I only need one view and to render it one time.

Thats the purpose of the shader. It draws the models with that background image.

Basically: I'm just changing the skin of the model to match the background image


The depth info is already there. It's very easy and works quite well. The only problem I have now is that I'm a horrible level designer

but seriously, the only problem I've run into is aligning the image with screen coords. This would't be a problem, if it weren't dependent on camera arc and resolution.

The image needs to be aligned depending on the screen resolution and camera arc. While the resolution should be an easy [linear] equation, camera arc is quadratic, and through graphing has a noticable curve... I've got to remember how to find the formula, and get more statistics...

I must have missed that part...

Where/which coords do I multiply by the texture matrix though?

matOutTex = mul(matWorldViewProj,matTexTrans); // this creates a matrix...
OutPosTex = mul(InPos,matOutTex); // that converts the In.Position into appropriate coordinates for tex2Dproj to use in your PS.

julz

PS: i added your band on myspace

lol, thanks Julz. I'll make sure I confirm the add... You like the music? It's not so much of a band anymore, just me...

Also, thanks for the matrix info. I'll have to try it out. Right now I'm busy with a paid project, so my 2.5D game is on pause... or should I say freeze_mode = 3;

guitar, if I'm understanding correctly, your shader doesn't help with what I'm trying to do. My game concept hinges on using external scene elements---scans of hand-drawn images, digital paintings, or renders from other 3D software.

Using a render from a view, I am assuming that you are using depth information from the view to determine when an entity should be 'covered' by the view image. If this were modified such that a user-entered depth were assigned to the image and the image could be loaded from bmap, that would be a start. However, there would still be no system to manage animations. Perhaps a media stream could be assigned to the bmap that is passed to the shader? Otherwise, one would have to create a system to do what sprites or media streams already do to display animation.

Adding an animation stream is nothing...

As I've said a million times before, it's not rendering in the background of the level, it's rendering onto thye level geometry, so the depth info is already there.

It's simply like changing the skin of the entity to match a background image

You can use whatever method you want for the BG image. I'm rendering a high quality version of the level, and then saving it to a TGA. Then the level is set to low quality and draws the old image.

It would be possible to input the depth I suppose. Such as writing the depth factor to the alpha channel. But then the case of rendering the depth properly becomes a problem...

If you're technique works well and accomplishes the goals set forth in this thread, then I'd be willing to purchase your 2.5D kit (and provided I'm satisfied with the end result of course). You mentioned you might sell it cheap either in this thread or the other one. If it works on blocks, then that would be ideal. Given there's no updating of the level and it's simply taking a snapshot, the slow nature of shaders on non-model blocks shouldn't matter

I wouldn't recommend usinbg it on blocks, but it would work...

I'm working on a racing project with a small team for now, so all development of my project is on hold (I hvan't touched it in a week).

If I can find time to work on the shader, then I'll clean it up and send it yo you (OB). You can mess with it freely...

I just want credit for my work/time