For the past few weeks I've been searching for a tutorial or article about the math behind the Isometric perspective and a bit of the code involved in that. (With XNA / C# mostly)

(I'm looking to make something with a perspective like Bastion http://supergiantgames.com/site/wp-content/uploads/Bastion_122310_0001.jpg )

I've found a few for Flash http://gamedev.tutsplus.com/tutorials/implementation/creating-isometric-worlds-a-primer-for-game-developers/ but nothing that were really just for XNA.

Tl;dr, a link for the math behind what the isometric perspective is and how that could be applied to XNA would be most awesome if anyone could explain it / share a link.

I'll even accept just a link to source code at this point. It would be better than nothing!

Thanks!

An isometric perspective is simply a camera set to orthogonal projection, oriented at an angle above the horizon (commonly 30 degrees, for the famed 2:1 ratio, or ~35 for true isometric; other common perspectives exist) and 45 degrees around the vertical. That is all there is to it, these days. In the old 2D days you had to do some weird tricks, but there is just no point in them anymore.

Im currently building an isometric tilemap.

Try to do most of it yourself, but this page will give you all of the math and "click on map" to tile conversion.

http://www.xnaresources.com/default.asp?page=Tutorial:TileEngineSeries:4

*Update: Ohhh, sorry thought you were doing a isometric tilemap. Anyways, ill leave this post in, in case someone else will find it useful.

An isometric perspective is simply a camera set to orthogonal projection, oriented at an angle above the horizon (commonly 30 degrees, for the famed 2:1 ratio, or ~35 for true isometric; other common perspectives exist) and 45 degrees around the vertical. That is all there is to it, these days. In the old 2D days you had to do some weird tricks, but there is just no point in them anymore.

I kind of understand what you're saying. I'm reading up on different perspectives and it's starting to make more sense so hopefully I can get the information I need and apply it. :) Thanks!

Im currently building an isometric tilemap.

Try to do most of it yourself, but this page will give you all of the math and "click on map" to tile conversion.

http://www.xnaresources.com/default.asp?page=Tutorial:TileEngineSeries:4

*Update: Ohhh, sorry thought you were doing a isometric tilemap. Anyways, ill leave this post in, in case someone else will find it useful.

I actually went through most of that tutorial set looking for what I was trying to do but couldn't really find much. :( It did help me understand tiles though!

Try Clint Bellanger's isometric math tutorial: http://clintbellanger.net/articles/isometric_math/ (second time this week I've linked to that tutorial! ). That article was the key to my current understanding of isometric perspective/math, and I've used it myself and seen it used in real-world applications, so I can vouch for the accuracy of the information it gives.

Wow! That's really easy to understand o.o Thanks!

I'm pretty sure that'll do it. It says that it's "Tiles Math" but regardless I think it'll be fine. I'm not sure if what I'm doing will be tiles, or actually what it will be in general. It's just like.. one solid piece of land. And I would generate a new one each level.

EDIT: Also referencing what FLeBlanc said about orthogonal projection, when I look up anything about Isometric perspective and changing the camera with XNA that always comes up now. So maybe what I want is a tutorial for projection?