haven't said much here about my big project, there's a lot to say but i'll try to sum it up quickly:
it's a massive 3D rpg world done entirely in Game Maker. right now i'm not using any external libraries but there's a possible i may have too, to improve the performance in some situations.the game will be… hard to explain, the game is fully customizable. you can customize everything about the games interface, you can change your controls, your character, the camera's perspective, the games battle system (from turn-based to action), the color scheme and font of the menues, and so much more. it'll be a traditional RPG. so it's not online. good old classic leveling system with some very unique traits that i won't reveal yet. the most un-traditional part of the game is the massive world it'll take place in. basically… think of Majora's Mask but bigger. every character (even townspeople) will have a back story and a life in this world. they wake up in the mornings, go to work, return in the evenings and sleep during the night. you can interact with these people and everything else in the world. even the enemies have shelters!this of course means there is a day-to-night system as well.the game uses a very dynamic system for talking to people. when you talk to someone, a menu displays showing a list of questions relevant to the situation that you can ask them. they can give you many different answers depending on the person!with a virtual world like this, now you know why i call it a big project.here's a screenshot of the games graphics during noon:
i'm very very dedicated to this project as it's been in my head for years, basically like my "dream project". i've had sketches, plans, graphs, charts, stories and outlines for this game building up over the years. of course i don't plan on finish this any time soon at all lol xDi've already been working on it for about a year now, i stop every now and then, than i start up again. with lots of other mini's projects in between. i've still made a LOT of progress, mostly with the core programming. the battle system (1/2) is complete, menues and speech system works, the day-to-night system is.. functional. right now i'm busy building the world, it gets very repetitive at times but it's also pretty fun. overall i'm still no where near finished though, there are so many main elements still missing such as characters sprites that i have to start working on eventually…EDIT 1/23/11:what do you think about this little light beam i put in?
For the trees you could just load a tree sprite and have it always face the user like this:
It all depends on what your camera angle is going to be. If you're going to be on the ground at all times, paper trees can be good. But they're painfully obvious. Another method is to make paper trees, but duplicate the plane and make it cross itself. That's generally a method more acceptable for bushes and such though.
For anything where you're above ground, the third is to attempt WoW-style. But that would require a lot of time (and polygons) to produce an effect that doesn't really even look good. The trunk would look great, but leaves are something I haven't seen done well in many games.Just don't stray too far from your style. Inconsistency is a sin.Maybe you could use a 2d tree sprite when the player is far away from the tree, then when the player gets close enough, then make the tree 3d.
I think this is the best solution, because many AAA titles like Gears of War, Red Dead Redemption, and Halo Reach use this method.But the only hard part is, is making the transition smooth and unnoticable which could require you making multiple 3d models, to make it as unnoticable as possible.I'd also suggest simply 2d trees facing the player (especially since you're going to use sprites for characters anyway). Trying to draw trees with GM 3d functions is going to turn out horrible and there's no chance of anything even remotely close to realistic trees, ever.
Two interesecting planes also sound cool, but look more artificial and will have people scream out you're ripping Minecraft off in choirs. :PPersonally I used a cone and then cross sectioned some flat planes of branches and leaves. Looks less flat and still low detail.
well the graphics aren't going to be the strong point in the game anyway, however i do want atmosphere to be important. i really can't stand the flat-2d tree used in old 3d games, makes me wanna puke just lookin' at 'em lol.
i'm going to stick with a more 3d-based tree but keep it simple, i might change up the trees depending on the area, after all forest trees will be taller and darker than plain trees. for now, i'm still experimenting but thanks for the ideas ^^