Are we talking battletoads style 2.5d, or isometric platforming? You didn't really explain.

True, I didn't. This should cover both, as the difference between them (AFAIK) is just the controls and shape of the platforms. Also, there's control over how height is represented, so you could adapt to many styles.

No, there are no plans to involve z or distort maps. This is not 3D, it's 2.5D as seen in Golden Axe, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Final Fantasy III (american) and other 2D games that allowed you to walk in 8 directions and also jump on top of stuff.

To turn off slope you'd just leave the default 0 values for dwdx and dwdy. Slopes are useful for marble-madness type games and any others that may need sloped platforms. (most 2.5D games have only flat planes).

Nice, thanks for the explanation

Firstly I'd like to point out that this is \o/

Secondly: For frames you can always put all the controls in a layer, on top of a Panel object and scroll that layer around. It'll look just like a window.

There should be a dance party game.

Okay, I finally have some time to get this done (2.5D platform plugin, for RPGs, brawlers and whatnot).

EDIT: The latest demo will always be at http://octavoarte.cl/25d_concept.exe while I'm working on this.

Since this time is limited to about a month TOTAL, I figure I'd better throw ideas and get feedback right before even starting.

My first idea would work something like this:

• Everything (with the behavior) is a cylindrical platform with a sloped top. This means players could stand on top of each other if desired.
• The top has the same profile as the base (regardless of slope) and profile needs to be specified separately (Feedback here: separate objects? frames? collision mask?).
• Everything on top of something stays there unless moved, regardless of slope.

I've settled on the following attributes:

• W=faux height
• RY=real y.
• RX=real x.
• DyDt=real y speed.
• DxDt=real x speed.
• DwDt=w speed.
• DwDx=top slope on real x
• DwDy=top slope on real y
• T=W Climbing Threshold, for stairs and such.
• WY= offset on Y for each unit of W
• WX= offset on X for each unit of W
• Ignore collision= toggles whether the object will react to collision or its absence.
• Player= sets the player that controls this object.
• Unmovable= toggles whether the object is controlled by a player (Feedback: is this needed?)

Collision would be as follows:

IF platform profiles collide at equal W AND platforms sprite collide, THEN platforms are colliding.

Movement would be as follows:

• Y=RY+(WY*W)
• X=RX+(WX*W)
• Falling modifies W only.
• Sprites are sorted according to RY and its sign.
• On collision, an object is placed on top of another object only if doing so doesn't move the object more than T. Otherwise it gets pushed out in the angle of its speed. If speed is 0, nothing happens. Height is determined by measuring the distance between the profile aligned at the bottom and at the top of the sprite.

Expressions would be as follows:

• Is above
• Is below
• Is falling
• is on top of
• get (any) attribute

Actions would be as follows:

• Set position to (real x, real y,w)
• get/set attributes

So far the only undecided issues are:

• Profile storage. Where to store the profile image for a platform?
• Are slopes necessary? They could bring issues in the math for movement.
• Controls by multiple players. I don't know how this works. Is a separate toggle needed for objects that are not player-controlled?

Feedback and implementation tips are very welcome! This will be my first plugin, only done fx so far.

I always just use my time machine and stop the corrupting of my project. Yeah... you all don't go far enough.

Me too. It's called SVN.

I'd like to point out that 3D acceleration is just not designed for discrete coordinates.

All of my sectors are procedurally generated down to the last detail. They are given names, histories, FUTURES (yes, I generate a procedural timeline for every point in time, for every area of space). They are then populated with planets and anomalies, and even ships at this point. Ships that belong to empires that span hundreds and thousands of stars...empires that are at war with each other. The empires themselves are randomly generated, so one could be a monarchy of three eyed aliens, while another could be a democratic kind of one eyed alien species that prefer trade over war. Currently you can land on these planets and walk around, though you will see a transition between each tile on a planet (a zelda style transition between each point on a perlin map).

I might switch - I was using Firefox, but Chrome seems newer and faster.

I feel being newer shouldn't factor in a software decision, unless it's related to compatibility issues.

I haven't tried Chrome since 1.0, when it was unusable due to crashes and sluggishness. I guess I should now.

once released, remember to post in the finished plugins thread!

So yeah. win7 is really nice.

XD

The same thing happened to me.... on an auditorium. With an audience.

yeah, it was weird. For some reason, 995 saves the layout with nothing selected sometimes.