Isometric video game graphics

Once common, isometric projection became less so with the advent of more powerful 3D graphics systems, and as video games began to focus more on action and individual characters.

Trying to run a full-3D camera while playing out a real-time tactical battle is certain to cause a helmet fire in new players as they are quickly overwhelmed by the mechanics.

Because parallel projected objects do not change in size as they move about an area, there is no need for the computer to scale sprites or do the complex calculations necessary to simulate visual perspective.

For instance, compared to a purely top-down game, they add a third dimension, opening up new avenues for aiming and platforming.

[1] Further, they may alleviate situations where a player may become distracted from a game's core mechanics by having to constantly manage an unwieldy 3D camera.

[1] In the present day, rather than being purely a source of nostalgia, the revival of isometric projection is the result of real, tangible design benefits.

[citation needed] This does not affect real-time rendered polygonal isometric video games, however, as changing their display resolutions or aspect ratios is trivial, in comparison.

The projection commonly used in video games deviates slightly from "true" isometric due to the limitations of raster graphics.

Instead, a 2:1 pixel pattern ratio would be used to draw the x and y axis lines, resulting in these axes following a ≈26.565° (arctan(1/2)) angle to the horizontal.

[14] It allows the player character to traverse non-scrolling isometric levels, including three-dimensional climbing and falling.

In Ant Attack, the player can move forward in any direction of the scrolling game, offering complete free movement rather than fixed to one axis as with Zaxxon.

[18] Following Knight Lore, many isometric titles were seen on home computers – to an extent that it once was regarded as being the second most cloned piece of software after WordStar, according to researcher Jan Krikke.

Throughout the 1990s several successful games such as Syndicate (1993), SimCity 2000 (1994), Civilization II (1996), X-COM (1994), and Diablo (1996) used a fixed isometric perspective.

Other titles such as Vandal Hearts (1996) and Breath of Fire III (1997) carefully emulated an isometric or parallel view, but actually used perspective projection.

Obsidian Entertainment in particular wanted to "bring back the look and feel of the Infinity Engine games like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment".

There are, for instance, titles which use polygonal 3D graphics completely, but render their graphics using parallel projection instead of perspective projection, such as Syndicate Wars (1996), Dungeon Keeper (1997) and Depths of Peril (2007); games which use a combination of pre-rendered 2D backgrounds and real-time rendered 3D character models, such as The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003) and Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017); and games which combine real-time rendered 3D backgrounds with hand-drawn 2D character sprites, such as Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003).

One advantage of top-down oblique projection over other near-isometric perspectives, is that objects fit more snugly within non-overlapping square graphical tiles, thereby potentially eliminating the need for an additional Z-order in calculations, and requiring fewer pixels.

Another way that is less computationally intensive and can have good results if the method is called on every frame, rests on the assumption that a square board was rotated by 45 degrees and then squashed to be half its original height.