Technique for adding depth to an isometric game.

Pabloukiyo asked me for an idea on how to fake 3D in an isometric game. I'm answering him with a capx and posting it here for anyone to use.

There is a static object to represent a building and the bouncing object is to show that the depth is not restricted to discrete layers.

I managed to comment the event sheet this time. Let me know if it's not clear or if you have any questions.

When you enable perspective I guess it's not really isometric anymore lol

http://www.cargocultgaming.com/notisoanymore/

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26348967/3D_iso.capx

It's not isometric though, it's just top view. In order to be isometric (even if not ortographic) you have to allways see the side of the object that is facing down. If I go above the object in your example, I see the side of the object that is facing up.

Isometric:

https://www.google.pt/search?q=isometri ... etric+city

Top view:

https://www.google.pt/search?q=isometri ... ch&q=gta+1

Still a well achieved effect.

It's not isometric though, it's just top view. In order to be isometric (even if not ortographic) you have to allways see the side of the object that is facing down. If I go above the object in your example, I see the side of the object that is facing up.

Isometric:

https://www.google.pt/search?q=isometri ... etric+city

Top view:

https://www.google.pt/search?q=isometri ... ch&q=gta+1

Still a well achieved effect.

To see the sides of the buildings like in the first example all the time you would just add 100-200 units or so to the Y value offset and keep the perspective disabled. You could use this value to rotate between top view and traditional iso in real time. However, the buildings will have a layered look with this technique because of the stacked sprites. Thanks!

That'd be cool to create 'diferent camera perspectives'. Yes it will have allways that look, but in the end it's up to the developer to take advantage of that effect and apply it in the artstile of the game. You could do a game where the world made in paper for instance, then the buildings could look cool like that.