Isometric Camera

you could just set up an orthographic projection and treat the isometric rendering in a 2D way? as far as using a 3D projection to render an old skool isometric view (where there is basically no perspective effect), i''m not sure how that would be possible

if u meant a 3rd person view like in commandos then that is just a simple camera transformation but i guess u mean old skool isometric?

I''m rendering the ground using textured RHW polygons (128x64) and I want all the objects (characters, trees etc) to be meshes rendered over the ground. So the ground is rendered in ortho, but I can''t figure out how the camera should be positioned to make the meshes look like they stand on the ground.

Can I just rotate the camera on the Y-axis? Should I use the perspective projection and a lookat matrix for the view?

btw, i''m using the Direct3D 9 API.

i think i see what u mean.. so u have 3d meshes which u want to draw over the ground at an isometric angle? imo u should try rendering the meshes in ortho after a translate and a rotate (translate to ground position, rotate to isometric angle). they may look a bit weird since there is no 3d perspective.

if ure forced to use a 3d projection, then u could try keeping the depth of the meshes constant and changing the other coords to position the meshes over the ground. but then u might have problems with overlapping objects being drawn wrong. if u change the depth of the meshes then obviously they will get smaller further away which i guess does not match with the lack of true perspective on the ground?

so orthographic if at all possible, i guess

of course ull actually need to rotate THEN translate but im sure u got the gist of it