Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Isometric Tile Maps
The tile maps we've discussed to this point are displayed as a flat surface. This
works well for a top-down or straight-on-the-side view, but if we want a view with
agreatersenseofdepth,weneedadifferentwaytolookatthescene.Inan
isomet-
ric view
, the view is rotated slightly so that there is greater depth. Games such as
Diablo
and
Fallout
utilize isometric views, and a sample isometric view is shown
in
Figure 2.10
.
Figure 2.10
Sample isometric scene.
Authoring tiles for an isometric view is a bit different from a standard view. In-
stead of squares, the tiles must either be diamonds or hexagons. It is also very
common to have multiple layers of tiles when isometric tile maps are utilized, and
higher layers may have structures constructed out of multiple adjacent tiles. To
support multiple layers, we need to update our tile map format so data can be ex-
pressed for multiple layers. Furthermore, the drawing code will need to be updated
so that layers are drawn in the appropriate order.
