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Timeline for What is a "2.5D" environment?

Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0

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May 27 at 11:47 review Suggested edits
Jul 16 at 2:25
Oct 19, 2014 at 15:18 comment added Patrick M @KyleBaran me too. I bought the Crystal Shards with much anticipation thinking it would be an open 3D world adventure like Mario 64, but with Kirby and flying. Much to my disappointment, it was a fully 3D rendered world, but a platformer on rails. Somehow, the additional 3D rendering and camera movements and follows they used made the platforming feel more restricted.
Oct 19, 2014 at 13:42 history edited bcrist CC BY-SA 3.0
Let's make it clear; we're not talking about fractals here!
Oct 19, 2014 at 13:38 comment added bcrist @Mehrdad As noted in the discussion with IstvanChung, the notion of dimension has multiple uses. In topology, it characterizes a set, but the terms 2D, 3D, etc are used (at least w/r/t games) to describe Euclidean n-space, where n must be a natural number, and describes the size of a vector used to identify a point in the space.
Oct 19, 2014 at 10:28 comment added user541686 Dimensions actually don't have to be ordinals per se... math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ffiles/10008.2.shtml
Oct 19, 2014 at 10:00 comment added Kyle Baran I immediately think of Kirby 64 when 2.5D comes to mind (although the movement/rendering in different ordinals is probably the best canonical definition I've heard).
Oct 19, 2014 at 1:44 comment added Pharap @gla3dr Butterflies: xkcd.com/378 They work on people too.
Oct 18, 2014 at 19:52 comment added jhocking I really like this logical vs graphical distinction. While most of the answers/comments here seem to assume 2.5D means 2D graphics, I actually tend to think of 3D graphics. so your logical vs. graphical distinction is a great way to encompass both notions of 2.5D
Oct 18, 2014 at 18:10 comment added gla3dr @Pharap It worked. How did you do that?
Oct 18, 2014 at 5:51 comment added Pharap @bcrist If I could upvote a second time I would, so I'll just will someone to upvote for me with the power of my brain.
Oct 18, 2014 at 5:46 comment added bcrist @Pharap and... done!
Oct 18, 2014 at 5:46 history edited bcrist CC BY-SA 3.0
Added pictures
Oct 18, 2014 at 5:09 comment added Pharap +1 Would be nice to see a couple of images as reference though.
Oct 18, 2014 at 4:47 history edited bcrist CC BY-SA 3.0
avoid conflation with the unrelated concept of fractal/fractional dimension.
Oct 18, 2014 at 3:31 comment added lily I know, just having fun. ;) I'd like to see a game played in a fractal space actually!
Oct 18, 2014 at 3:30 comment added bcrist @IstvanChung Yes, technically you are right and I considered mentioning it, but figured it would only confuse the issue. I think few game developers need to know about topological spaces outside of n-dimensional Euclidean space, and if they do, it's likely they understand that I'm not talking about fractals.
Oct 17, 2014 at 22:34 comment added lily By the way, there is such a thing as a fractional dimension, but it has nothing to do with the game-development term "2.5D"; it comes up in studying fractals and other weird topological shapes. For instance, the Quadratic Koch surface (type 2) has a Hausdorff dimension (a common way of defining fractal dimension) of exactly 2.5.
Oct 17, 2014 at 20:30 comment added T.W.R. Cole I first encountered this term when I played Yoshi's Story on Nintendo 64; it was 2D logical, 3D graphical. Nintendo may have actually coined the term at that time.
Oct 17, 2014 at 15:20 history edited bcrist CC BY-SA 3.0
added 605 characters in body
Oct 17, 2014 at 14:55 history answered bcrist CC BY-SA 3.0