Irrlicht Engine Tutorial

After we have set up the IDE, the compiler will know - where to find the Irrlicht Engine header files so - we can include it now into our code.

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#include <irrlicht.h>

In the Irrlicht Engine, everything can be found in - the namespace 'irr'. So if you want to use a class - of the engine, you'll have to type an irr:: before - the name of the class. For example, to use the IrrlichtDevice, - write: irr::IrrlichtDevice. To avoid having to put - irr:: before of the name of every class, we tell the - compiler that we use that namespace.

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using namespace irr;

There are 5 sub-namespaces in the Irrlicht Engine. - Take a look at them: you can read a detailed description - of them in the documentation by clicking on the top - menu item 'Namespace - List'. To keep this example simple, we don't want - to have to specify the name spaces, Hence:

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using namespace core;
using namespace scene;
using namespace video;
using namespace io;
using namespace gui;

To be able to use the Irrlicht.DLL file, we need - to link with the Irrlicht.lib. We could set this option - in the project settings, but to make it easy we use - a pragma comment:

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#pragma comment(lib, "Irrlicht.lib")

Now the main method: to keep this example simple - we use int main(), which can be used on any platform. - However, on Windows platforms, we could also use the - WinMain method if we would want to get rid of the - console window which pops up when starting a program - with main().

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int main()
{

The most important function of the engine is the - 'createDevice' function. The Irrlicht Device, which - is the root object for doing everything with the engine, - can be created with it. createDevice() has 7 parameters:

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deviceType: Type of the device. This can currently - be the Null device, the Software device, Direct3D8, Direct3D9, - or OpenGL. In this example we use EDT_SOFTWARE, but, to try - them out, you might want to change it to EDT_NULL, EDT_DIRECT3D8, - EDT_DIRECT3D9 or EDT_OPENGL.
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windowSize: Size of the window or - full screen mode to be created. In this example - we use 512x384.
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bits: Number of bits per pixel when - in full screen mode. This should be 16 or 32. This - parameter is ignored when running in windowed mode.
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fullscreen: Specifies if we want - the device to run in full screen mode or not.
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stencilbuffer: Specifies if we want to use the stencil - buffer for drawing shadows.
vsync: Specifies if we want to have vsync enabled. - This is only useful in full screen mode.
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eventReceiver: An object to receive - events. We do not want to use this parameter here, - and set it to 0.
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IrrlichtDevice *device =
		createDevice(EDT_SOFTWARE, dimension2d<s32>(512, 384), 16,
			false, false, false, 0);

Now we set the caption of the window to some nice text. - Note that there is a 'L' in front of the string: the - Irrlicht Engine uses wide character strings when displaying - text.

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device->setWindowCaption(L"Hello World! - Irrlicht Engine Demo");

Now we store a pointer to the video driver, the SceneManager, - and the graphical user interface environment so that - we do not always have to write device->getVideoDriver(), - device->getSceneManager(), and device->getGUIEnvironment().

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IVideoDriver* driver = device->getVideoDriver();
ISceneManager* smgr = device->getSceneManager();
IGUIEnvironment* guienv = device->getGUIEnvironment();

We add a hello world label to the window using the - GUI environment. The text is placed at the position - (10,10) as top left corner and (200,22) as lower right - corner.

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guienv->addStaticText(L"Hello World! This is the Irrlicht Software engine!",
	 rect<s32>(10,10,200,22), true);

To display something interesting, we load a Quake 2 - model and display it. We only have to get the Mesh from - the Scene Manager with getMesh() and add a SceneNode - to display the mesh with addAnimatedMeshSceneNode(). - Instead of loading a Quake2 file (.md2), it is also - possible to load a Maya object file (.obj), a complete - Quake3 map (.bsp), or a Milshape file (.ms3d).
- By the way, that cool Quake 2 model called sydney.md2 - was modelled by Brian Collins.

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IAnimatedMesh* mesh = smgr->getMesh("../../media/sydney.md2");
IAnimatedMeshSceneNode* node = smgr->addAnimatedMeshSceneNode( mesh );

To make the mesh look a little bit nicer, we change - its material a little bit: we disable lighting because - we do not have a dynamic light in here and the mesh - would be totally black. Then we set the frame loop so - that the animation is looped between the frames 0 and - 310. Then, at last, we apply a texture to the mesh. - Without it the mesh would be drawn using only a solid - color.

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if (node)
{
	node->setMaterialFlag(EMF_LIGHTING, false);
	node->setFrameLoop(0, 310);	
	node->setMaterialTexture( 0, driver->getTexture("../../media/sydney.bmp") );
}

To look at the mesh, we place a camera into 3d space - at the position (0, 10, -40). The camera looks from - there to (0,5,0).

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smgr->addCameraSceneNode(0, vector3df(0,30,-40), vector3df(0,5,0));

Ok. Now that we have set up the scene, let's draw everything: - we run the device in a while() loop until the device - does not want to run any more. This would be when the - user closes the window or presses ALT+F4 in Windows.

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while(device->run())
{

Everything must be drawn between a beginScene() and - an endScene() call. The beginScene clears the screen - with a color and also the depth buffer, if desired. - Then we let the Scene Manager and the GUI environment - draw their content. With the endScene() call, everything - is presented on the screen.

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	driver->beginScene(true, true, SColor(255,100,101,140));

-	smgr->drawAll();
-	guienv->drawAll();

	driver->endScene();
-}

After we are finished, we have to delete the Irrlicht - Device created earlier with createDevice(). With the - Irrlicht Engine, you should delete all objects you created - with a method or function that starts with 'create'. - The object is deleted simply by calling ->drop(). - See the documentation - for more information.

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	device->drop();
 return 0;
-}

That's it. Compile and run.