rotate-able baselines?

[James Kay]

suggestion for new feature: rotate-able baselines? It'd be nice to be able to angle a baseline, especially in isometric views!

[James Kay]

On top of this, and I don't know if I already can do this or not, but when working in isometric, the walk directions are a bit odd.
The character uses the up-right animation loop when, I guess, he walks at an x+1, y-1 rate, or an angle of 45 degrees. The game I'm working on is angled slightly differently (about 30 degrees) so often when you expect an up-right loop to be used, it doesn't.

This, and the rotate-able baseline thing are specifically geared towards isometric or otherwise odd-angled scenes.

[After]

I made the diagonal loops suggestion in another thread.

The baselines I think present a bigger obstacle in terms of the routine demands on the engine.

The easiest approach that I can think of just happens to be compatible with my suggestion in the other thread.

For each room define a value, g=horizontal/vertical. (g = 2 or 3 being the most likely)
For each walkbehind set a point=(u,v) corresponding to the bottom of the "\/" shape where the angled 'baselines' meet.
Then, for the bottom-centre of a character/object, (x,y),
g(y-v)+abs(x-u) is positive when in front, negative when behind.

Contrast this with y-v, for flat baselines.

You could probably use this formula to script a variable baseline, but I imagine that it could get messy.

[InCreator]

Usually, isometric games are not based at 45 degrees.
relation to x and y is more like 2:1 or even 3:1.
But I believe that some of you folks there may really find diagonal baselines useful, yeah.

[Pumaman]

Allowing non-horizontal baselines is rather complicated and not something I can really prioritise.

Setting a ratio for the choice of the directional loops is viable though, and has already been suggested as mentioned, so it's on my list.

[Isegrim]

You could adjust the baseline according to the character's x-position via
"SetWalkBehindBase (int area, int baseline)", couldn't you? That would, of course, kill the effect for objects and other characters...

[deltamatrix]

I've got to ask.

Why on earth would you want this feature? What can it do? Seems pointless to me;)

[James Kay]

I've got to ask.

Why on earth would you want this feature? What can it do? Seems pointless to me;)

Try making a good walkbehind in an isometric or otherwise semi-top-down view. It's a nightmare! The main problem is that the character could be ABOVE the baseline but visibly still be IN FRONT OF the walk-behind.