Been playing with irrlicht all day...
the project I'm working on involves a large map and units on it.
Using draw2DImage, I am able to plot down the map, but camera adjustments don't impact it. Of course I'm able to make it a scrollable map by adjusting where I place it (loaded as a texture). I know the camera works, because I also figured out how to draw a cube, and when I move the camera, the cube is seen in a different location.
Should I be dropping my map texture onto a billboard or some such instead? I'm thinking that if I go into the 3d world, I would be able to easily zoom and move around by simply changing the camera location. Also if the units were little billboards, I imagine that I could easily rotate them and such also.
2D, no zooming (or would I scale/transform the texture?) and calculating what the mouse is pointing at would probably be a greater pain.
3D, I'd probably have to figure out how to properly butt billboards up next to each other as the map is large and needs to be tiled to fit texture size constraints. And would the internal edges of the tile/billboards cause seems?
Thoughts regarding proper approach will be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Piet
2D/3D design question?
I've tried 2D for an RTS before, and found that though it seems like it would be easier because its 2D, you waste so much time trying to to do stuff that could easily be done in 3D.
As for your level, however, I'd recommend that you use either a hill mesh, a terrain mesh, or a custom scene node which is just a flat plane. Since billboards align to the camera, they wouldn't work very well for a map.
Also, I've been working on a 3D RTS engine for quite some time, so if you have anything you're having trouble putting together, feel free to send me a PM and I can give you some code.
As for your level, however, I'd recommend that you use either a hill mesh, a terrain mesh, or a custom scene node which is just a flat plane. Since billboards align to the camera, they wouldn't work very well for a map.
Also, I've been working on a 3D RTS engine for quite some time, so if you have anything you're having trouble putting together, feel free to send me a PM and I can give you some code.
Thank you for the advice Ion Dune! Learning how to drop a texture onto a flat plane sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. And so off to go searching I went and saw that Tutorial 3 is likely the perfect place to start (what an idiot I feel like...).
I wish I was smarter in the 3d world, but just have to jump in and try I guess. BTW, I love the map I created. I'm doing the Gettysburg area - started by downloading USGS data, ran it through a utility, into Terragen (to create a colored relief map), into PS for layers of rivers, roads, buildings, etc. I think it looks great.
But I cry to think how great it might have looked if I knew how to create a terrain mesh and then drape the texture over it. Ah well, must learn how to sit up before I can start crawling!
Again, much thanks for the advise Ion Dune, I feel like I'm back on track.
I wish I was smarter in the 3d world, but just have to jump in and try I guess. BTW, I love the map I created. I'm doing the Gettysburg area - started by downloading USGS data, ran it through a utility, into Terragen (to create a colored relief map), into PS for layers of rivers, roads, buildings, etc. I think it looks great.
But I cry to think how great it might have looked if I knew how to create a terrain mesh and then drape the texture over it. Ah well, must learn how to sit up before I can start crawling!
Again, much thanks for the advise Ion Dune, I feel like I'm back on track.