Quote:Original post by VertexNormalCertainly. I've recently abandoned my traditional 2D iso engine for Golem in favor of an engine that utilizes 3D models for character animations. I actually have two subtly different iterations of the engine; one is an isometric in all respects, with the internals being 3D driven yet the view being indistinguishable in appearance from the traditional 2D implementation (outside of the smoother animation of the 3D models); the second utilizes most of the same tech but with a perspective projected viewpoint and rotating camera. The fundamental map structure, however, remains tilebased. Tiling can be a simple way of organizing a 'simple' world. It lacks flexibility in many regards, and thus may be unsuitable for first-person style games, but action/RTS/RPG style games can benefit enormously from a tile-based engine.

Quote:Original post by Extrarius
If you change your definition of 'tiles' just a bit away from the standard 2d definition of a grid of bitmaps, you can have quite complex 3d worlds. For example, dungeon siege maps were made up of tiles, but instead of some kind of grid, each tile had 'attach points' where you could stick another tile onto it. That allowed for all kinds of overhangs and fancy caves and tons of other nice geometry that wouldn't be possible in a simple heightmap/2d tile based game