I'm not sure what problem he's trying to solve. Is it a rendering problem, a "tile" placement problem, or something else?
Characters are always rendered on top of land, no matter how it is generated. The only issue is objects placed on the land. With 2D isometric, the sorting algorithm is more or less as he initially states, top to bottom. That is true no matter whether you use grid-based rectangular tiles, a pile of circles, or whatever.
What it's talking about is turning an isometric view that actually looks isometric and feels isometric, into something that behind the scenes still takes an isometric approach of sorts, but the end user result does not have that look or feel to it.
It doesn't resemble the basic grid, moving from tile to tile like Facebook games such as FarmVille or that Java based Habbo Hotel does for example.
Part 2 has been posted: http://www.wildbunny.co.uk/blog/?p=93
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks