1) Just a little follow up. DBP only supports a perspective camera. So, there's no orthographic mode to totally eliminate distortion. But, there are ways to drastically reduce it. Pull the camera back and narrow the field of view (FOV) of the camera, this is the effect that is used into fake sniper scopes in many games. The zoomed in view is flatter than close up perspectives.
2) One of the advantages of a 3D scene and characters is that you can go from 3rd person, to overhead, to an iso perspective simply by moving the camera. You're also free to rotate the camera around the scene if you want to create an orbiting camera effect. Similarly, it is easy to zoom in and out. Check out the set camera to follow command, in conjunction with point camera, you can get a lot of mileage out of that combination.
3) The range parameters of the pick object command are very powerful if you plan in advance. You can tell the pick camera command to only select players, monsters, walkable terrain, items, etc. by carefully group your object IDs to match the function of an item.
psuedo code in your main loop...
a = pick object(mousex(),mousey(),monsterFirst, monsterLast)
if a > 0
` display the combat icon
` if the mouse button is pressed, attack with HtH or ranged
` weapons depending on distance
end if
a = pick object(mousex(),mousey(),itemFirst, itemLast)
if a > 0
` display the use object icon
` if the mouse button is pressed, pick up the object
` if the object is too far away, try to move to the object first
end if
Using the pick vector commands and offsetting from your camera position, you can even select points in world space (3D coordinates) so you can walk on .X terrain meshes.
--
TAZ
"Do you think it is wise to provoke him?" "It's what I do." -- Stargate SG-1
