3D in Axe - Isometric Projection

[MGOS]

Since I always wanted to make some 3D ish stuff in axe, I tried to figure out how isometric graphics work and made a whole bunch of functions to draw pseudo 3D tiles on the screen and to display an 8x8x8 bit array as a model made from little cubies.
It supports 3-level greyscale.

I will post code or a tutorial later if you are interested, this is just a preview of my upcoming stuff and what I've done so far.

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Spoiler for the interesting stuff:

My editor for a 3D map:

The grey is better on calc.

Download can be found here

[Hayleia]

Interesting
What do you plan to do with it if everything goes well ?

[MGOS]

The next thing would be an Tilemapper, and then I will try to convert other stuff to this perspective, like buildings or vehicles.
A huge advantage is that this routine is incredibly fast (it uses only add, subtract and shift operations) so even complex stuff can be displayed with still an decent speed. The main speed problem are indeed the calculations to detect what is displayed first, what next etc. In my 3D editor program I always draw everything, so with the number of cubies the speed drops.

[hellninjas]

ehem... C&C in Axe!

I like the way this looks, and can't wait for the tutorial or download ^^!

[MGOS]

Here's the download:

Keys:

Horizontal cursor movement: vertical cursor movement: Add block: Remove block: Clear all: Calculate random terrain (in progress):   Exit without deleting:

Keypad 7|8|4|5 (just like the directions in the space) + (deeper) - (higher) 2nd (Hold and move for staight lines) ALPHA DEL MATH CLEAR

Because of the lag if there are many blocks, you sometimes need to hold a key instead of just a short click.

The model is saved to the first 64 bytes of L1, so it stays if you leave.
The Axe app and other programs use this space, so you can get some interesting shapes (e.g. if you compile).

[Xeda112358]

Wow, this is great, nice job!

[willrandship]

hmm...what about having the graphics ala civilization 2? Basically, Isometric tiles with regular tiles set on top, overlapping the tops of the above tiles, but not below.

[Xeda112358]

Oh wow, I never noticed program was uploaded because you ninja'd me Still, cool! I want to see if I can make something similar in Grammer I think I can make it not slow down no matter how many blocks there are.

[MGOS]

I want to see if I can make something similar in Grammer I think I can make it not slow down no matter how many blocks there are.

Intresting. The basic way of transforming (X|Y|Z) (Z is depth) to (A,B) on the screen is:

Code: Select All | Copy To Clipboard

1 2 3

A = 2 * (Ymax + X - Y) B = X + Y + 2 * Z

[LincolnB]

Looks really good, I'll have to check out the source sometime.

[Yeong]

now can you implement bigger cube? if you do? maybe someone can make FFT...

[MGOS]

now can you implement bigger cube? if you do? maybe someone can make FFT...

You can implement whatever you want. That's the strength of this method.
The problem is that you need twice as much data for an isometric tilemapper than for a normal (viewn from above, 3-level grey) tilemapper, even though the size of the tiles is the same. The cuby needs atm 48 bytes of data. If you made a flat isometric tilemapper, each (8x8) tile would need 32 bytes of data. You can imagine that an 8x8x8 pixel rough terrain tile or a character would need then 64 bytes.

I'm now gonna try to make a flat tilemapper.

[Sorunome]

That looks pretty cool, the 3D tile-mapper O.o

[DJ Omnimaga]

Question, how is the speed if you make the map larger and allow tile-by-tile scrolling?

I remember people worked on such games before, but unfortunately they had problems with speed. I'm sure it can be done to run quite fast, but I am curious how.

Looks nice by the way!

[MGOS]

The tilemapper isn't finished yet, but I'm able to display a tilemap and scrolle up/down and right/left. The main problem I have to solve is to detect which group of tiles actually needs to be drawn. Because I have a rectangular frame, it could be possible using an array mask with the coordinate offsets to one corner to move the whole map. This would need a lot of data, but once you figured out how that works, it'd be super fast I guess.