I Need clarification and advice for Isometric map draw system

[IsometricGames]

I'm creating game similar to age of empires 2 (on smaller scale of course). I have these isometric cubes and i have made algorithm that creates a diamond shaped map out of single cubes each cube is 80x80 -pixels and right now i'm using spritebatch for map creation. The game has to have following mechanics:

1)Camera system(Zoom In/Out to game map, Move camera around map with arrow keys or by mouse dragging)
2)being able to add Isometric: Tree,building,ArcherTower etc...onto cube or so called "tile" and specific location.
3)Render thing's that are off screen, when camera moves up/down/left or right the map render new tiles/cubes.

I will point out this: I will not be using Tiled map editor cause, for me its easier to use algorithms and my own system for specific task's.

Right now i'm using SpriteBatch, i used it cause it's very fast for creating larger maps with multiple cubes, but i want being able to resize the whole game when screen size changes. So should i use Canvas or how should i structure this game drawing system, if i want to create game with similar mechanics of Age of Empire 2?

[pedrosgali]

Hey there, I'm just writing an isometric camera system. I don't have much time to type right now but it does all the things you're looking for, here's a .love. The chunk camera module is in /Data/system/chunk_camera.lua It isn't really commented as yet, sorry about that but hopefully you can get some idea of how I did it.

WASD to move the camera, mousewheel to scroll, left/right to rotate the map and return will spawn a new random map.

Isometric Maps.love

Isometric Map Test

(67 KiB) Downloaded 300 times

[IsometricGames]

Wow didn't expect that, this is one of the best map examples i have seen, thanks lot and and i like to see your game progress

[pedrosgali]

Thanks, if you have any questions just let me know. I still need to get the mouse picking up what tile it is over too so the functions you see in the example don't actually work yet.

[Sulunia]

Hey there, I'm just writing an isometric camera system. I don't have much time to type right now but it does all the things you're looking for, here's a .love. The chunk camera module is in /Data/system/chunk_camera.lua It isn't really commented as yet, sorry about that but hopefully you can get some idea of how I did it.

WASD to move the camera, mousewheel to scroll, left/right to rotate the map and return will spawn a new random map.
Isometric Maps.love

Wow, that's pretty rad. Been trying to make an isometric map too, but different heights and optimizing draw calls are pretty much bugging me thus far.

[pedrosgali]

Yeah, the draw calls are still a little slow on mine too. Especially when zoomed out. I did save a lot of frames by drawing to a canvas and only updating it when the camera moves / only drawing the meshes that are in the viewing window.
If people are interested I could release this as a library, I kind of assumed I was in the minority not wanting to use Tiled. Its a great program but I just needed some randomized maps.