Obstruction handling and dissolve shader techniques in Trifox

A while back I’ve written a 2 part article/tutorial on how I created the dissolve effect for the game Trifox, currently being developed by Glowfish Interactive.

One of the first challenges we faced during development was keeping the main character in view using the top down camera while at the same time maintaining the sense of being present in a full 3D environment. In other words, how do we deal with objects obstructing our view of the main character? Do we avoid them? Do we hide them? And if so, how do we hide them in a visually pleasing and smooth manner that fits with the style of the game? How can we maintain a sense of space without hindering gameplay?

The final in-game effect can be seen below.

In the article I go over the thought process that we used to find the final solution for our problem, starting with a more in depth look (aka tutorial) at some commonly used shader techniques that can be used to have objects dissolve into thin air.

You can find the articles at the following links:

Part 1: http://www.trifox-game.com/dissolving-the-world-part-1/

Part 2: http://www.trifox-game.com/dissolving-the-world-part-2/