Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
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These types of paintings were designed as a form of narrative. The viewer
can fix on any area of the painting and understand the story being told there,
regardless of how wide the scroll is and without any optical distortions cre-
ated by vanishing points or strong light sources. The projection the Chinese
invented to create this unusual perspective is known as axonometric, or
dengjiao toushi
in Chinese, meaning “equal-angle see-through.” The term
axonometry
means “measurable from the axes.”
Regardless of the approach to creating the faux background, the result is the
creation of a bigger world in which players can move up and down and side to
side without straining the capabilities of the computers running them. This
approach is still used, especially with games that are playable online.
3D models
Whether your game is designed to play in a world where you can move 360 degrees
or is a flat 2D game, characters, props, vehicles, and environments can be designed
and built using a variety of 3D programs. These are some of the commonly used
software packages:
Maya:
3ds Max:
CINEMA 4D:
www.maxon.net
Open source also has a 3D package called Blender that you may want to take a look
W
h I C h
3d P
r o G r a m
?
Maya is an excellent program that, like CINEMA 4D, 3ds Max, and Blender,
can be used to create 3D models, animate, and do compositing, match
moving, and other visual effects. Maya tends to be the preferred program
to use because of its versatility for creating organic models and the robust
nature of the entire package—it has everything you need for modeling and
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