2.5D mod?

[CaptainChar]

Ive only ever covered a mockup concept of this as seen in the castlevania thread, however I believe if pulled off it would open a new door for modders, mappers etc alike, since you could make 3D side scrolling stages per say, a perfect example for this use would be a possible remake of the "Super Star Wars" games seen on the super Nintendo, im just tossing the idea out there

 

 

[katanamaru]

Yeah this sounds like a really neat idea! Silly question, how do you make the player change directions when moving < and > instead of moving forward and back?

[DT.]

I would just:

 

- assign the forward & back binds to the left and right keys

- delete the binds for the up & down keys

- delete any other binds that strafe or rotate the player

 

 

You should be able to tweak the thirdperson cam settings to work as side scrolling as well.

[Circa]

That would be awesome! It could totally work. You'd just need a map that works with it and make sure the player can't move towards the camera.

[ChalklYne]

ive done test maps... what i did... was make the map in 3d... then put in invisible clipping planes to keep the npc's in line... then ingame, i rotated the camera to the side and did what they said with the controls. it was like mario bros

[CaptainCrazy]

I would just:

 

- assign the forward & back binds to the left and right keys

- delete the binds for the up & down keys

- delete any other binds that strafe or rotate the player

 

 

You should be able to tweak the thirdperson cam settings to work as side scrolling as well.

 

 

I'd bind the up key to jump actually xD

[eezstreet]

No isometric love?

[CaptainChar]

the only mock up I did was changing the camera angle, apparently the mod "Jedi fighter" got it down, but I don't know if the camera would follow  the players or if its simply put at a fixed postion

 

 

 

 

[Circa]

Oh yeah, I remember watching that video. Looked good to me!

[CaptainChar]

theres a theoretical advantage with the 2.5D setup, you'd only need half the brushes for a usual hallway lets say, allowing that other half to be used down the line for more level or if you wanted to keep each level a set lengh, you could have glorious detail

[katanamaru]

By more level you meant you could make the maps bigger so less loading times?

That would also be glorious!

[CaptainChar]

I mean say a high quality hall way uses 2000 brushes, in 2.5D in theory it'd use only 1000 brushes, thus doubling the length of a level, although each level is limited in length via the editor distance, the "HOM" effect wouldn't be seen since only a small portion of the level is being rendered, roughly just what's beyond the camera's view, cut scenes could still use full 3D areas to give more illusion to the world is bigger then what it is.

OR: you take your spare 1000 brushes from the side of the room you don't see, and reuse them for buffing up the detail more

 

my plan is to use the 2.5D mod to probably make a "Super Star Wars" like game other modders could use this mod to do things like the following:

 

Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles:

http://youtu.be/j6N_w1RlUzI

 

Megaman maverick hunter X:

 

New Super Mario Bros:

http://youtu.be/VsrHgQkN_rc

 

All these games are classic side scrollers with 3D models,

[eezstreet]

I am not sure why you're referring to this as being 2.5D, it wouldn't be 2.5D at all using this method that you've described.

[CaptainChar]

2.5D is just an illusion for the most part

[katanamaru]

Super Empire Strikes Back

Mega Man

Castlevania

 

I'd have to get on those teams!

[RebelChum]

You'd have to make the map foreground (the part between the player and NPCs non-solid so that the camera doesn't bounce forward and backward when you pass behind geomentry.

 

Not sure if making it non-solid would work or not.

[CaptainChar]

the primary goal of this mod is yes, to revist the "Super Star Wars" Saga, 99% of everything we need was already made at one point or another, flying levels are err to say the least simple, since they were just "shoot down X number of things" cept the death star in Return, as I remember on the SNES flying into and out of the core was a pain in the ass

[Circa]

I never even got past Jabba's palace in ROTJ. It was so freakin hard. Though I was only like 7...

[CaptainChar]

I always found Super Empire, getting to vader to be a major B*tch, and then the duel with him was just as frusterating.

 

on a sidenote ive considered a Megaman Mod for sometime, either in the X series, or Legends

[eezstreet]

2.5D is just an illusion for the most part

2.5D is an illusion of 3 dimensions using 2 dimensional objects ie images/animations

What you've described is just side-scrolling using a 3D engine. Nothing really 2.5D about it.

 

Good examples of 2.5D games: Age of Empires 1/2, Starcraft, Fallout, ...

[CaptainChar]

AoE and StarCraft used Isometric views, as did many RPGs at the time, but yes I see what you mean, the question remains, can it be done though?