the Isometric 3D page.

[MacDeath]

I'm so sorry but i think i simply did quite a messy job on the matter.

My math and geometry are old and it is quite difficult for me to do it in english too...
Lots of errors I guess...


This is still a work in progress As I am trying to learn more about those at the moment.

If someone can keep the spirit but correct the worse bits, or even explain me or give me links to usefull sources, I'm ok with this.



k so from what I think i know now :

=real isometric is actually not real on Amstrad, due to the fixed pixels ratio it can be quite difficult (depending on the scale) to represent accurate diagonals/scales for the 3 axis...

=I guess most "isometric" are more some sort of Dimetric actually... X and Z axis being equally scaled, but Y (vertical) being slightly false at best...

=concerning what i called "obliques, horizontal oblique"...mmmh...  perspective cavaliere ... you know, the one with a horse story in German, French and Spanish but not in English...what's wrong with you ? don't you like ponies ?)... I don't know... are X and Y at the same scale and only Z is reduced ? then this would be some sort of Dimetric too.

=for the other ones, those must be Trimetric projection...


I will try to correct at best...


can someone cheer me up or help me on this one ?

[redbox]

My knowledge of this is limited, but I think you're on the right track.

Wikipedia has a reasonable page in English about the different types of projection (isometric, dimetric and trimetric):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axonometric_projection

[MacDeath]

where I think i went wrong was the use of the oblique word...

a game like renegade is simply a specific trimetric I guess...


Those official terms are supposed to be precise, concerning the scales of the various axis... but as told, on a CPC you simply cannot be accurate and rely more on artistic approximation.

but to be fair, I still fail to see the actual difference between Oblique and iso/tri/di-metric...


In fact most "symmetric" "isometrics" are dimetric... as I don't think the Y axis is at the exact same scale as X and Z...

the other as in Pacmania... are trimetric.


Frontier as I cite it... what is it ? or W*H*B (the bloxorz game on speccy)... oblique or some sort of dymetric ?

Frontiers on CPC :


W*H*B on speccy :


the cubes look like a bit flat... Y seems shorter scale than X/Z...
cube : 8 pixels in Y...

the X and Z are also 8 pixels... but because it is diagonal, they are geometrically longer.

Ok. then it is dimetric.

Oblique get all 3 axis at the same scale.

After some thoughts...
Now I understand... Oblique means the X/Z plane is as seen from above (not a diagonal point of view), and the Y axis is also in flat 2D... and the 3 at same scale.


I wasn't that wrong, I just need to get it more clear in the page and clear some missuses of some words..



Anyway, I am planning to get this into 2-3 pages...

one page like the one as it is...
one other with ore analisis of Amstrad games in "iso"...

And another page concerning the coding and the way of programing such an engine.

For this, I will need help.


CNGsoft did some game... dustin, based on an existing engine ?

Also... are there some use of isometric animation in Demo ?

Perhaps some logos look like isometric but I don't know if some actual animation in an isometric environment was done on CPC.


Anyway thx if anyone can give me some informations.

BTW, ok there ar eexact terms for this because those tecnics are used in industrial drawings or ingineering tool... but here we are dealing with art : games and demo...
So it doesn't need to be that precise, but hey... It's good to use the right wordings.




On another note, I'm glad the CPC can seriously be better than the speccy on isometric because of the masked nature of graphics and the no-colourclashes that goes well with all those diagonal lines (which are awfully bad with square attributes...)

The saddest part is that most isometric games are still lazy speccy ports, often in monocolour.

What if H.A.T.E used another colour for the sprites ?
What if HeroQuest used the inks in the same way as ead over heels (best use of the 4 colours in Mode1 isometric IMO) ?

and so on and so on...

[HAL6128]

Very interesting und clearly written Wiki-Page and post. As you has already written I also doubt that CPC game designer didn't use an exact What-else-metric is possible as a fact of the low resolution. As far as I know an Isometric has a x:y:z scale of 1:1:1 with a 30/30 degree of projection. But what I have seen so far is that the there a huge variant from 45/45 (like frontiers) to 30/30 (like Head over heals) degree of projection. Maybe there are a lot of more games with lower projection degrees? PacMania looks likes a Dimetric projection with an 1:1:1 scale of ther axis which is - therefore - not a dimetric projection with it's exact axis-scale of 1:1:0.5.

[TotO]

"Isometric game" may be an abusive terme to designate a "2D perspective view", whatever the real representation.
The type of perspective depend of the pixel acpect ratio and by extention, the display monitor used to view it.
To be clean and easy to combinate by tiles, on 1:1 ratio the dispatching match with "0°, 45°, 90°" pixels drawing.
Technically, and like in the screens above, it's an oblique representation. (but, it's not seller )

[MacDeath]

Ok thx for your supports.

I edited again the page in hope it is better now.



http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Isometric_3D

[Gryzor]

I actually enjoyed the page quite a bit. Hadn't caught it when it was created, but it's a very nice read.

[MacDeath]

Thank you so I guess the page is efficient enough now and don't feature to much inaccuracies then.

I will just add more screenshoots to show various examples of iso games on CPC...

perhaps 2 more panels (like the ones on the end).


I'd like someone good in programation to do some basis for a more programation oriented page to go with this one.