So I’ve been really focusing on getting Act II of Desert Child kinda of looking presentable. I’ve been busy writing this scaling algorithm so I can make all these different camera angles work seamlessly.

It’s inspired how old adventure game’s did it, but hey I’m not here to reinvent the GML wheel.

Here’s the basic code:

minScale = objCharScaleAnchor.image_xscale
maxScale = objCharScaleAnchorMax.image_xscale

image_xscale = ((maxScale-minScale)/(objCharScaleAnchorMax.y-objCharScaleAnchor.y))*(y-objCharScaleAnchor.y)

if image_xscale >= objCharScaleAnchorMax.image_xscale {image_xscale = objCharScaleAnchorMax.image_xscale}

image_yscale=image_xscale

So basically, I just drop an object called objCharScaleAnchor on the horizon line, then drop another one called objCharScaleAnchorMax bellow it where the camera would be. I then scale objCharScaleAnchor down to be the size it would look like if it were off in the distance.

Then the player character moves along the line between both those objects. So i can create a whole bunch of different camera heights and angles.

Drawbacks include:
-I can’t have terrain that changes level. This system assumes the plane you’re walking on is perfectly flat. (If you look at the gif above long enough, you’ll see what I mean.)

-I can’t jump. This is easier to solve, I just need to add a Z value to objects, but I wasn’t planning to add jumping, so yeah. This is basically why I made this system instead of just using game maker’s in-build 3D system, I don’t want to dick around with Z values and billboarding.

-I can’t have the camera rotate. It can only pan vertically and horizontally. Again, this wasn’t something I was going to do, as it would be a nightmare with the rotoscoped character animations.

I’m liking the results. I’ve got it working in a bunch of non-scaling scenes, too.

As you can see, I’ve been doing some rotoscoping too. I’ve tried to resist the urge to rotoscope Peter Parker doing his strut from Spiderman 3, but It’s still coming though a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ron-Ikenfc

Oh, and merry christmas! I’ll be pushing through, I don’t really celebrate christmas, and hopefully have a cool, cool update about systems and stuff after the break!

Damn, I really should have done a christmas update. Oh well.