RPGDX > Forums > Design and programming > Heightmapped tiles

valderman · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2003 10:50 pm Post subject: Heightmapped tiles

I was goofing around a bit with heightmaps and OpenGL when the thought struck me: What if you had 3D heightmapped tiles in a p*p scrolling game? This would have two benefits: a) it would be pretty original, and b) it's an obvious shortcut for people like me who suck at pixel art (yeah, I'm lazy, I know).
What do you think? Is this something to look further into, or am I just wasting my time?
It would probably look a bit weird, but it would be pretty cool to have rolling hills, spikey mountains, etc., while at the same time having a good old tile-based engine.
_________________
http://www.weeaboo.se

Ninkazu · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2003 10:59 pm Post subject:

I'd have to see an example before giving the yay or ney.

resle · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 12:12 am Post subject:

Uh, I don't get it: what's p*p?

My engine currently features heightmaps --- but I dropped using them: they didn't add anything to the game itself, actually - yet made things slightly more complex for what concerns the design...
_________________
...so we ate rare animals, we spent the night eating rare animals...

js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

p*p=Pixel by Pixel

janus · Mage Joined: 29 Jun 2002 Posts: 464 Location: Issaquah, WA

Um, I've seen that hundreds of times, and it's not all that revolutionary. It would be neat though.

resle · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 10:12 am Post subject:

Depends. If p*p means "a là baldur's gate", then using an heightmap on it, would basically result in a ...uhm... voxel landscape? In that case, it wouldn't be that revolutionary, and - also - I don't see how could it help a pixel artist, whose work would be the same, heightmap or not.
_________________
...so we ate rare animals, we spent the night eating rare animals...

Modanung · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 10:40 am Post subject:

valderman · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 6:39 pm Post subject:

It would be the tiles who are heightmapped, the map wouldn't, almost like you use bumpmapping to simulate details on 3D models. (I suck at explaining things.)

Modanung · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2003 9:01 pm Post subject:

Ah, I understand...
You're talking about really big tiles.

Bjorn · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2003 2:19 pm Post subject:

We had an idea to do quite the opposite in the Moonlight engine. Allow for a height layer that would specify the height of the ground at each location, but the tile artist would still need to draw the holes and hills. Never really implemented it though.