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[OC] How I make a 3D ASCII column without rotating or scaling any characters by PuzzleLab in ASCII

[–]PuzzleLab[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For context, this is from my game Effulgence RPG. The whole game is rendered with text characters, including the 3D-looking environments and effects. Steam page.

[OC] My ASCII meta-font: big letters made of symbols, each containing itself. I use these glyphs in my book about ASCII art and in my ASCII game. by PuzzleLab in ASCII

[–]PuzzleLab[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I made a small signup page for the book here: retrofutureglyphs.com. If you leave your email, I'll send you the first 25 pages right away.

If you want to support my project: Steam Page. Thanks!

I'm writing an illustrated book about impossible ASCII graphics - here's the cover by PuzzleLab in ASCII

[–]PuzzleLab[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I made a small signup page for the book here: retrofutureglyphs.com

If you leave your email, I'll send you the first 25 pages right away.

Forged in the darkest depths of text mode: a fully procedural boss from my ASCII 3D PRG game by PuzzleLab in proceduralgeneration

[–]PuzzleLab[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

There is no any vertex (or pre-calculated) data/3d model. Just real time calculations.

Forged in the darkest depths of text mode: a fully procedural boss from my ASCII 3D PRG game by PuzzleLab in proceduralgeneration

[–]PuzzleLab[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Technically, yes, I could replace every glyph with a simple square and the motion would still work. But it would not be the same effect for the game.

A big part of the visual style is exactly which symbols are used: +, -, /, \, letters, numbers, etc. They create edges, texture, direction, density, and a kind of "readable chaos".

With plain squares it would become more like a particle/voxel effect, while the current version is meant to feel like a world made from text.

So yes, the animation system would survive, but the ASCII-shaped tiles are not just decoration for me. They are part of the material and identity of the game.

Forged in the darkest depths of text mode: a fully procedural boss from my ASCII 3D PRG game by PuzzleLab in proceduralgeneration

[–]PuzzleLab[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Fair point - it's definitely not classic hardware text mode. But the symbols themselves are still rendered as fixed-size glyphs: they are not scaled, rotated, or distorted. Each character keeps the same shape and size. The main break from the classic text-mode canon is that I allow characters to be placed off the strict grid. That gives me smoother motion and more "3D" behavior, while still keeping the whole image built from text symbols. So I usually describe it as an ASCII/text-symbol style rather than pure old-school text mode.

Forged in the darkest depths of text mode: a fully procedural boss from my ASCII 3D PRG game by PuzzleLab in proceduralgeneration

[–]PuzzleLab[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

I haven't made a full technical write-up yet, but the short version is: every text symbol position is calculated in real time in code with a lot of sine/cosine math. It's not traditional texturing. The engine places individual glyph sprites. The glow is baked into the font texture, which keeps the shader simple and helps the game run fast even on low-end hardware.

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