Hello. I walked here from some panthera forum because there said that here on gamedev I can quicker receive all answers on all questions.

1st I wanted ask in graphics because in forum description there is “theory”. But after search I saw that all such topics were in General's forum. (I do not respect military butt.)

So. I have huge fantasy, a little creativity and tiny discipline to make something, precisely - game, which gives fun. But I believe than after 200 years I'll make something. If we have some playing objects/subjects in game space, we can draw it some way. If we look from top, we can simply draw grid with many effects. To make it more… living? we can add 2,5D, I mean sprites with height (Z coord) and perspective.

When I first thought about such video engine, I decided it's very easy to make if you know geometry, and, maybe, linear algebra if needed. I read about these smart words in many books, so I guess I know them (words). If we have rectangular sprites, which must be drawn as pictures on planes, usually perpendicular to character(s) POV, then there are only 2 simple actions: perspective transformation and rotation. I guess if we have 1-point perspective we can just scale floors which have different Z with character. Of course we must put these rectangulars in exact places, or roofs, balconys, porches, canopys and other architecture or nature phenomenons may fly away from their bases. But it's not difficult. Also, horizontal sprites can be used for tree crowns and so on.

What do you think about using a little math and super powerful PNG libraries to make such engine? A few years ago I've seen animated PNGs, is it useful? Or maybe obsolete GIFs? Why PNG: animation may be made by sprite circulation, but more important is transparency.

Please teleport this topic in "Graphics and GPU Programming" if needed.

(Very bad editor here for old browsers is. After few seconds it freezes text and do not allow to insert new line or paste text.)

Are you sure sprites and billboards are enough? A generic 3D environment with 3D models

• could be implemented relatively easily with a general purpose 3D engine instead of dealing with low-level details yourself
• would let you use a camera from above with central perspective, as you envisioned, but also other setups (e.g. no perspective to avoid deformations) equally easily
• would let you use rectangular sprites (as transparent textures on the faces of axis-aligned boxes), but also other types of 3D models (e.g. meshes of triangles and small particles) equally easily