bought, but finally he just started ignoring my e-mails.
So, I bought 3DWS and starting modeling my buildings myself. I'm quite pleased with the results. They're MUCH better than Steve's lousy buildings. The doors and windows aren't just painted on, the stairs are to scale, and the geometry isn't messed up.
When I've done is divide every building up into separate stories, including the roof. When you enter the bounding box of one of the floors, everything above it is automatically hidden from view. Not only does it give me the effect I want, but it increases the FPS.
Specifically, I model my building, and group each story together. Then, I light-map the entire thing. Then, I delete all of the stories but one and export it as a DBO. I close and reopen the project, and repeat for each story. Don't save it!!!
Still no word from Steve. I told him quite plainly that if I wasn't able to divide his buildings into parts, I just wouldn't use them in my game. I asked either for him to do it, or to send me the original models so that I could do it. I guess he cares more about making a sale than having his models included in a game.
Well, that's how I do it anyway. Hopefully it will give you some ideas. I look forward to seeing your game.
Come see the WIP!
