AGS as a 2.5D - Adventure engine

[Moox]

But I don't think he will, hasn't he had to participate in too many threads like this?

I dont blame him. If he says yes some will hold him to it, others will say its not sticking to its adventure roots. If he says no some will get upset and angry. Its lose lose for him.

[TerranRich]

I'm in favor of a 2.5D engine. It would be a neat feature to add to, say, version 3.0.

I'm just afraid that in the near future it might turn into a 3D creation program where people everywhere will start making Doom clones (how do i add wepponza!?!/1/1). The line between FPS and adventure will be thinned more and more and pushed farther and farther until CJ snaps and kils us all.

[shbaz]

Well, I guess we're stuck until CJ pops in and explains why it can't be done, or why it can but it won't, or why it will be someday. But I don't think he will, hasn't he had to participate in too many threads like this?

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I did have a brief experiment with 3D characters. My conclusion was that it was certainly possible to do, but would require quite a bit of time and effort to integrate it properly into AGS.

The biggest stumbling block I found was trying to get a 3D program to export a file format that AGS could read in easily. Not managing to find one was what put pay to my experiment. Even 3dsmax's "ASCII export format" was hideously complicated and seemed to be missing bits.

Of course rendering a 3d model for the character with no adjustment for perspective and flat ambient lighting straight onto the background would be possible, and would require very little to change from the way things are now, there would be very little point in it.  The character may as well be pre rendered.

This is just it - I could probably implement that without too much trouble.. but then, without lighting and perspective there's no real advantage to it, as you say. And all the engine and editor adjustments that would be necessary to accomodate it do pretty much rule it out.

If I do ever add 3D character support to AGS, it is likely to be just to the basic level where a View is replaced by a 3D model - anything further would just complicate things too much to be worthwhile.

Is there anything more that needs to be said?

I mean, anything is possible to add to AGS if it is proven possible in other software. This just takes lots of time, and until someone wants to do it bad enough, no dice.