Isometric...

How would i go about doing this? Is it even possible in construct? Any .cap examples?

Before Jeswen stopped posting here he told me he was going to PM you a way to do isometric because "it's so easy" and the rest of us were lying to you.

I take it he never actually did... (Maybe he'll PM you the answer with his new parachute account.)

I honestly have no idea how to do isometric in Construct (apart from the previously mentioned flat-world style). Maybe Arcticus can give you some pointers. He's got an orthographic engine in the works, but he has had a little trouble with the z sorting.

Yeah, i've got pretty much all the basic code down for my iso-ish engine, EXCEPT the one problem i'm having is proper Z sorting when using different height levels. If you're making an iso game where you cannot jump and there's only one flat play area, then the 'for each (ordered) by Y coordinate acsending - bring to front' works perfectly.

But my main problem is sorting the Z orders of objects that are higher than others, if i could find i way to sort by TWO (or more) criteria so for example:

For each terrain (ordered) by Terrain.Y THEN Terrian.Value('Height') - bring to front

if that was possible i'm pretty sure ALL my laying problems would be solved in one event!

Once that problem is solved, i'll be able to start working on concept and art and actually turning it into a game (Although I'm still having problems making physics objects move faster at the same ratio that timescaling slows down, but that's another topic )

So yeah, I could give you some pointers, but i'm no expert either lol, you're probably up to about the same spot that i am

I actually made what essentially amounts to a simple isometric platform engine and posted it here. The thread is right here. It's not actually an isometric viewpoint, but it could be modified fairly easily into an isometric view. Hope this helps.

Yeah I looked at that to see how you did it a while ago, but i ended up using my own method (albeit quite similar)

I kinda want to make the Z ordering using families, that way i don't have a huge list of events just dealing with overlapping. Although what you made there still is quite good

The only drawback with using families is events such as, if Blue is overlapping Blue, i find, using any other picking events and/or action after that tend not to work so well

Yeah I looked at that to see how you did it a while ago, but i ended up using my own method (albeit quite similar)

I kinda want to make the Z ordering using families, that way i don't have a huge list of events just dealing with overlapping. Although what you made there still is quite good

The only drawback with using families is events such as, if Blue is overlapping Blue, i find, using any other picking events and/or action after that tend not to work so well

Yeah, Z ordering was the only thing I couldn't get done well. I'm still waiting for assigning the Z order as a number so objects with a higher Y value could be above things with a lower Y value.

Before Jeswen stopped posting here he told me he was going to PM you a way to do isometric because "it's so easy" and the rest of us were lying to you.

I take it he never actually did... (Maybe he'll PM you the answer with his new parachute account.)

I don't have a parachute account ... and actually forgot to send the cap. I may still do so if I can find it.

It's not so difficult

You got iso down? Can you show me? Also how do you fix the layering problem?

I think this is very do-able. Just a lil' bit of planning and you'll be away.

PS. Soulja is a playa.

I'd love to get this done guys, i love how supportive you guys are being.

I've been thinking about doing this game for quite a while, i just wonder if it'd be faster to just mod tiberium sun, it probably would, but that way the engine wouldn't be as flexible and familiar as opposed to doing the whole thing myself.

Keep posting guys, i need your support on this.

Yeah i need help on this too, if someone knows how to get isometric Z layering working properly when using height as well, i will LOVE you (platonically)

I seriously think that making the 'for each ordered' able to sort throught multiple criteria is the answer but prove me wrong, i'm no expert

How would i make my soliders line up in formations rather than all going to the same place?

It looks stunted, and is really impractical when splash damage is implemented.

theres probably a hundred ways of doing that. Its probably better if you figure it out yourself (you have better understanding of your own theories)...

I'd probably do something like assign each soldier in a group a unique ID (1,2,3,4,...), based on their ID, i would offset their position they are trying to move to to something like (Xmouse (where you clicked) + ID*10) that way they all want to move within 10 pixels of each other (do the same with the Y values).

I'm sure theres better ways... Any ideas?

And I'm still stuck on the Z sorting thing

I've found a way that SHOULD work in theory, but it's still not 100%

Granted it could be something wrong with my code

give each object a z value based on how "high" it is. higher the object the bigger the z value.

bring all objects the to the front sorted by y value on lowest z values first and run through each z value.

no wait thats slightly wrong...ive done this before. grrr.

Here's my Iso-ish engine as it stands.

http://www.mediafire.com/?m2wnzmogmjx

A few of the Z ordering problems are just number related i think, like the sprites have to be a certain height or something. Anyway it looks ALMOST done, but it actually isn't. There's still a few subtle Z order problems.

The reason I'm putting it here is, in the game, try jumping around on the boxes in the lower right portion of the level. You will find that you can manage to jump inside the big box, also due to the same problem, you cannot climb up on the bottom stack of boxes (you can however jump across)

The problem, i believe, stems from something odd with the picking. I'm using 'is overlapping' to pick the objects the game knows are 'beneath' the player. I -think- it has something to do with the UID/order that I put the collision objects into layout. It's not working as intented, i basically want this:

If the player is higher than the obstacle, move the height offset variable to the height of the obstacle, therefor making the player able to stand on top of it when he lands.

But in some cases, if the controller object collides with an object lower than that on an obstacle that the player is already standing on, the player falls to the height of the collided obstacle, rather than just staying above it like he should. It also goes the other way too, sometimes, when standing on a small obstacle, when jumping onto a taller obstacle, the height offset isn't updated until the controller object isn't overlapping the smaller obstacle at all.

I can't really explain, just play it and see

Does anyone know a better way of picking the objects rather than 'is overlapping?' Or is there a bug in 'is overlapping?' that needs fixing?