"I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed."

Although TCFH has always been retro, it's been a while since we started. So we gotta make some technical changes.

Anyway, we're currently switching to using DirectX 3D for bitmap rendering. This means we can keep our existing bitmaps and structures, but use 3D "billboarding" to render them, using the video card instead of CPU blitting. The camera remains fixed. This move is going to knock a lot of stuff off our "To Do" list, and make a lot of things easier...so we can get this damn thing done sooner.
Benefits:

• Less CPU usage for rendering (this is currently the most demanding task, using up 50% of processing)
• Alpha channel at no additional CPU hit
• Z buffer (meaning no ugly sorting problems) at no additional CPU hit
• Less RAM usage for assets

Features This Will Add:

• Variable zoom
• Variable resolution - can run in very high res and widescreen, with a wide-zoom view, without a performance hit
• Scalable assets (monster could change size, better ringwaves, force field 'bubble', scalable effect & fire, easier "baby monsters")
• Free rotation of objects (limited usefulness, but good for FX like beams, flamethrowers, particles, etc)
• Easy to do red-green 3D effect
• Anti-aliasing when zoomed out or scaling
• Night
• Ground shake effect
• Single UI which is stretchable to fit screen size

This move will add the requirement for a 3D card, but requirements would be modest. Unlike true 3D, this solution does not use 3D assets, meshes or textures, allow rotation or free camera movement, or require a high-end video card for many detailed objects. And it should be pretty simple to implement.