TGB and Isometric Tilesets

#1 People have done it, but AFAIK (as far as I know) it's not going to be integrated into the product.

it is very easy to do however... and if you cant implement it yourself then probably learning how to in torquescript would be one of the best ways of learning the engine you could do.

#2 I have the same needs to our games.
I hope that the TGB's developer can intergrate the ISO view mode.

Thanks in advanced.

#3 I ditto this, while it is possible, one of the benefits to it being native will be proper iso collisions detection, etc.. And if everyone claims it is that easy, why not just throw it in? Having an iso mode in the editor, as well as being able to set the engine to iso mode makes this tool just that much stronger. I have two projects one Iso , and one not, I would love to be able to use T2d for both, I dont like "simulated" isometric so having it native without diverging the engine would be a big plus for me. .. MY two cents...

#4 I'd also like to see this in TGB officially... (in a tile engine I'd almost expect it to be, since a whole ton of games are done this way)

#5 There are a number of logistics that have been covered to death on the forums. I think that there is a disconnect between the concept of ease and market stability. Comments like "if everyone claims it is that easy, why not just throw it in?" are common among features that people want now, often without thoughts to testing and the market which GG is targeting. I know. I've made such comments, the most recent that I remember being about the Advanced Camera resource. Matthew Fairfax then posted to tell me about the problems with network metrics that the AdCam resource creates that would have to be ironed out before it made it into the core source of an engine that has a key selling point of networking.

As has been covered many times, there are several pieces of the engine which would have to be revisited to make isometric tiling a supportable feature. It's not so much in terms of a quick hack to get it in and approximating an ISO world but in creating an iso featureset which is directly supportable in terms of the physics, particles, etc.

Not impossible by any means, but not as easy from a company standpoint as it is from a developer standpoint. Plus, I'm not sure what's on the map for TGB. Perhaps Beta 3 will have a fully-working ISO featureset with a Sims and Diablo example games.

Perhaps not.

#6 Look at this plan from Neo Binedell.
I think ISO support is too specific for a general engine like T2D. An additional code pack like the one Neo is thinking about would be a good idea though. Let him know that there is demand! :)

#7 Well I'll agree ISO has some specific features, but then again so does ogg support, or specific video things, its a genre support issue, and in my opinion should be in the engine natively. your never going to wedge a square peg completely into the round hole with a code pack I doubt.

I've tried all of Neo's examples , and while I feel that hes done a great job. I worry about support.

Can we get a definitive yes or no on if any iso enhancements are going to be considered and put in, so we know what direction to take to begin with?

#8 Is it necessary to your game? If so, work with what you have. If you always worry about re-inventing a wheel that may or may not spin at a future date. I can understand wanting to know. I want to know. I'd love to know, even though I don't see myself working with a iso game. I also don't see it as a genre-specific feature. I see it as a rendering feature. From Zaxxon to Diablo to SimCity and Final Fantasy Tactics.

Since it isn't necessary to me, it is a curiosity. If it were necessary, I would implement the resources out there and IRC the hell out of people on IRC or move to another engine that has it natively. Because that's reality rather than curiosity.

#9 Right, it is a rendering thing, I tend to consider RPG ISO as a genre. Maybe I'm wrong there.

Of course I could use ISO Maps with a 2D coordinate system, and hack around all the non iso specific things, or start overriding the engine like Neo did to hack support in for it.

I really dont want to use another engine for this, or redesign my game to be non isometric, because it will loose most of its gameplay.

The difference would be a "gunsmoke" (if you've played that) to a desperado's , which is major in the overall gameplay.

Keeping state differences on characters as they pertain to 2d coordinates, not to mention building a solid AI that can traverse the levels properly. I shudder to think about the additional cycles it will take the engine and scripting to support this, I guess my original question still stands , can somebody authoritative give me the official response, so I can decide? I'm not upset either way, I'm just planning my project out, and really need to know how much to invest in either overriding the engine, or being patient and working on other parts of the game while waiting?

Thanks

#10 No shudders neccesary.

I will be posting a plan soon on the brand new iso pack I'm working on.

And this wheel really needed to be reinvented as the old school stuff simply sucks.

Good to know there's interest (and perhaps demand).

~neo

#11 I'm much more speculative on the idea of genre. If I considered fixed camera-angles a "survivla horror" genre, then Grim Fandango and a number of 3D adventure games (as well as Final Fantasy VII) would fall into that genre. Games like Echo Night and Hell Night would not. I've played at lot of isometric RPG's, SRPG's, RTS, and TBS's in iso, but I've also played a lot of action games that use it. And, yeah, I've played both Gunsmoke and Desperado.

One thing you could do to simulate gameplay in a rudimentary way would be to use the explore-rpg method of level marking. Render out chunks of your level and create collision masks for the walls and such and then prototype around that. Not as friendly, but okay for quick-and-dirty prototyping.

#12 Maybe have a look at the tile map editor Mappy? It supports all kinds of tiles via some options you can change.

#13 @Neo - It's great that your moving forward with an iso code pack!

#14 @ Neo

An ISO pack would be very appreciated. =)

#15 @ neo...

Yeah I would prefer it native in the engine from GG, like I've mentioned, but I will be more than glad to help beta test if you need it, I'm seeing too many problems with doing my project any other way than native iso.

#16 For those that don't know the plan I hinted at above can be found here


~neo