And yes, there are some empty spaces but that's because I'm a lazy map maker 
. Besides, I don't recall simcity having alphablending and particle systems - And if you think that's irrelevant, we just plain disagree...
/Niels
🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉
Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!
Why bother with diamond shaped tiles?
I'm sorry, but I still don't get it... The shape of the tiles has nothing to do with what the player sees. You can create an isometric view with hexagons if that takes your fancy, or you can prerender the whole bloody background if you got the space for it (or the map is sufficiently small)...
I wrote an article explaining the difference between using Iso and square tiles here:
http://www.lupinegames.com/articles/isoeng4u.htm
http://www.lupinegames.com/articles/isoeng4u.htm
It goes through what the advantages and disadvantages of each are.
-Geoff
Your conclusions may vary, as noted there are some games which use the isometric tiling scheme to great effect with little performance penalty, Sim City, Diablo, X-Com, etc.. and on the other side there are some games which use the square tiling scheme most RTS games like CC, Starcraft, etc.. Drawing from those examples, you might notice a trend. Games which have slow or sedentary views, RPGs and Sims use the isometric scheme proably becuase they dont find the cost of coordinate conversion and redundant blitting, prohibitive. While games like RTS which have many more active units on screen and require a dynamic view, choose the simpler and more efficient square tiling scheme, in exchange for flexiblity and detail. Tailor your implmentation which best suits your game. Perhaps if you could elaborate on what type of game your making, there would be more clear cut answers. Good Luck!
-ddn
maybe its just me, but I still don't get diamod tiles... you can have a square tile:
0123
1 2
2 1
3210
(thats not really square lookign but ohwell)
and display them as a diamond like this:
0
1 1
2 2
3 3
2 2
1 1
0
why would we even bother writing tiles in the shape of diamonds anyways? its just a waste of space.
what i think whats-his-name is askign is if it would be easier to display ground tiles like this:
0123
1 2
2 1
3210
and wall tiles using the isometric format...
and my answer is no it wouldnt be easier cause alighning them would be tough and it would come out looking wrong 
let me know if im wrong tho
------------------
Thats right im a gnome
-The^gnome
ack..
it killed my spaces...
it looks all wrong now :P
but essentially the first one was a box and the second was a diamond...
check the programmers pages, or http://www.multimania.com/hatti/MrY/articles/engine.htm to see what im talking about
it killed my spaces...
it looks all wrong now :P
but essentially the first one was a box and the second was a diamond...
check the programmers pages, or http://www.multimania.com/hatti/MrY/articles/engine.htm to see what im talking about
------------------
Thats right im a gnome
-The^gnome
Author
The^gnome, essentially, that's what I was asking. Thanks.
I still haven't decided which way to go yet. Think I'll have to try them both maybe and compare.
I think you're right, as some other people also mentioned, it's to hard to align walls, and other large continuous graphics that would span across several base tiles if I used square tiles, but if I used isometric tiles it would be easier. I guess I'll just have to use isometric for each level.
Using square tiles for terrain and isometric tiles for the walls would be a nitemare. The coordinate system would be difficult to control. I suggest using the engine that will add to the game play. What does that mean? Well, the game is the reason you are coding the engine. If the game will still be enjoyable using a square tile engine, go for it! Get back to the basics.
------------------
David "Dak Lozar" Loeser
[This message has been edited by Dak Lozar (edited December 24, 1999).]
Author
Ok. So I just finished (finally) a basic engine that allows me to tile sprites to the display. Works fairly nice, I think, but now I'm wondering, should I bother to add the logic to allow the tiles to be "diamond" shaped and if so, why. It looks fine with square tiles, and I just can't seem to figure why I should even bother with diamond shaped tiles. Do they offer some kind of advantage?
>Diamond shaped tiles are absoultely
>useless - They suck from a performance
>perspective (color keying, redundant
>blitting, wasted space, need I say more),
>they're difficult to align and even worse
>to create...
>useless - They suck from a performance
>perspective (color keying, redundant
>blitting, wasted space, need I say more),
>they're difficult to align and even worse
>to create...
I don't understand the color keying part, but redundant blitting and wasted space?
An iso engine is exactly the same as a 'normal' tiled one -- if it is setup correctly and you use a bit of common knowledge.
First - design the maps correctly so there is no overdraw (just like a 3d engine). Remember - you're drawing just about the same amount of pixels per screen as a 'normal' engine when done correctly.
Coordinates-wise - there is nothing complicated or advanced math functions or whatever - it's as simple as a 'normal' engine. Please - sit down and figure out the math - grab a piece of graph paper and draw out an iso tile and figure it out.
The one biggest mistake it seems a lot of people are making with iso is the fact that you can still use rectangular maps in memory, iso only comes into play when rendering - that's it! Sure, you also want to know where the mouse is and so on, but not much else.
As for designing and aligning - it's as simple as a rectangular tile. There's no tricks or secrets to it. Just cut out a template or something to use in your drawing program to pull out the tiles you want, or write a quick program that takes a bitmap and creates the tiles for you.
Jim Adams
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
