Which Blitz to use?

Hi,

I have a project in mind, and am just wondering which version of Blitz would best suit my requirements, bearing in mind that the project will go through a number of phases, and I dont want to have to rewrite using another tool at a later stage. I already have Blitz3D, the Universal Map Editor, and have been having fun messing around with Wings3D, I am also willing to purchase any additional software needed.

1) I'm planning on starting with a tile based RPG. (classic square tiled overhead view), in order to get my gameplay ideas functioning and tested.

2) Once I'm happy with the tile based program I want to make it multiplayer over the internet (client/server)

3) As a probable third stage I will want to upgrade the graphics to an isometric view (diamond or even hexagonal tiles).

Which variant of Blitz would best suit this sort of progression?

My main technical concern is step 2, I know nothing about networking, and it has to be rock solid, so I would be apprehensive about attempting to code it myself. I've seen posts about RakNet, and BlitzPlay, is one of these the way to go, or is there another way?

On a slight tangent... I did wonder about the possibly silly idea of simulating a square tile view in 3D, by using an overhead camera centered on the player, and having actual very low poly 3D buildings and structures, but just sprites for the characters and effects. It wouldnt give true 2D, but it would allow the lighting to be changed, for the day/night cycle, and the use of collision detection, and if the textures had a bold cartoon like feel, it might be quite interesting. Possibly I could simulate an isometric style view this way too, but would going this route have any significant advantage over true 2D?

Thanks in advance, for any advice.

Pete

BlitzPlay works well, I recommend it. I've never heard of RakNet before though, so for all I know that's even better.

I don't know much about 2D graphics, so I don't know if BlitzMax would be something to use, rather than Blitz3D. If you plan to go with 3D graphics however there are a number of tools I would recommend. In particular, you can use Ultimate Unwrap to convert obj models (such as exported from Wings) to b3d file format.

To my knowledge, BlitzPlus doesn't offer any advantages to networking over Blitz3D, so just stick with Blitz3D, since you are considering using 3D.

Also, in Blitz3D you can use an orthographic (perspective-less) camera for a proper 2D look.

Thanks for the replies,

I guess that one of the first decisions that I need to make, is whether to go real 2D, or to simulate 2D.

I would not recommend ortho cameras. They are pretty buggy. You're better off using a normal camera, and use CameraZoom (I think you want a low setting) to reduce the perspective effects.

OK I did a few experiments.

I created a grid in Wings3D, added some tiny buildings and roughly car shaped objects (all as just one object, in effect a simple city block). Then viewed it from directly over the players head in both perspective and ortho mode. Although Ortho mode was more 2D, I think the perspective mode gave a more interesting look. I also viewed it from an angle to give an isometric look, I looked pretty decent, but would need to cull the objects too near to the camera as they blocked the view,

I'm not sure if this is easier, or harder than using tiles, I guess both methods have advantages and disadvantages.

On a side note, has anyone tried creating isometric character sprites using Poser? i.e. take some renders from the appropriate angles. I ask because I'm pretty rubbish at making character sprites. Buildings, machines, vehicals, etc I can do, but people and animals are beyond me atm.

In case anyone's interested. Whilst looking at isometric tools I came across a pretty nice piece of software called Explorations, (www.explore-rpg.com). It lets you create isometric words using a combination of a database and scripting, it looks a pretty solid product and supports multiplayer over a network, and even has a MMORPG version available.

It has its limitations, it can only do tile based stuff, and you're limited by the structure of the database, and the scripting language, but at what its meant to do, it's the best I've seen. It's not free, nor cheap, but I'd say it's worth the money if you want to develop multiplayer isometric games.

There's probably a better way, but I imagine you could take screenshots in Poser against a chromakey backdrop, load them into an image editing program, replace the chromakey with translucency, then scale them down before saving them as sprite images.