How did they do it: Trine 2.5d terrain?

Question

How did they make the terrain in trine? I think they took a polygon approach. It doesn't seem that they used a heightmap because it is in all three vectors, or a voxel method because it doesn't have overhangs and cliffs. If it is polygon-based (I assume it is), how in the world would you texture the whole thing?

Terrain

Notice how it's not very symmetrical and has lots of depth:

Terrain2

I removed the how-its-made tag because it's a meta tag, and those aren't useful/allowed anymore: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/the-death-of-meta-tags/ — Tetrad, Sep 11 '11 at 02:34
They built a polygon landscape and used a bunch of textures and props, just like in any other game. What's so special about Trine's approach that has you intrigued? — doppelgreener, Sep 11 '11 at 02:45

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 11 '11 at 02:55

7

It looks like any regular 3D model. The only thing that's "2.5D" about it is the fixed camera and play space.

answered Sep 11 '11 at 02:55

Tetrad

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Ok.... but how would you texture and cull something that large? – Daniel Sep 11 '11 at 03:07
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It's probably just broken into chunks. Maybe some terrain style texture blending on top of that. – Tetrad Sep 11 '11 at 03:14

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 06 '11 at 13:03

3

They use the same models again and again in Trine. They use a lot of batched rendering. Because of their unique camera angle, a lot of the meshes get culled with frustum culling.

The levels are hand-made by artist. They are just very good at re-using the same models over and over again.

edited Dec 06 '11 at 13:03

sam hocevar

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answered Sep 20 '11 at 13:05

Tili

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 20 '11 at 22:03

The terrain is built as separate meshes by the artist, and possibly have a separate level designer to place the meshes for making the levels. They are just so well-modeled to give the impression that it's one continuous terrain.

In some respects it's really a 2D puzzle action game, making the design and programming of the game logic easier than fully 3D games. The level designer is restricted to just placing the objects along a 2D plane.

How did they do it: Trine 2.5d terrain?

3 Answers3

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