Starting a game: advice requested for 2d graphics.

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    • Starting a game: advice requested for 2d graphics.

      I'm starting a top-down action game. I am going for as realistic an effect as possible. It is supposed to be networked for many-person fun. I'd like the best performace possible while having 'tons' of sprite particles for cool smoke trails, explosions etc. I also want to have lens-flare/lighting effects.
      I have started some code already that uses D3D to draw my tile-based terrain with an indexed vertices. I also have point lights to simulate explosion flares/lighting wherever I click, and it looks REALLY cool. I want to have lighting like that in the game. I don't really care how it's implemented as long as the method is fast and looks cool. I also need, I NEED rotation. Last year I made a game where I had to render everything in 20 different positions :( I refuse to do this again, and if I have to use the D3D sprite interface, I will.
      So, my main question is which method to use for the graphics: D3D, DDraw, or a combination of both? I'd like to use D3D for all the graphics, that way I can have rotation, alpha blending, lighting effect, etc. But then I worry about speed. If I use DDraw I might get better performance, but might not be able to use rotation or have nice lighting effects. (I could do lighting by drawing a textured quad over my explosion, or blitting a mask with alpha values..)
      Thanks for taking the time to read this far!!
    • RE: Starting a game: advice requested for 2d graphics.

      As long as your players have some relatively recent hardware (less than 3-4 years old) you'll be fine using D3D Sprites and hardware accelleration.

      On using 20 prerendered directions for sprites - that's exactly how Origin's Wing Commander did it!

      Good luck!
      Mr.Mike
      Author, Programmer, Brewer, Patriot
    • D3D all the way!!

      I agree with mrmike, I think you should go for D3D.

      So what else are you planning for this game? I made a simple top-down demo for my uni dissertation. The tile map had multiple levels so that the character could move behind and under objects. I wanted to have some animated tiles but I didn't have time to implement it.

      I also used point sprites in another project and you're right they do look COOL :]
      pan narrans