Latest Posts

Topic: Isometric perspective angle

Amelie
Avatar
Topic Opener
Joined: 2015-03-07, 08:28
Posts: 1
Ranking
Just found this site
Posted at: 2015-03-07, 09:52

Those older 'The Settlers' games had a slightly different camera angle compared to the isometric view Widelands uses.



Just out of curiosity, I wonder if the readabilty of buildings in Widelands would benefit from a slightly lower perspective. This might emphasize the building shape and additional smaller assets, while showing less of the roof top.


Top Quote
einstein13
Avatar
Joined: 2013-07-29, 00:01
Posts: 1118
Ranking
One Elder of Players
Location: Poland
Posted at: 2015-03-08, 18:30

For me this idea is not pefect from one point:

Sometimes two mines are very close to each other and when one of them is exhausted it makes "x" sign. This sign is almost invisible, because the second mine is "in front of it". Usually it is visible. But if we change the angle, it will be invisible more often. That will affect gameplay.

The solution is to change the sign-place to higher one.


einstein13
calculations & maps packages: http://wuatek.no-ip.org/~rak/widelands/
backup website files: http://kartezjusz.ddns.net/upload/widelands/

Top Quote
chuckw
Avatar
Joined: 2010-03-15, 16:23
Posts: 945
Ranking
One Elder of Players
Location: New York - USA
Posted at: 2015-03-12, 19:27

Amelie wrote:

Those older 'The Settlers' games had a slightly different camera angle compared to the isometric view Widelands uses.

[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9eF1iLk55Vk/VPq5GUMT6zI/AAAAAAAAAGE/wPK5nzLpQVU/w800-h200-no/Comparison.png[/img]

Just out of curiosity, I wonder if the readabilty of buildings in Widelands would benefit from a slightly lower perspective. This might emphasize the building shape and additional smaller assets, while showing less of the roof top.

Hello, Amelie! Welcome to the Widelands forums!

Your question is certainly a valid one. Anything that can be done to make the game board elements more easily recognizable and less distracting should be considered.

As creator of many of the visual elements on the game board, I try to be sensitive to the importance of their "readability." Sometimes I am more successful at conveying a building's identity, for example, and sometimes less.

There are trade offs with any viewing angle as einstein13 noted, but such challenges can be dealt with in usually a number of ways.

The current viewing aspect was set when the game was in its infancy when the geometry of the game board was being designed. It would take considerable effort to at the very least re-render ALL of the game board visuals to present them from a different viewing angle. That would be necessary, of course, to maintain consistency. Aside from that, I personally wasn't involved in those early design decisions and I don't know, at this point, if changing the viewing angle might be opening a Pandora's box of problems heretofore circumvented. In other words, I have no plans to change the viewing angle now. face-smile.png

HOWEVER, that said, I ask that where specific elements are problematic, submitting a Bug Report will focus our attention on it. Plus there are in-game helps to definitively identify buildings. Typing "C" will toggle the display of building names on the map in the game.

Thanks for your comments and your interest in Widelands and again WELCOME. Keep 'em coming. face-grin.png


I see little people.

Top Quote