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Author Topic: 2.5D ASCII  (Read 2340 times)

Mike Mayday

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2.5D ASCII
« on: December 17, 2009, 11:10:58 am »

Reading the latest devnotes regarding the increasing number of beastmen made me think about all the graphics that would have to be created. Since this is apparently a trend and there are lots of modders who can't be bothered making sprites for all the awesome stuff they mod in, there is only one true solution for those of us who still dream about playing the game in an orthogonal projection.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present:

cavascii


You can see a bunch of chests here (notice how the lowest one is still perfectly visible in spite of standing under a bunch of walls, and a depiction of how a unit lying on the ground looks (the blue dwarf). Also available- better display of engravings.

Using a modified version of the default curses font, this simple solution decreases the need for graphics to a floor tile, a wall tile, a fortification tile, four stairs icons and 12 ramp icons. So what do you think? Feasible? Approachable? Likeable?
« Last Edit: February 09, 2012, 08:16:09 am by Mike Mayday »
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qoonpooka

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2009, 11:53:07 am »

That is equal parts freaky looking and awesome. :) 

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Duke 2.0

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2009, 11:56:20 am »

 Show us a convex construction, like a goblin tower.

 Actually, I remember making this almost exact same request in your other concept thread. I still quite like the suggestion, but we need to see possible complications. Such as how good it looks when blending two different z-levels. So far the z-level example you have there looks quite slick. But those are ramps, we need some system for our weird one-tile stairs.
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Mike Mayday

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2009, 12:07:21 pm »

we need some system for our weird one-tile stairs.

Specifically, we need them OUT OF THE GODDAMN GAME
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Duke 2.0

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2009, 12:09:59 pm »

 This is also true.
 It is likely the greatest reason(Other than laziness) that a theoretical Minecraft converter will never be made.
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I would bet money Andrew has edited things retroactively, except I can't prove anything because it was edited retroactively.
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sproingie

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2009, 01:35:46 pm »

Nitpick: that's not isometric.  If the diagonal is the same length as the sides, that's isometric, i.e. isometric is "squashed" by a factor of ~1.4 to 1.

These days it's probably just easier to render it in OpenGL and use point sprites.  Then you get an iso perspective "for free" by angling the camera then switching to an orthographic projection, and you can use occlusion queries to determine whether you need to fade out foreground tiles.



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Mike Mayday

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #6 on: December 17, 2009, 02:03:10 pm »

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buman

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #7 on: December 17, 2009, 07:15:27 pm »

Dude, did you see what's written under my avatar? I KNOW it's not isometric.

Thread title?
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Thursday Postal

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #8 on: December 17, 2009, 07:54:53 pm »

Reading the latest devnotes regarding the increasing number of beastmen made me think about all the graphics that would have to be created. Since this is apparently a trend and there are lots of modders who can't be bothered making sprites for all the awesome stuff they mod in, there is only one true solution for those of us who still dream about playing the game in an orthogonal projection.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present:

asciiiso

You can see a bunch of chests here (notice how the lowest one is still perfectly visible in spite of standing under a bunch of walls, and a depiction of how a unit lying on the ground looks (the blue dwarf). Also available- better display of engravings.

Using a modified version of the default curses font, this simple solution decreases the need for graphics to a floor tile, a wall tile, a fortification tile, four stairs icons and 12 ramp icons. So what do you think? Feasible? Approachable? Likeable?

Very likable.
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Lord Shonus

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2009, 07:58:55 pm »

Why did you quote the op just to add a one-line comment?



In any case, how would you display two creatures in one tile? Flash like current, or some other method?
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LegoLord

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #10 on: December 17, 2009, 08:39:06 pm »

Dude, did you see what's written under my avatar? I KNOW it's not isometric.

Thread title?
Yeah.  That is kind of a misnomer, Mayday.
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Amalgam

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #11 on: December 17, 2009, 09:20:34 pm »

I would so use this. I'm stuck on ascii. It's just kind of... Nostalgic, I guess. I learned to play DF in ascii. Same reason I can't bring myself to use another color scheme. With this I could get the best of both worlds, a pleasantly familiar feel in a much prettier and less confusing projection.
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Geb

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #12 on: December 17, 2009, 11:38:24 pm »

This is a strange and neat idea. All the structural stuff works as you have it there; the walls may look a little unusual, but they're definitely walls. The dwarves and furniture seem insubstantial though. They don't give the impression of being solid objects. Blob shadows on the tile underneath might fix it, or making the icons a bit more 3d too.
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CaptainNitpick

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #13 on: December 17, 2009, 11:49:47 pm »

Both awesome and hilarious. I can picture telling someone who can't make sense of the ASCII that there's a 2.5D "isometric" visualizer, and them seeing this. Heads would explode.

This would also make for a good fallback system for otherwise complete graphics sets. They're going to need one, what with randomly generated creatures. I have no idea how many weird things the system can spit out, but it's going to be beyond the ability of graphics people to anticipate all of them.
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sproingie

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Re: Isometric ASCII
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2009, 01:02:30 am »

They're going to need one, what with randomly generated creatures.

Man that dev log is full of sig material.  Looks like he's giving Will Wright a run for his money too ;D
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