Reality Factory

Hello , i need to create a game that would be 2d (camera from a side)
but it should have 3d chars , how to create it with realityfactory?
here is a picture (i want to create the same ,but other chars , other everything)

This as far as I know would be impossible in RF but you could download Game Maker 6, its a great tool for making 2D games and there is a lot of support for side scrollers, check the main site for rescources and tutorials! Also you can make your own moddels and then take pics of them at various states of animation then using Game Maker turn the pics into a 2D animation that looks 3D!

Theoretically you should be able to do this with an isometric camera, a skybox as background, using clip brushes for collision detection and working with sheet brushes and flipbooks... but to be honest, RF isn't the best choice for a 2d game.

It is possible, however, right now I do not have the time to tell you how to do it. I will post back later and fully explain it.

I could suggest you a perfect program I used, Multi Media Fusion. It's cheap and excellent for 2d game with 3d characters. I started creating games with this program

I have used Multi Media Fusion and trust me Game Maker 6 is cheaper (free) and 1000 times easier to use and more suited to the creation of 2d side scrollers, also there is a great community over there!

I checked out this Game Maker 6 and I agree: It's better.
Anyway, why do you want to create such a game? Even if you create something really original( which I doubt, because these game were created since God created Earth) these games are out of date

To do 3D in 2D with Genesis you would have to do the following:

1. Model your world and take screenshots at the camera positions that you want.
2. Compile the world into a BSP
3. Load the world using Genesis3D, but DO NOT add it to the engine.
4. Load all your screenshots
5. Render the screenshots as your background
6. Load your models and place them a NULL world and add that to the engine.
7. Check for collisions using the data from the world you DID NOT add to the engine.

This is a quick list of steps and is just theory. We can build on this though.

Yes such games are out of date but there were more original titles in 2D sidescrollers than FPS and there are far far more boring mindless FPS games than 2D scrollers.

But thats just me others may dissagree, sorry but I have no idea how to make a 2D game in RF but if you could it would be awsome its just its soooooo much extra work mainly cause the engien was never desighned for this and so I still recomend using a 2D specific program or making an out rageously linear 3D game and have the camera viewing from the side so it would be a 3D game but you would not be able to walk left or rite, this might be impossible but it sounds simpeler than that check list?

why not do it the other way around.

Make a 3D game with 2D chars

That could be a great game.

Ok, I now have some time to explain how it can be achived.

paradoxnj wrote:To do 3D in 2D with Genesis you would have to do the following:

1. Model your world and take screenshots at the camera positions that you want.
2. Compile the world into a BSP
3. Load the world using Genesis3D, but DO NOT add it to the engine.
4. Load all your screenshots
5. Render the screenshots as your background
6. Load your models and place them a NULL world and add that to the engine.
7. Check for collisions using the data from the world you DID NOT add to the engine.

This is a quick list of steps and is just theory. We can build on this though.

Well that is one way you could do it. Or you could make it like the old nintendo 64 game Kirby 64 and the crystal Shards. This game was fully 3d but kept kirby on a 2d course. Now the camera is different from what I undersatnd you want Anonymu$. Because a screen looks like this:

Note that the path of tree bark color is the path kirby walks on. Other movment is resrticted.
Now a way to do this but get a nice side scrolling action is achived in the latest game for the nintendo DS, New Super Mario Brothers. This game uses the DS's power of rendering 3D in a 2D environment. See the picture below:

Now here mario and bowser are 3D models which I am pretty sure are realtime rendered because otherwise they would be much more smooth clean and cartoony like the rest of the graphics.
I assume that you want that style game correct? If so then only the camera needs adjusted from the Kirby style game.

Only thing is, that with this style game, I think you will require a scripted player.
For the kirby style game you will make everything as if it were a game without movement rescrtictions. Then once your levels are modeled out you will have to place points around the level to have the player rotate and face. These will be the defining sections when the player turns corners etc. You will be making a dot to dot movement pattern for the player to face and move. Then you will have to eliminate the gamers ability for turning and strifing. Once that is achived the player can only jump, and move forward and backward towrds the invisable dot to dot pattern.

Now to achive the 2D effect is quite simple. Basically you will have to create the 3D world designed in mind with the "2D" camera. *no large rooms, only large hallway like areas. Now, the camera will have to attach itself to a seperate entity from the player. Making the camera move properly is the interesting part and will be very hard to explain.

So think of any 2D game. Notice how the camera is not locked onto the player? This is the hard part to convey in words and no pictures, sorry I dont have any moch ups. Now the camera does that in a 2D game because the player has reached a certain ammount of pixels from the edge of the screen. When the player reaches too far to the right or left or up or down, the camera is told to move untill the player is back so many pixels from the edge of the screen they are moving twords. Ok, now to get this effect into the 3D world.

To get the camera to work as stated above you will need four "walls" that will be spaced away from the player and box him in. One on top, right, bottom and left. These objects will all be attached to eachother. Now, when the player hits one it will move all of them and the camera properly. So the player runs forward into the first invisable wall. The wall moves and so does the camera and the other 3 walls. The player falls down a pit? Then they hit the lower bounding wall and everything moves down.

Is that understandable? Please let me know if not, and I will see how I can explain it better.

Note on the mario screen:

You notice how you can see the edges of everything? Well you can get the same effect by having a flat "wall" be what the player runs on. custom textures might be required for certain effects, but seeing under the grass the player is running on is very easy as well, think of Super Smash Brothers:

Basically that is the screen that expalins everything I stated above about 2d except that the camera is not in the right spot. So you make a 3D world with edges like in that Smash Brothers screen and then you adjust the camera to make it look 2D. I hope that clears everything up.

The steps I describe are how to render 3D in 2D, not 2D in 3D. Genesis can do that right now using Sprites. My favorite 2D in 3D game is Paper Mario. They really did a nice job visually with that.

I'm afraid it's actually more complicated than my steps. In order for your game to function like a real game should (collision, movement, depth, etc...) you need to do at least what I outlined. This would produce you a game like Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 or the first 3 Resident Evils. It's also known as pre-rendered backdrops.

There are great chapters on both styles in Programming Role Playing Games with DirectX by Jim Adams.