   3D Isometric game
  Hello peoples, me and some friends are going to try and make a 3d isometric game engine.  really it will just be your normal 2d view, but will all be 3d graphics.  Our only problem is that were newbies.  we have all had some programing experiance in classes and self taught, but we don''t know much about DirectX yet.  I have been going over one of the articles in the isometric area on gamedevs that deals with doing this and gotten that working in Codewarrior 5.3  Now I am just trying to figure out how to add some walls too it.  i know I have to make it do another render process and give it the coordinates for wall, but I don''t really know how to do that.  If anyone has any info on 3D isometric games or a good tutorial site for D3D,  please email me at woodfeat@aracnet.com   thanks  
  HeyMy advice is not to use Direct 3D...I would use OpenGL though it might take a little longer it will definately be worth your while in the long run...cya   ;  Did the guy ask anything about OpenGL?? No, he asked about Direct3D.Why do people insist on not answering the questions - preferring instead to use a post as an excuse to be critical of technology they don''t use themselves!!To answer the question. You may have noticed that the moderator of this forum has written a book ''Isometric Game Programming in DirectX 7'' which I''d recommend. It doesn''t go into 3D programming extensively, but the rest of the book is useful whether you choose 2D or 3D (its got info on DirectX).As for Direct3D, try looking in the books section of GameDev. Reviews from people on this site are worth considering IMHO. Good Luck! Mad GeraldI''m mad... I''m Mad Gerald! Well, you''d be mad to expect anything else!  ;  Yea, I have been looking at the books on the sight, but the reviews are all kinda screwy (you have a bunch of 5 stars, then some 1 stars, then some 5 stars and then more 1 stars...).  I am thinking of getting the book by the moderator since it looked very usefull to us, but I wanted another one on DirectX that had a little more beef in D3D since most aren''t really about that.  As for the OpenGL person, well I have heard thats alot harder to program for, and that OpenGL is getting kinda stagnant as a 3d language (when was the last time it was updated??).   thanks for your help guys, I am going to be doing alot of reading this summer Velmeran  ;  I got Inside Direct3D which is a Microsoft book and I have to say that it was crap! Fortunately my brother writes for a (British) Computer Magazine and he was asked to review it, so I got it for nothing... but it wasn''t even worth that. :DSo thats one to avoid IMHO. PS I''m not getting into a OpenGL/Direct3D argument - my point was that wasn''t what you were asking  Mad GeraldI''m mad... I''m Mad Gerald! Well, you''d be mad to expect anything else!  ;  Ok, I''m at work at the moment so I can not post actuall code.If i''m assuming correctly that the code you have working is the one that comes with a funny bitmap for the ground and allows you to allocate different heights for each tile corner then:1) Copy the code for the ground tile and paste it straight after itself.2) change the top and right co-ord of the rect so that the top co-ord is above the left co-ord by your wall height, repeat the process with the right co-ord, this time it should be above the bottom co-ord.  Left wall done.3) do the same as above but this time move the top and left co-ords to be above the right and bottom co-ords respectivly. Right wall done.You should change the tile structure so that it has a flag / image number for the left and right walls, and if the image number for the left wall is not 0 then do the rendering for the left wall.If you require any more help then I will post some of my code for this.  I even added the ability to zoom into the map, but there are still problems with that! When I find my code in tons of trouble,Friends and colleages come to me,Speaking words of wisdom:"Write in C."  