Eight way vs Four Way Isometric Movement?

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8 comments, last by stevenmarky 22 years, 1 month ago
Eight way vs Four Way (Diamond shaped tiles)Isometric Movement? I don't think I have seen a isometric game where you move in eight directions - why? Normally the straight north, east, south and west directions can not be reached unless you move onto one of the diagonal tiles first, which doesnt make sense - you are moving twice as far to get to a tile that is that same distance away from you as the others.. For example if you (try to) walk stright north on a four-way isometric game then you will go in a zip-zag pattern.. You can often face eight ways though, to shoot or look etc which is also confusing. Why can't we just walk in eight directions? Is their a justifiable reason? _\|/_ ./|\. Edited by - stevenmarky on February 3, 2002 1:31:34 PM
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well, you can pretty much double the ammount of art you''d need for starters...
that''s a pain in the ass
-eldee;another space monkey;[ Forced Evolution Studios ]
If its using 3d models it wouldnt be so much extra (as well as since the 8 way facing models are already being used, e.g. in fallout)
So is the only reason lazyness?
now 6 way movement on hexagon tiles make slightly more sense than 4 way movement on diamond shaped tiles, you can move to any spot around you in one move. It would also take less art then 8-way diamond tiles.

The only downer is the increase in the complexity of programming them. I hope I've just solved my own problem

on second thoughts 8 way movement on diamond looks more normal, you can move all directions seperated by 45 degrees, on a hex one you cant move straight up or down (which is wierd) and seperated by 60 degrees.

Nope, I think 8 way diamond shaped tiles wins.
I can't make my mind up! lol

Edited by - stevenmarky on February 3, 2002 1:55:45 PM
What would happen if I used 8 sided tiles, I wonder, let me draw a picture, ah hmmmmmm...interesting....to be continued.

no I will use diamond shaped tiles in my game (and pretend they have 8 sides in my head) so you can move all directions.

END

Edited by - stevenmarky on February 3, 2002 2:29:42 PM
Well, if you allow movements to diagonal tiles at the same rate as the cardinal directions, then your character/sprite will be moving about 1.4 times faster... you''ve got to account for that.
Yes.
quote:Original post by stevenmarky
What would happen if I used 8 sided tiles, I wonder, let me draw a picture, ah hmmmmmm...interesting....to be continued.
Edited by - stevenmarky on February 3, 2002 2:29:42 PM


i gave it some thought. then i used MS Paint to draw the same picture. (haven''t installed photoshop yet because of all computer problems..currently with working ''98 and not working xp..)
what i got is something resembling a 3x3 hex tile "map", except there were 4 holes in the middle. when i tried playing around with the location of adjacent tiles and stretching it to make it like the 2:1 of a diamond tile, the holes simply changed from square-diamond to rectangular.
you can move either smoothly in N,E,S,W or in NE,SE,NW,SW, and in the OTHER directions you will have to sort of `jump` to get to the tile, or come back to your initial point which was zigzaging it (1 G or 2 at the zag? n/m).
so octagonal tiles won''t work.
just for the hell of it i tried playing around with pentagonal tiles. since i can''t draw too well i created something that had to be rotated to be placed on the sides, but if the angles were all even (like it should be), i suppose you could get 5-way movement..if that''s what you really wanted..

if i''m right, then any shape in which dividing the number of sides by 2 will give you a prime number, should work.
my drawing skills aren''t good enough to prove myself right or wrong, i''d have to get my drawing tablet to work for that

OF course, if you do somehow get octagons to work, thus proving once more that my drawing sux, mail me a picture of what it looks like.. (my email is available and correct)


//Demiurge
Make something idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot..
//DemiurgeMake something idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot..
Only 3 sided (triangles) 4 sided (diamond/square) or 6 sided (hex) will work out. In order to join the tiles seemlessly, the sums of the interior angles of the polygons must be 360. This means that the interior angle of the polygon must divide 360 (with no remainder). To calculate the interior angle of a polygon, use the following formula: ((# of sides) - 2) * 180 / (# of sides)

Example (hex):

interior angle = (6-2)*180/4 = 120. 360/120 = 3 ... works!


Example (pentagons):

interior angle = (5-2)*180/5 = 108. 360/108 = not a whole number, doesn''t work. So if you somehow managed to get this to work in your drawing program, you did not draw it correctly.
quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
Only 3 sided (triangles) 4 sided (diamond/square) or 6 sided (hex) will work out. In order to join the tiles seemlessly, the sums of the interior angles of the polygons must be 360. This means that the interior angle of the polygon must divide 360 (with no remainder). To calculate the interior angle of a polygon, use the following formula: ((# of sides) - 2) * 180 / (# of sides)

first of all, why does the sum of interior angles have to be 360? a hexagon has 6 interior angles. if each equals 120 that''s 720 degrees total. maybe u meant a multiplication of 360?
also, with a triangle, the sum of interior angles is 180 but you claim it still works

quote:
Example (pentagons):

interior angle = (5-2)*180/5 = 108. 360/108 = not a whole number, doesn''t work. So if you somehow managed to get this to work in your drawing program, you did not draw it correctly.


1.i did say that i didn''t draw it correctly
2.i also said that i can''t actually prove that what i said is right or wrong because of my drawing, but n/m that now..
i said i thought pentagons could maybe be done with rotation. you can''t do triangles w/out rotation either.

to add to the original topic - the direction of movement is by no means limited to the # of sides on a given tile, as shown in Baldur''s Gate, Fallout:Tactics, Diablo, War/StarCraft, but as all other things are, that''s subject to your preference

//Demiurge
Make something idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot..
//DemiurgeMake something idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot..

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