Re: [pygame] Lousy FPS

[Kris Schnee <kschnee@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Jan Pobrislo wrote:
> Actually, if you want OpenGL version to do isometric rendering, you'll need to 
> tweak the transformation matrix a bit. I didn't do it for a while, but you 
> need something like this:
>
> in GL_PROJECTION matrix setup glOrtho view
> in GL_MODELVIEW glLoad something like this:
> | 1 0 0 0 |
> | 0 1 0 0 |
> | 0 x 1 0 |
> | 0 0 0 1 |
> where x is ratio by which Z axis distances (height in world) are translated to 
> Y axis (up/down on screen), you'll probably use 0.5
>
> you might also be able to use glMultMatrix on GL_PROJECTION instead of glLoad 
> on GL_MODELVIEW, to have bigger freedom manipulating with modelview matrix


Thanks for the info. I think I may not have explained quite what I 
meant, though. What I'm concerned with is the ability to get a 
cube-based landscape (as in "Disgaea") to display at a reasonable speed 
with decent lighting and the ability to do "picking" (telling which tile 
was mouse-clicked). Whether that's technically "isometric" in terms of 
the display angle and the manner of perspective distortion doesn't 
matter to me; I say "isometric" because I know of the word as "that 
thing that some games do with the diagonal camera view." I like that 
perspective with tiles and cubes because it allows for terrain with 
height, yet is much simpler than true 3D where you have to get 3D 
polygon models just to put a bagel onscreen.

I've already got the ability to display a cube-based landscape using 
textures and terrain data loaded from a file -- in OpenGL/Pygame or pure 
Pygame, using two different homemade engines -- and to tilt and rotate 
the OpenGL version. If I'm to use the OpenGL version, I need to figure 
out picking, the math involved in making the camera follow the hero's 
sprite, something (lighting?) to make the landscape not hideous, and 
hopefully something to boost the framerate above 12!

Kris

Kris