I'm going to start with some background, so jump to my question at the bottom for the TLDR version.
Problem:
In a Japanese 4gamer article (english translation via Chev on Polycount) explaining some of the technology and design behind Guilty Gear Xrd (a highly-stylized, 2.5D, toon-shaded fighting game) they detail some of the challenges concerning the game's development. One of the challenges had to do with the use of an orthographic 2D collision detection system on top of 3D character models that were rendered in perspective. In short, rendering character models through a perspective projection would naturally result in the characters looking wider towards the edges of the camera. As such, at various points on the screen the visual representation of the characters would fail to accurately represent their 'hitboxes' and 'hurtboxes'.
Example 1: Models using perspective projection.
The character model for Player 2 (orange) more closely matches his collision data because of his location towards the center of the screen.
Example 2: Models using orthographic projection.
Using an orthographic projection, characters are accurately aligned with their collision data regardless of position. However, the desired visual effects of perspective are lost.
Their Solution:
The developers at Arc System Works solved this issues by creating a 'partial perspective' projection - a non-uniform mixture of perspective and orthographic (maybe parallel is more accurate) projections. On the horizontal axis, the camera's projection is said to be a '70% orthographic and 30% perspective' hybrid. On the vertical axis, the projection remains 100% perspective.
Example 3: Models using 'hybrid' projection.
Mixing perspective and orthographic horizontally allowed them to preserve collision alignment and visual spacing (an important aspect in competitive fighting games). At the same time, the 'fully perspective' projection on the vertical axis allowed them to achieve extra visual depth when the characters jump.
My Question:
How would one go about achieving this kind of non-uniform, semi-perspective, semi-parallel camera projection?
When I think about this, I can imagine a camera frustum with a wide vertical FoV and a somewhat more narrow (but not necessarily parallel) horizontal FoV. Is this the correct interpretation of what they're describing, or am I visualizing it incorrectly?
Typically how would you generate a projection/modelview matrix like this? Is there a way to ask libraries like OpenGL and Direct3D for non-uniform matrices like these, or is there some way to combine an orthographic matrix and a perspective matrix in a non-uniform way through matrix math?