A Layman’s Guide To Projection in Videogames

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2023-01-27 07:30:08

Oftentimes when a videogame has a skewed, overhead point of view, we call it isometric. That’s rarely the accurate term, though, and it’s not just pointless semantics.

Projection basically means taking a three dimensional object and displaying it on a 2D plane (i.e., a screen). There are various ways of accomplishing this, and each technique has a deep impact on a game’s look and mechanics. The advent of 3D games and free-floating cameras somewhat lessened this role, but being aware of the pros and cons of each projection type is still applicable to both 2D and 3D titles.

Orthographic projection relies on a lack of perspective and a consistent relationship between its axes. What this basically means is that things don’t recede (i.e., get smaller) as they get closer to the horizon because, well, there is no real horizon. Also, the ratios with which the axes (x, y, and z) are foreshortened and rotated are consistent across the board.

A side-view Orthographic projection is often simulated in platforming games, showing a scene as viewed through the player’s eyes. Moving the “camera” up a little and slightly pointing it down gives us the top-down view, and moving it all the way over the player character’s head results in a bird’s eye view.

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