SuperHack

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ SuperHack / SuperHack CD.bin / CODING / GRAPHICS / 4DXDEMO.ZIP / 4DX.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-06-12 | 19.1 KB | 447 lines

4DX Rendering Engine Thank you for purchasing the 4DX Evaluation kit. This kit is designed to help you determine if purchasing the 4DX library is right for you. This kit is a complete working version of the 4DX library. With it, you can compile, link and run your own applications. However, this is only an evaluation kit. You may not distribute, in any way, any application made with this library. The amount of the eval kit will be deducted from the price of the distribution kit, should you decide to purchase the library. Please note that technical support can only be provided by email. Please post technical support questions to my compuserve account at 74774,2475. For support through the internet, the address is 74774.2475@compuserve.com. 4DX FAQ What is the 4DX library? The 4DX library is a rendering engine for creating 3D games. It is not a complete game system. The 4DX library uses a series of arrays of Sectors, Vertexes, Linedefs, and Actors to render a static scene. It is up to your code to make a game from this library. What is required to compile 4DX? 4DX is a C++ Library and requires Watcom C++ v 10.0. 4DX will NOT work with straight C. 4DX is fully 32bit. The DOS library runs under Dos4gw, and the Windows library runs under Windows NT, Windows 95, or Windows 3.11 with Win32s. If you want your game to run under Windows 3.11, you MUST ship it with Win32s! What are the requirements to run 4DX? Currently, the DOS version of 4DX requires 4MB of ram to run. However, this does not leave much space for graphics and sound. The Windows version of 4DX requires 8MB of ram, and Win32s. What is Win32s? Win32s is a 32 bit windows subsystem that allows Windows 3.1 to run 32 bit Windows NT programs, as long as they only call supported functions. When compiling your 4DX application, you will compile and link for Windows NT. What is a Sector? A sector is a two dimensional enclosed area. Looking at an overhead map, each sector is a polygon. Each sector can have different lighting attributes, and heights associated with it. The sector is the basic unit of differentiating areas within the engine. What is a Linedef? The sides of sectors are made up of linedefs. Each line in the sector is a linedef. Each linedef has a texture associated with its upper portion and its lower portion. What is an Actor? An actor is an object that is rendered from a frameinfo. An actor can be a monster, or an item like a barrel. An actor has a only one x,y coordinate, and is always projected flat, towards the viewpoint. What is a FrameInfo? A frameinfo structure defines a series of bitmaps describing to the renderer how to draw an actor. There is not an interface to add frameinfo's. Your program must provide a frameinfo array. please see the example code. What is a Texture? A texture is used to put a picture on a wall. This picture is composed of one or more patches. What is a Patch? A patch is a picture unit. for instance, a brick wall texture might contain only 1 patch, the patch of the wall itself. To turn this texture into a wall with a switch, we can add a patch that contains only the switch. What are the limitations? 256 textures. 1024 sectors. 1024 actors. The image data is only limited by the amount of ram. How do I add sound effects? You provide a function called "PlaySound" that the renderer calls when a sound needs to be played. Typically, you would then insert the appropriate sound type into some kind of array, that you would then process. How do I Keep score? Thats up to you! Using the Renderer Step1: Initialize the renderer Step2: Build Tables for View Step3: Load Image Data Step4: Add Map Data After these steps are performed, Call BuildViewBySector to generate the view into the buffer pointed to by scrimage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Example: // This example creates a simple map that contains only one room. Init4DX(); // Initialize renderer BuildTables(320,200); // Build tables for view // Add the textures (code not included) // Add the flats (code not included) // Add the vertexes. AddVertex(100,100); AddVertex(400,100); AddVertex(400,400); AddVertex(100,400); AddVertex(600,400); AddVertex(600,600); // Add the sector definition(s) NewSector (0,1,1,0,128,0,0); // Add the lines to the sector(s) AddLine(0,1,BOUND,1,0,0); AddLine(1,2,BOUND,1,0,0); AddLine(2,3,BOUND,1,0,0); AddLine(3,0,BOUND,1,0,0); // Add the actor(s) AddActor(200,200,0,0,ACTOR_SHOOTABLE,40,40); // generate a view from actor 0 for(int i=0;i<100;i++) { BuildViewBySector(0,0); } ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Example: // Making a two sector map. // Add the Sectors // Note: Please see example source for loading images. NewSector(0,1,1,0,128,0,0); NewSector(1,1,1,20,96,0,0); // Add Vertexes AddVertex(100,100); AddVertex(400,100); AddVertex(400,400); AddVertex(100,400); AddVertex(600,400); AddVertex(600,600); // Add lines for first sector (0) AddLine(0,1),BOUND,1,0,0); AddLine(1,2),BOUND,1,0,1); // this line connects to sector 1. AddLine(2,3),BOUND,1,0,0); AddLine(3,0),BOUND,1,0,0); // Add lines for second sector (1) // Notice we did not add the connecting line twice. AddLine(1,4,BOUND,1,1,1); AddLine(4,5,BOUND,1,1,1); AddLine(5,2,BOUND,1,1,1); // Add the actor(s) AddActor(200,200,0,0,ACTOR_SHOOTABLE,40,40); // generate a view from actor 0 for(int i=0;i<100;i++) { BuildViewBySector(0,0); } Functions: Initialization Functions: ------------------------- Function: Init4DX Parameters: None Returns: None Description: Performs one time initialization. Must be called before any other 4DX functions. Function: BuildTables Parameters: Width (int), Height (int) Returns: None Description: Creates the appropriate tables for a view that is Width wide, by Height high. Can be called multiple times to change view size. Texture Functions: ------------------ Function: AssignBitmap Parameters: index (int), address (unsigned char *), width (int), height (int). Returns: None Description: Adds a bitmap to the bitmap array. This bitmap can later be used as the texture source for an object. Function: AssignTexture Parameters: index (int), width (int), height (int) Returns: None Description: Adds a virtual texture to the texture array. Index is the number of the texture (0-255). This function does not actually allocate any space for the texture itself. Patches MUST be added to the texture before it can be used! Textures MUST be powers of 2 wide (ie,16,32,64,128,256 etc). Function: AddPatch Parameters: index (int), address(unsigned char *), width (int), height (int), xoffset (int), yoffset (int) Returns: None Description: Adds a patch at ADDRESS to texture number INDEX. Texture must be added before a patch can be added to the texture.Width and height are the dimensions of the patch to add to the texture. xoffset and yoffset are the position to place the patch within the texture. NOTE: Clipping is not performed on patches. The patch MUST fit entirely within the texture. Function: AssignFlat Parameters: index (int), address (unsigned char *), mask (int) Returns: None Description: Adds a flat to the flat array. Flats are used for floors ceilings, countertops, etc. INDEX is the number of the flat. Each row of flat data MUST be 256 byte aligned. Please see "LoadFlats" for an example on how to do this. MASK is the AND mask for this, and is required. Normally, the formula is as follows. int mask = ((bmw-1)<<8)|(bmw-1); Please note that a flat must be square, and must be a power of 2 wide, ie, 16,32,64,128, or 256. Map Creation Functions: Function: NewSector Parameters: int sector sector number int top flat on the floor of this sector int bottom flat on the cieling of this sector int floorht the height of the floor int ceilht the height of the ceiling int offset the players offset inside this sector (ie, positive = floating, negative = sunken) int flags SECTOR_SELFILLUMINATING SECTOR_SKY SECTOR_SNOW SECTOR_RAIN SECTOR_BOB int x_top floor movement x direction int y_top floor movement y direction int x_bottom ceiling movement x direction int y_bottom ceiling movement y direction int ltlevel light level of this sector Returns: None Description: Adds Function: AddActor. Parameters: int x x position on map. int y y position on map. int angle angle actor is facing. int flags ACTOR_PICKUP ACTOR_WALKOVER ACTOR_USABLE ACTOR_CONSUMABLE ACTOR_AUTOINC ACTOR_SHOOTABLE ACTOR_ACTIVE int maxhp Maximum health of actor. int curhp Current health of actor. int range distance that actor can hit from. int damage damage that actor can do. int dambase least damage from a hit. int active whether this actor is active. Returns: None Description: Adds an actor to the actor database. Must be done after sector has been added. Function: AddVertex Parameters: int x int y Returns: Vertex Number Description: Adds a vertex to the vertex database. Vertexes for a line must be added before the line is added. Function: AddLine Parameters: int fv index of from vert int tv index of to vert int flags BOUND - there is nothing beyond wall TRIP_CROSS - crossing the line "trips" something TRIP_ACTIVATE - pressing space bar or mouse button trips something LINE_EXTENDC - instead of drawing a top wall extend the cieling down LINE_NOMAP - don't display on map ever LINE_SEEN - this line has been seen LINE_SKIPCEIL - Dont draw ceiling connecting to wall LINE_MASK - Color 0 is masked. wall cannot be BOUNDED, and connecting sector MUST be same floor and ceiling height. LINE_TRANS - Line is translucent - only used with LINE_MASK. Instead of being drawn, solid colors are translucent over background. int bitmap Texture number from texture array of bottom segment. Also whole wall if BOUND int sec Sector number that this wall is in int tosector Sector number that this wall faces. if wall is BOUND, then must be same as SEC int trpflags TRIP_CHANGEFLOOR Floor of sector in trip1 changes TO trip2. TRIP_CHANGECIELING Ceiling of sector in trip3 changes TO trip4. TRIP_ONCE Only trips one time. TRIP_TELEPORT Teleport to location. trip1 = x trip2 = y trip3 = height trip4 = facing angle TRIP_FLIP exchanges bitmap and bitmap2 and topbm and topbm2. useful for switches. TRIP_ROTATESECTOR rotate a sector around x,y trip1 = sector trip2 = degrees trip3 = x trip4 = y TRIP_UNROTATESECTOR See above, except that sector moves back to original position int bitmap2 exchanges with bitmap when line is flipped. int topbm Bitmap on ceiling segment. int topbm2 exchanges with topbm when line is flipped. Returns: None Description: Adds a line to a sector. A sector must be fully enclosed by lines, and lines must be entered CLOCKWISE. Function: NewLine Parameters: See above. Returns: None Description: Use Addline unless you haven't added your vertexes yet. This function is the same as addline except for passing actual x1,y1,x2,y2 coordinates for the line. vertexes will be created for you. Newline is only included for backward compatability. Function: DupeLine Parameters: linedef *aLine the line to duplicate int tosector the sector to place the duplicate in. Returns: None Description: This function welds two sectors together by inserting a duplicate line in a lines facing sector. Runtime Functions: Function: BuildViewBySector Parameters: int actor actor to generate POV from int bob skew the view up or down by this amount Returns: None Description: Generates a view into buffer at the point of view of the actor. Function: CheckEvents Parameters: None Returns: None Description: Must be called once per frame to make sure events happen Function: CheckMissiles Parameters: None Returns: None Description: Must be called once per frame to move missiles Function: CheckActors Parameters: None Returns: None Description: Must be called once per frame so that gravity acts on actors. CallBack Functions: ------------------- Note: Your program must provide these functions. Function: HandleMessage Parameters: int msg int info Returns: None Description: If msg = MSG_HPCHANGE, then your characters hit points have been changed. if msg = MSG_HITITEM, then your character has ran over an item (item number = info) Function: PlaySound Parameters: int soundnum int volume Returns: None Description: Play sound number soundnum at level volume. Useful Objects: --------------- ActorBox aBox Function: FindBox Parameteres: int x int y Returns int ActorIndex Description: Use this object to determine if a point on a screen is over any actors. For example if the mouse was clicked at 160,100, actr = aBox->FindBox(160,100); if actr is greater than 0, then an actor was clicked on, and you can take the appropriate action.