BEFORE READING, I'd like to ask that if you aren't sure what i'm trying to explain or have any questions, let me know and ask. I'd appreciate re-assurance that you understand the map and which room, in relation to the map, you're looking at.

kanyway…

I've kinda gotten hardcore into making Depths more 3D. So, for the most part, it will be.

However, the game IS still technically 2D and works like a 2D game and functions on an entirely 2D plain. Any feeling of being in a 3D world is all an illusion using 2D effects [such as surfaces, no d3d]

here's a video of one way i can use this:

ALSO, THIS IS NOT A VIDEO OF DEPTHS, this is a different .gmk file designed for developing these new 3D effects quickly and from scratch. They've been designed to be merged into Depths and function correctly without having to adapt the code to the game.

This is the "PLAZA COURTYARD".

[to see 'full' map: http://64digits.com/users/DSG/map_ruunpalacelarge.jpg this room is near the center of the map]

Throw in a 2D panoramic background, add more trees to the top and other stuff to cover up all those ugly edges, a bit more smoke and lights, more movement, ambient sounds, and ladies and gentlemen, you'll have a nice solid looking room that truly feels 3D but isnt. [you can run all the way around the room continuously. you can think of the room having a 'circumference' of 1000 pixels, so after crossing 1000 pixels in distance in the game [think 2D], the 3D effect will have appeared to have rotated exactly 360 degrees and will relocate you exactly 1000 pixels backwards. 1000 pixels = 360 degrees. snapping from the far left to far right and vice versa is seemless and the player will absolutely not be able to notice he went from degree 360 back to degree 0 and vice versa, appearing to be a real 3D room]

description of video on Youtube:

"A short video of progress in creating the illusion of the interior of a rotating octagonal room or tower with multiple [and unlimited] levels/stories using surfaces, sprites, and a lot of math. Made in Game Maker 7. I've coded this in a way that by changing a few variables in the creation code, the cylinder-rendering object can be both an interior and exterior view [say you're running around the inside of a tower or around its exterior, etc] can handle any number of floors/layers/etc and can be any width and height."

FURTHERMORE:

All rooms will be 3D. Not all like this, but most rooms will be:

interior octagons [one or more stories, can be modified to appear circular]

exterior octagons [one or more stories, can be modified to appear circular]

straight passages [though they will be basically 3D boxes that rotate slightly to simulate more accurate perspective]

long curved passages

foreground/background transportation [kinda like paper mario when he goes through a tube to appear in the distant background where the tube leads only then the game will zoom the new location back to scale, still in development]

etc.

HERE is an ALMOST completed final map for this area [the ruun palace]

As you can see its a top-down multi-level map, the blue representing the rooms all together.

Hope you can understand it, the arrows are pointing DOWN the staircase, in case you were wondering.

http://64digits.com/users/DSG/map_ruunpalacelarge.jpg

also, merging with older blog and all so here's that.

I was bored, thought this sounded pretty different from anything out there.