Video Games With Isometric Graphics - Overview

Overview

Corresponding camera rotation angles for true isometric projection (at left) and the form of dimetric perspective commonly found in video games and pixel art (at right). 2D (at left) and 3D (at right) coordinates of a typical dimetric video game sprite.

In the fields of computer and video games and pixel art, the technique has become popular because of the ease with which 2D sprite- and tile-based graphics can be made to represent a 3D gaming environment. Because parallelly projected objects do not change size as they move about the game field, there is no need for the computer to scale sprites or do the complex calculations necessary to simulate visual perspective. This allowed older 8-bit and 16-bit game systems (and, more recently, handheld systems) to portray large 3D areas easily. And, while the depth confusion problems of parallel projection can sometimes be a problem, good game design can alleviate this.