Cursed.
My weird pseudo-3D system before I sort the draw order of the 2D triangles.
September 2, 2021
Testing out an OBJ model.
I can put lowpoly .obj models into my game now :) The system I have at the moment is a little unusual. It converts the UVs into a 36 color palette and uses vertex colors instead of the texture. So it can do palette swapping if I want, which is kinda cool and different.
The placeholder model looks like a tank (or a camera?) but it's part of a mech model I made a couple years ago. I hope to come back to that prototype someday now that I'm better at programming!
September 14, 2021
I've got a cool bug that looks like an anime blast 😎
September 15, 2021
Unfortunately, my weird 3D system really breaks down with some models and angles. I thought that might happen, but hoped I'd get lucky and avoid it. It's time to learn about vertex buffers (and shaders?) to do it the right way.
September 21, 2021
...so far so good...
September 22, 2021
Testing the new 3D system. It works!
Now we're back in business! I got stuck for a few days thinking I needed a special "3D camera" in GameMaker to render the models, but I finally discovered that the camera I use is 3D capable once you enable some gpu functions. That was frustrating, but lessons have been learnt!
Now I can continue where I left off. This 3D system uses vertex buffers so it's faster than my janky, fake 3D method. Each model has a z-buffer now, so the polygons will sort their own depth by themselves. I am still rendering the models to sprites, for art style reasons, so I need to come up with depth sorting tricks for the track and objects on my own. I may regret that later, but let's move forward with what we have.