2D and 3D?

I am making a game that has a class system similar to Team Fortress 2.One of the classes can switch between 2D and 3D at will.Will I be able to do something like that?

 

When you say switch between 3d and 2d... what changes for that class? Like all the 3d models/level become 2d for him?

As far as mixing 3d and 2d content that is no problem - but to do an entire "switch" of everything in the level would mean your 3d world would need to be on a 2d plane (only moving left/right/up/down) to begin with or it presents a bunch of technical problems. Because how would a 3d level become 2d? Do you see it from a certain perspective only?

 

I would guess that clayguy is going for a Paper Mario sort of effect, but just for the one character.

 

Perhaps he is, and that would totally work in a like 2.5d'ish sidescroller world like paper mario had, but also means all the 3d assets would need a 2d swap out sprite (extra spriting work)... and if the scenes are complex, it means heavy overhead to perform the "swap" between the 3d objects and the 2d sprites (like what, a hundred or more objects mesh rendering disabled, then sprites enabled).

I think the idea is novel though, and I can't recall ever seeing that in any game I've played.

It might be something to set the game apart, but I'd hope it would have more use than on a single character class (maybe if there's 10 classes, only 10 % of players use it...), perhaps one whole "team" of characters see a 3d world, while another the 2d world. Then all that work goes towards 50 % of the game!

 

Would it make any sense to scale the model? Like, what would happen if you just squished it super-thin. I've never worked in 3D, but the idea is kinda interesting.

 

Well, I guess you could scale down the depth of the 3d models, assuming the camera only showed one angle towards the 3d objects, and the 3d objects couldn't rotate on the y axis, revealing their super skinniness lol.

But if the camera is orthographic, and all the 3d objects faced the same direction from it without rotation on y - it would hardly look different squashing the objects.

I'd imagine the idea of having sprite doubles would be that they are stylized and unique from the 3d model they represented, not just an orthographic screen shot of them.

 

That is EXACTLY what I was going for.