Starcraft using a “3/4 isometric” setup for its graphics engine. This
was the “big thing” at the time that starcraft was developed because it
helped give the illusion of 3d graphics in a 2d atmosphere. Now I’m
sure you’re wondering what “3/4 isometric” stands for. First off it’s an
orthographic view of an object. While the calculations aren’t needed to
be gone through (you can find them on wikipedia) you should know
that it means this: If you have the camera flat with the center of your
object you can get a “game ¾ view” by rotating the camera up around
the object by 30°. This is what starcraft uses normally. However, due to
personal taste I like to render from 45° instead. It shows more of the
unit when it’s moving to or away from you and the perspective isn’t
that noticeable. Now since starcraft graphics are isometric many good
graphics artists will tell you to use the “orthographic” view on your
camera when rendering (can be found in the camera’s edits buttons
window). However I prefer to deviate a little from this. Here’s a few
guidelines to help you to know when to render perspective and when
to render ortho:
1. if it’s a building, render ortho. (otherwise your buildings will look
quite odd. So render ortho unless you’re going for a “cartoonish”
mod.)
2. if it’s a LARGE unit render ortho. (this includes battle cruisers,
carriers, ultralisks, etc)
3. if it’s a small/medium sized unit you can render ortho or
perspective. (it doesn’t matter however I get better results with
perspective than ortho.)