Layering for fake-3d effect
wirelesstkd
Member Posts: 75
Hi all,
I know there's some kind of trick for creating a layering effect used in fake 3d, or isometric games. As I understand it, it involved creating two versions of an actor and constraining them to each other, then toggling on or off the transparency depending how you want them layered with other actors.
I haven't gotten in and played around with this idea yet, but I'm wondering how effective this would be if you were using lots of heroes and villains. Is something like this possible (or even realistic) with Gamesalad, or would it be too hard to manage all the layers? I would imagine that it would be brutal for performance as well.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance for your time 
Comments
It's already been done, I've achieved fake 3D usable for buildings and scenery, and made a template. In mine, as the player moves, the buildings and scenery follow its position, like in GTA 2. Of course simulated, as GTA 2 is real 3D, mixed with 2D. Also Stormy Studio has a fake 3D top down template that works differently, as the 3D scenery is static but has got really good depth effects.
For player / enemy is also possible, but the effect is not as good if you have scrolling background. Because the fake 3D uses a main camera for the calculations, and if you want the player to be "3D", you'd have to have a static camera somewhere on the background so that the player could be calculated. It's not a very convincing effect, unless you specify a camera let's say on the middle of the screen and have the player / enemies action in a non scrollable background. It's not that easy to understand, but it can be done. The effect works better, then, if the camera is on the player. Everything else will be calculated accordingly, and the effect can be really cool.
As for performance goes, you'd have to test it again and again, but in a full level, you can easily get 40-50 fps on an iPod 4th gen (what I've used).
@alimpo83 Hi! Could you please link to the download file of the 2D/3D top down template? I'm having trouble finding it.
I'd like to see the template, as well. I guess it sounds like there's more to it than I assumed.
It´s up on sell at deepbluemarket
http://www.deepbluemarket.com/product/3d-top-down-shooter-engine-for-gamesalad/
Thanks @alimpo83 for the shout out. :-)
Still sell a few now and then. Not an easy thing to implement but does work well when put to use.
As to the original question, I'm currently playing around with turning layers on and off for an isometric game to allow people to walk behind buildings etc... I'll let you know how I get on. I've only got two characters two shift two and fro so should'nt be too heavy performance wise.
Oh, I see. The top down shooter is very different than what I was thinking of. I'm thinking of something more like a beat em up game, or kinda like Battleheart... I don't DBA has the Double Dragon template, but from the video there's only one playable character and two enemies... I wonder if it's possible to manage if you had a few heroes on screen with several enemies...