Camera angle in Infinity Engine games

Vermillion

Hey guys. I'm newbie to the modding, although played all IE games from first Baldur's Gate till IWD EE. Now I want to experiment with some basics of modmaking, create very simple location and import it to the game. And the first problem is: from which camera angle all models and locations was rendered by developers? I read in official BG FAQ and that says: "game is an isometric (3/4 angle), top down view".

I created a circle in 3ds Max that's similar to markers around any NPC when you pause the game, render them from several angles (in orthographic projection), then resize and compare to original. So I discovered that 67,5° (I believe that is 3/4 of 90°) isn't correct angle at all Looks like the desired value lies between 45° and 54,736°, and I cannot say more precisely due to low resolution in the game.



I would be grateful if someone experienced tell me how to render models with proper camera angle.

argent77

You might find this tutorial useful: Making new Area Graphics with 3D Studio Max R3/R4

It's pretty old and some links seem to be broken, but the information should still apply to more recent versions of 3D Studio Max.

Vermillion

argent77 said:

You might find this tutorial useful: Making new Area Graphics with 3D Studio Max R3/R4

It's pretty old and some links seem to be broken, but the information should still apply to more recent versions of 3D Studio Max.

Thank you very much. According to this tutorial, camera angle is 45°.

But... I tried to check this value and that isn't correct.

argent77

Don't use selection circles as reference. They were probably created in a 2D graphics/animation editor. Instead, try to find a simple geometric shape in any of the maps (such as a house, wall or table) and compare its perspective with a similar model you've created in 3D Studio.

Aquadrizzt

I just did a really quick check with a screen cap of the Candlekeep in. The verticals are appropriately 90 degrees from the horizontal, and the right isometric line (camera angle) is at 35 degrees from the diagonal. This isn't very thorough, but I would try 35 degrees camera angle and see. Hope this helps.