GameMaker: Studio is a primarily a program meant for making 2D (2-dimensional) and isometric games but there is the functionality to create 3D (3-dimensional) graphics and use 3D effects if you wish. Before you start with this though there are a few things you should understand:
- The 3D functionality in GameMaker is limited to the graphics part. There is no support for other 3D functionality. Once you start using 3D graphics you might get problems with other aspects of GameMaker if you are not used to working with 3D. Things like views, depth ordering, etc... require you to have sound understanding of how GameMaker: Studio works as well as how to code 3D in general.
- When you use the 3D functionality, there are a number of other things that can no longer be used:
- You cannot use background and foregrounds in your rooms anymore as they are tiled to fill the image but with perspective projections this no longer work correctly.
- You cannot use the mouse position as normal anymore either, because the mouse coordinates will not be transformed into 3D coordinates. You can, however, still get the position of the mouse on the screen (in the view) but you will have to do positional calculations yourself for 3D (or not use the mouse at all).
- You should not use tiles anymore as most tiles will likely no longer match up correctly. Collision checking still uses the 2-d positions of the instances in the room, so there is no collision detection in 3D. Sometimes you can still use this however, if you use the room as a representation of a flat world (e.g. for racing or FPS games) but in other situations you will have to do things yourself.
- All 3D functionality is through code, so you must have a sound understanding of GML (the GameMaker language).
- You must have some basic knowledge about 3D graphics, in things like perspective projections, hidden surface removal, lighting, and fog as this manual will not give much explanation and takes for granted that you are familiar with such terms.
NOTE: These functions do not work with the HTML5
module unless you have enabled WebGL in the
Global Game Settings.
Information on 3d graphics can be found in the following pages: