Egregoria used to be 2D but it felt a bit restrictive. A lot of the underlying simulation is also 2D as I didn't port everything when doing the migration.
From the player perspective, 3D is the norm these days. It looks better, it's usually more intuitive and 2D is usually a bunch of tricks to fake 3D anyway.
From a developer perspective, 3D fits my brain better as I can translate real concepts better. To me, it feels easier modelling in blender and apply physically based rendering rather than learning lots of 2D techniques to have a consistent good looking art style.
Aesthetically I can totally see how a 2D visualization could look great.
But then you end up with curved roads and buildings hiding other buildings and things become very confusing.
One interesting change (but it's a big one, at least aesthetically) would be to force a certain angle of view, rather than allow a complete pan-tilt. Something in a "total war" fashion, so to speak.
Or - at least - allowing such camera to be used in the options.
Comments
I’m curious if a 2d renderer could work too, in theory.
Is 3d camera an important factor in a modern, complex city building game?
Egregoria used to be 2D but it felt a bit restrictive. A lot of the underlying simulation is also 2D as I didn't port everything when doing the migration.
From the player perspective, 3D is the norm these days. It looks better, it's usually more intuitive and 2D is usually a bunch of tricks to fake 3D anyway.
From a developer perspective, 3D fits my brain better as I can translate real concepts better. To me, it feels easier modelling in blender and apply physically based rendering rather than learning lots of 2D techniques to have a consistent good looking art style.
Aesthetically I can totally see how a 2D visualization could look great. But then you end up with curved roads and buildings hiding other buildings and things become very confusing.
One interesting change (but it's a big one, at least aesthetically) would be to force a certain angle of view, rather than allow a complete pan-tilt. Something in a "total war" fashion, so to speak. Or - at least - allowing such camera to be used in the options.
I think it used to be 2D. Check out the earlier dev blogs.