Isometric or overhead?

How do you change the game from being isometric (standar) to having an overhead view (like in the classic conversions)? I know it's mostly graphics but how would I make it calculate trajectories as if it were 3/4 view?

@v3n0m, on Oct 14 2007, 09:00 PM, said in Isometric or overhead?:

How do you change the game from being isometric (standar) to having an overhead view (like in the classic conversions)? I know it's mostly graphics but how would I make it calculate trajectories as if it were 3/4 view?

Never heard of such a thing being done. I would just have all of the ships you add be from overhead.

@v3n0m, on Oct 14 2007, 11:00 PM, said in Isometric or overhead?:

How do you change the game from being isometric (standar) to having an overhead view (like in the classic conversions)? I know it's mostly graphics but how would I make it calculate trajectories as if it were 3/4 view?

I don't believe that's capable with the engine as it is. You'd have to ask someone more familiar.

The game itself cannot "calculate trajectories" as you said. The sprites themselves need to be rendered at the appropriate angles, which in the stock Nova graphics, is 45°. The only way to change them would be to re-render every sprite in the game, which would require the original Lightwave models that ATMOS used.

What you're asking for is not possible because the Nova uses sprite-based graphics, and doesn't render models "on the fly".

A sprite is more akin to an animated GIF than a 3D model. In this case a series of pre-rendered images is used to generate a rotating (sometimes banking and rotating) ship.

This is usually done by modeling a ship in a 3D program such as Cinema 4D, Lightwave, or Blender.

One determines the angle the ship will appear at at this stage. You can choose to render from the top down, at 45 degrees, or whatever you want.

An animation of the ship rotating is output usually as a movie file.

This animation is then converted into a sprite using a tool such as m2s. (under addons/utilities on the EVN downloads page)

This is just the graphical side of ship creation, and doesn't cover everything.

But I hope it helps answer your question.

--BP

I don't think I worded that clearly. I'm trying to make the EV classic conversion into a 3/4 view. I'm already making new sprites for all the ships but I need to know how to make the ships/bullets move as they would in nova instead of classic.

There is no difference between the way they move in classic and in nova. Nova does not do any sort of 3/4 or isometric trajectory calculations. The sprites may be rendered in 3/4 view but the game functions entirely top-down.

Making new sprites for classic? Care to show us a sneak peek? 🙂

This post has been edited by Guy : 15 October 2007 - 09:03 PM

Are you serious about redoing all of the graphics!? 😮 That sounds incredibly difficult. You must have a lot of time. What graphics program are you using? What sort of other things are you doing, if I may ask?

@v3n0m, on Oct 16 2007, 01:20 AM, said in Isometric or overhead?:

I don't think I worded that clearly. I'm trying to make the EV classic conversion into a 3/4 view. I'm already making new sprites for all the ships but I need to know how to make the ships/bullets move as they would in nova instead of classic.

Its been done before, by KMQ with rEV (check the addons page).

Other than that, what you need to do is rotate your ship 45 degrees along the z axis in your graphics program. Before you render the sprites.

--BP

@0101181920, on Oct 15 2007, 09:28 PM, said in Isometric or overhead?:

Are you serious about redoing all of the graphics!? 😮 That sounds incredibly difficult. You must have a lot of time. What graphics program are you using? What sort of other things are you doing, if I may ask?

The ship graphics yes. I can port most of the other art from nova (Though I want to make a few planets myself). I am using blender and I know how long this will take

@guy, on Oct 15 2007, 09:02 PM, said in Isometric or overhead?:

There is no difference between the way they move in classic and in nova. Nova does not do any sort of 3/4 or isometric trajectory calculations. The sprites may be rendered in 3/4 view but the game functions entirely top-down.

Making new sprites for classic? Care to show us a sneak peek? 🙂

I'm not done yet, but the argosy will be finished first. I want to get rid of the cartoony look (bubble canopies, etc) most of the classic ships have, and regardless of what other players have made, I'm making my own models so it'll be easier to make alternate paintjobs (if there's room).

I decided on isometric view so I can see more of the ships

This is what the argosy looks like so far. Yes i'm trying to go for an angular look thats different from the original. I don't thin I have quite the right shape though

Posted Image

Posted Image

@v3n0m, on Oct 18 2007, 06:30 PM, said in Isometric or overhead?:

This is what the argosy looks like so far. Yes i'm trying to go for an angular look thats different from the original. I don't thin I have quite the right shape though

As I recall, it's a bit longer. Like 1.5 times as long as that. But still good work.

Oops, double post.

This post has been edited by 101181920 : 18 October 2007 - 08:40 PM

I personally love EVC the way it is... it could stand to make use of the Havok physics engine, but then again everything could.

Are you trying to give the classic ships the look that the nova ships have? If you are then I suggest that you don't make it too angular. If you have it too angular then the light interactions with your ships such as the light reflecting off of the hull will be very choppy and not look very good, but you may have already considered this. I think the major difference between nova ships and classic ships is the level of detail, though, if you were to take the argosey and as you were saying make it a little

Any way to make bloom effects in blender?

The EVC stuff doesn't have much in the way of textures, either.

Hmm, I too am doing a graphical facelift, but for Override. But I'm doing more than that, I'm gonna make what rEV is for the Classic. Personally, I thought the ships from Cold Fusion were a bit too large and was more like an eye candy version of the original design, especially when they clutter together in an escort formation. So far, the only ship I managed to revamp and input it into game play was the UE Shuttle.
Posted Image

This post has been edited by Coraxus : 21 October 2007 - 10:14 PM

Wow, I've always hoped someone would do something like this! That's gorgeous, Coraxus :). I hope you can see this project through.

(edit) Just remembered, there's also Revenant

This post has been edited by Guy : 22 October 2007 - 12:18 AM

Wow. You feel like taking a break to do a few images for Nebula? 😄