Screenshot: Terrain is Tiled? 3d tiled?  Char

OpenGL Development
#1

http://www.runawaystudios.com/imgsweb/samurai.jpg

What is going on here?

Terrain:
I am guessing it is tiles, rendered in a 3d environment? Can someone me the exact terminology for this type of terrain? Can someone point me to some tutorials or information where I might leran more about it and it’s OpenGL implementation?

Characters:
I believe this is called 2d sprite billboarding, am I right? Where can I find more information regarding this technique? Any tutorials?

Finally:
What other games look like this and use this type of terrain / character rendering styles? I would love to find a game with a free download/demo so I can play around and make sure this is what I want, aswell as being able to see how some other developers are handling certain issues.

Thanks in advance.

#2

Only need to post one one site :slight_smile:
The terrain is probably being rendered with a quadtree in 3D. The sprites look like billboards. Google for “opengl billboarding” and 1,000 tutorials turn up.
Not many games use billboarding for sprites on top of a 3D background. At least, I don’t actually know of any offhand that use this precise technique. Apart from, strangely, Alien Flux.

Cas :slight_smile:

#3

Hi Cas, thanks a lot for your response.

I heard that using the 2d billboards would be a good way for me to get a lot of characters on screen at once.

Is hardware technology these days sufficient to do it with full-blown 3d models?

What would your recommendation be if I am going to have a simple 3d background/terrain like you see above, but with 40 or 50 characters on screen at a time?

Can you give any suggestions? 2d billboard sprites / 3d models / ???

#4

I might also mention that I will be having a fixed camera.

I do not need a moving camera for this game, so the camera will always be fixed in the space.

Sugestions for terrain / character rendering models ?

#5

Quadtree for the ground, roll-your-own for the 3D models. Modern hardware is easily powerful enough for a couple of hundred models on screen if you keep the poly count down.

Cas :slight_smile:

#6

Not to mention you can LOD your models and terrain, where at the lowest LOD you can use imposters. Doing this you can put many models on the screen.