Question on camera angle / perspective

[bhaktivedanta]

Hi! I am just starting to make some graphics with blender but somehow the perspective just won't look like the vanilla game stuff when using 45° degree camera angle (wich is used in the game according to FF133) and orthographic projection.
I have attempted to verify the camera angle with some calculations on the original game sprites of the burner mining drill and the assembling machine. With one mild assumptions on symmetry of those entities (side slope the same on every side) and under orthographic projection I come to the conclusion that the camera angle (projection ray to ground) used for those entities is actually around 38°-38.4°.
Some questions arise: Does the game use different angles? Are these entities' graphics actually prerendered 3d models at all?
Obviously there are visual "hacks" / compromises in the game in order to make sprites of rotatable entities compatible with the tile scheme. For example the assembling machine cannot have a square base as it is drawn, the vertical is too long for that, but it behaves like a square-base object tile-wise / when rotating.

Is there any rule of thumb how to make own graphics fit nicely to the tile grid and not deviate in perspective from the original? Certainly a trivial approach would be "just use what looks best" but after so many hours of looking at my stuff I am beyond the point where I could decide that.

[darkfrei]

Some entities have near to 45 degrees ortho projection, but some much more, for example 53 degrees, where 90 degrees is a top view.

[bhaktivedanta]

Ok, thank you for that info! That basically confirms my impression that the graphics are not entirely consistent from a technical / mathematical perspective. - Which would be hardly possible anyway, considering the need to fit with the tile grid.
The 38° I calculated are probably based on a wrong assumption, as symmetry simply does not hold (albeit it should at least for the burner drill, which can be rotated).
Is there any rule of thumb which angle to use for certain kind of entities? For example some link between the height of a building and recommended projection angle? My test object would be rather flat, it is a gearwheel-like decoration, much like the factorio logo and at 45° it does no longer look circular next to other vanilla entities, more like elliptic.

[eradicator]

Some entities have near to 45 degrees ortho projection, but some much more, for example 53 degrees, where 90 degrees is a top view.

Do you have a reliable source for that? As far as i'm concerned the models simply are not what you expect them to be (i.e. they don't nessecarily have symmetrical angles etc). That there are some tricks used to make models look nice has been stated several times. For example that the oil refinery is not one rotateable model, but four different models.

@OP: The larger your object is, the more you need to cheat to make it look correct. There isn't really a difference between cheating by changing the angle, or cheating by stretching the object. If you uploaded some actual pictures that would probably help.

[bhaktivedanta]

That there are some tricks used to make models look nice has been stated several times. For example that the oil refinery is not one rotateable model, but four different models.

Thats valuable info. If you could come up with a link or some search keywords from your memory, I would appreciate. I have been looking for details about those techniques used, but to no avail. Also I have not read too many friday facts - I did not know the devs went into specifics here. Will have to dig really deep into the past FF now.

If you uploaded some actual pictures that would probably help.

Here we go: Just a quick mockup post-processed in gimp. Shadows and highlights are still garbage XD.

mockup-modified-gearwheel-logo.png (158.68 KiB) Viewed 2850 times