Quote:Original post by OrangyTang

Quote:Original post by JTippetts
Note that just because I recommend using 3D APIs to solve problems doesn't necessarily mean I am advocating full-blown 3D with polygonal characters, etc... You can still use pre-rendered sprites and all the goodies. Just use some 3D tricks to circumvent some rather nasty and limiting problems.

But if your sprites are blended, don't you have to sort them anyway? Or do you do a best effort sort and let the z-buffer take care of the awkward edge cases?

i=0; j=0;for(n=0; n<2*max; n++) {  drawTile(i,j)   if(j==0) {      i = 0;      j++;   }   else if(i == max) {      i = j;      j = max;     }   else {      i++;      j--;    }}

(furthest away from user's perspective)    b    b b b  b b b b b  <- this is rendered *after* a, overwrting it   b b b a <- a should be visible to the user    b <----  you draw b in its entirety at this time(closest to user's perspective)

Quote:Original post by JTippetts
Look, I don't want to turn this into a big argument, but just search the endless back posts in this forum for an idea exactly how problematic overlap issues can be. This question crops up in a dozen different variants every couple weeks, going back to the dark ages of the old dictionary/gdnet splash page.

Is it a solved problem? Yes. Are most of the solutions icky? Yup. Is 3D an elegant and extremely simple solution to overcome the ickiness? You betcha. Should people try to program for modern APIs and hardware, instead of stubbornly sticking to old methods that are slowly being rendered obsolete? Most definitely. As someone who has programmed countless engines-- top down, isometric, weird-angle pseudo-isometric, 3D isometric, fully 3D, you name it--I highly recommend dumping the old 2D techniques. The so-called complexity of 3D that you speak of is a myth; with a well designed engine, the switch to 3D is trivial; it took all of about a day and a half to switch my old Golem engine to one that functioned identically, but which mapped the wall graphics to quads existing in 3D space rather than screen-aligned rectangles as a 2D approach does--and that engine was far from well-designed. All sorts of overlap issues caused by drawing isometric rows back to front, overlapping with oddly shaped and large objects, vanished like magic.

Note that just because I recommend using 3D APIs to solve problems doesn't necessarily mean I am advocating full-blown 3D with polygonal characters, etc... You can still use pre-rendered sprites and all the goodies. Just use some 3D tricks to circumvent some rather nasty and limiting problems.

I stand firm in my assertion that most of the old approaches should be abandoned, at least for the PC or any 3D-enabled hardware. I have yet to hear of a valid reason for sticking with the old methods, yet can think of dozens of reasons not to.