After too long researching and playing with code concepts, I’ve decided to go with basic 3d to simulate the engine’s voxel rendering. Using GLBasic to code/compile the engine, it will be able to run on various system, which is one of my main goals.

Using the very basic of opengl, disabling those ugly filters to get the effec t to show and using a simple method of layering polygons to simulate the popout of walls and floors. Objects will be a 2 way layering, based on a two faced image strip.

The max resolution for a tile will be 64x64, an object voxel can be 64x64x64

Wall/floor graphics will consist of to detail types, 4 and 16 depth. This is done with an image strip, several images in a row that depict the contents for each layer, giving the voxel effect.

Objects will require a tile strip for side and face, to make this easy for devs, I’ll be making a tool to create this extra strip so you just need to worry about one facing and not two.

This method of having a side and face strip lets me create a ‘cube’ of layers that simulates a voxel object.

To keep true to the oldschool feel, there will be limited/no up/down looking. The current demonstration videos I have show traditional dungeon crawler movement, but I plan on feature free move as an option.

The goal of the engine is to allow it to be flexible, be it a turned based RPG, active or a combination of the two.

Since I’m going with a 3d engine, I can also pull off multiple floors, special walls and slants. I don’t plan on using light effects, that can all be simulated be manipulating the polygon’s vertex colors

Once I get these basic engine details worked out, its time to work out the editor and features to keep mind of.