Irrlicht Engine Tutorial

At first, we need to include all headers and do the stuff we always - do, like in nearly all other tutorials.

- - - - -

#include <irrlicht.h>
#include <iostream>

using namespace irr;

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

For this example, we need an event receiver, to make it possible - for the user to switch between the three available material types. - In addition, the event receiver will create some small GUI window - which displays what material is currently being used. There is nothing - special done in this class, so maybe you want to skip reading it.

- - - - -

class MyEventReceiver : public IEventReceiver
-{
-public:
-
-	MyEventReceiver(scene::ISceneNode* room, 
-		gui::IGUIEnvironment* env, video::IVideoDriver* driver)
-	{
-		// store pointer to room so we can change its drawing mode
-		Room = room;
-		Driver = driver;
-
-		// set a nicer font
-		gui::IGUISkin* skin = env->getSkin();
-		gui::IGUIFont* font = env->getFont("../../media/fonthaettenschweiler.bmp");
-		if (font)
-			skin->setFont(font);
-
-		// add window and listbox
-		gui::IGUIWindow* window = env->addWindow(
-			core::rect(490,390,630,470), false, L"Use 'E' + 'R' to change");
-
-		ListBox = env->addListBox(
-			core::rect(2,22,135,78), window);
-
-		ListBox->addItem(L"Diffuse");
-		ListBox->addItem(L"Bump mapping");
-		ListBox->addItem(L"Parallax mapping");
-		ListBox->setSelected(1);
-
-		// create problem text
-		ProblemText = env->addStaticText(
-			L"Your hardware or this renderer is not able to use the "\
-			L"needed shaders for this material. Using fall back materials.",
-			core::rect(150,20,470,60));
-
-		ProblemText->setOverrideColor(video::SColor(100,255,255,255));
-
-		// set start material (prefer parallax mapping if available)
-		video::IMaterialRenderer* renderer = 
-			Driver->getMaterialRenderer(video::EMT_PARALLAX_MAP_SOLID);
-		if (renderer && renderer->getRenderCapability() == 0)
-			ListBox->setSelected(2);
-
-		// set the material which is selected in the listbox
-		setMaterial();
-	}
-
-	bool OnEvent(const SEvent& event)
-	{
-		// check if user presses the key 'E' or 'R'
-		if (event.EventType == irr::EET_KEY_INPUT_EVENT &&
-			!event.KeyInput.PressedDown && Room && ListBox)
-		{
-			// change selected item in listbox 
-
-			int sel = ListBox->getSelected();
-			if (event.KeyInput.Key == irr::KEY_KEY_R)
-				++sel;
-			else
-			if (event.KeyInput.Key == irr::KEY_KEY_E)
-				--sel;
-			else 
-				return false;
-
-			if (sel > 2) sel = 0;
-			if (sel < 0) sel = 2;
-			ListBox->setSelected(sel);
-			
-			// set the material which is selected in the listbox
-			setMaterial();
-		}
-
-		return false;
-	}
-
-private:
-
-	// sets the material of the room mesh the the one set in the 
-	// list box.
-	void setMaterial()
-	{
-		video::E_MATERIAL_TYPE type = video::EMT_SOLID;
-
-		// change material setting
-		switch(ListBox->getSelected())
-		{
-		case 0: type = video::EMT_SOLID;
-			break;
-		case 1: type = video::EMT_NORMAL_MAP_SOLID;
-			break;
-		case 2: type = video::EMT_PARALLAX_MAP_SOLID;
-			break;
-		}
-
-		Room->setMaterialType(type);

We need to add a warning if the materials will not be able to be - displayed 100% correctly. This is no problem, they will be renderered - using fall back materials, but at least the user should know that - it would look better on better hardware. We simply check if the material - renderer is able to draw at full quality on the current hardware. - The IMaterialRenderer::getRenderCapability() returns 0 if this is - the case.
-

- - - - -

video::IMaterialRenderer* renderer = Driver->getMaterialRenderer(type);
-
-		// display some problem text when problem
-		if (!renderer || renderer->getRenderCapability() != 0)
-			ProblemText->setVisible(true);
-		else
-			ProblemText->setVisible(false);
-	}
-
-private:
-
-	gui::IGUIStaticText* ProblemText;
-	gui::IGUIListBox* ListBox;
-
-	scene::ISceneNode* Room;	
-	video::IVideoDriver* Driver;
-};

- Now for the real fun. We create an Irrlicht Device and start to setup - the scene.
-

- - - - -

int main()
-{
-	// let user select driver type
-
-	video::E_DRIVER_TYPE driverType = video::EDT_DIRECT3D9;
-
	printf("Please select the driver you want for this example:\n"\
		" (a) Direct3D 9.0c\n (b) Direct3D 8.1\n (c) OpenGL 1.5\n"\
		" (d) Software Renderer\n (e) Apfelbaum Software Renderer\n"\
		" (f) NullDevice\n (otherKey) exit\n\n");

-	char i;
-	std::cin >> i;
-
-	switch(i)
	{
		case 'a': driverType = video::EDT_DIRECT3D9;break;
		case 'b': driverType = video::EDT_DIRECT3D8;break;
		case 'c': driverType = video::EDT_OPENGL;   break;
		case 'd': driverType = video::EDT_SOFTWARE; break;
		case 'e': driverType = video::EDT_BURNINGSVIDEO;break;
		case 'f': driverType = video::EDT_NULL;     break;
		default: return 0;
	}	
-
-	// create device
-
-	IrrlichtDevice* device = createDevice(driverType, core::dimension2d(640, 480));
-
-	if (device == 0)
-		return 1; // could not create selected driver.
-

-
- Before we start with the interesting stuff, we do some simple things: - Store pointers to the most important parts of the engine (video driver,
- scene manager, gui environment) to safe us from typing too much, add - an irrlicht engine logo to the window and a user controlled first person - shooter style camera. Also, we let the engine now that it should store - all textures in 32 bit. This necessary because for parallax mapping, - we need 32 bit textures.
-
- - - - -

-	video::IVideoDriver* driver = device->getVideoDriver();
-	scene::ISceneManager* smgr = device->getSceneManager();
-	gui::IGUIEnvironment* env = device->getGUIEnvironment();
-
-	driver->setTextureCreationFlag(video::ETCF_ALWAYS_32_BIT, true);
-
-	// add irrlicht logo
-	env->addImage(driver->getTexture("../../media/irrlichtlogoalpha.tga"),
-		core::position2d(10,10));
-		
-	// add camera
-	scene::ICameraSceneNode* camera = 
-		smgr->addCameraSceneNodeFPS(0,100.0f,300.0f);
-	camera->setPosition(core::vector3df(-200,200,-200));
-
-	// disable mouse cursor
-	device->getCursorControl()->setVisible(false);

-
- Because we want the whole scene to look a little bit scarier, we add - some fog to it. This is done by a call to IVideoDriver::setFog(). There - you can set
- various fog settings. In this example, we use pixel fog, because it - will work well with the materials we'll use in this example. Please - note that you will have to set the material flag EMF_FOG_ENABLE to 'true' - in every scene node which should be affected by this fog.
-
- - - - -

driver->setFog(video::SColor(0,138,125,81), true, 250, 1000, 0, true);

-
- To be able to display something interesting, we load a mesh from a .3ds - file which is a room I modeled with anim8or. It is the same room as -
- from the specialFX example. Maybe you remember from that tutorial, I - am no good modeler at all and so I totally messed up the texture mapping - in this model, but we can simply repair it with the IMeshManipulator::makePlanarTextureMapping() - method.
-
- - - - -

	scene::IAnimatedMesh* roomMesh = smgr->getMesh(
-		"../../media/room.3ds");
-	scene::ISceneNode* room = 0;
-
-	if (roomMesh)
-	{
-		smgr->getMeshManipulator()->makePlanarTextureMapping(
-				roomMesh->getMesh(0), 0.003f);

-
- Now for the first exciting thing: If we successfully loaded the mesh - we need to apply textures to it. Because we want this room to be displayed - with a very cool material, we have to do a little bit more than just - set the textures. Instead of only loading a color map as usual, we also - load a height map which is simply a grayscale texture. From this height - map, we create a normal map which we will set as second texture of the - room. If you already have a normal map, you could directly set it, but - I simply didn´t find a nice normal map for this texture. The normal - map texture is being generated by the makeNormalMapTexture method
- of the VideoDriver. The second parameter specifies the height of the - heightmap. If you set it to a bigger value, the map will look more rocky.
-
- - - - -

		video::ITexture* colorMap = driver->getTexture("../../media/rockwall.bmp");
-		video::ITexture* normalMap = driver->getTexture("../../media/rockwall_height.bmp");
-		
-		driver->makeNormalMapTexture(normalMap, 9.0f);

-
- But just setting color and normal map is not everything. The material - we want to use needs some additional informations per vertex like tangents - and binormals.
- Because we are too lazy to calculate that information now, we let Irrlicht - do this for us. That's why we call IMeshManipulator::createMeshWithTangents(). - It
- creates a mesh copy with tangents and binormals from any other mesh. - After we've done that, we simply create a standard mesh scene node with - this
- mesh copy, set color and normal map and adjust some other material settings. - Note that we set EMF_FOG_ENABLE to true to enable fog in the room.
-
- - - - -

scene::IMesh* tangentMesh = smgr->getMeshManipulator()->createMeshWithTangents(
			roomMesh->getMesh(0));
			
		room = smgr->addMeshSceneNode(tangentMesh);
		room->setMaterialTexture(0,	colorMap);
		room->setMaterialTexture(1,	normalMap);
		room->getMaterial(0).SpecularColor.set(0,0,0,0);
		room->setMaterialFlag(video::EMF_FOG_ENABLE, true);
		room->setMaterialType(video::EMT_PARALLAX_MAP_SOLID); 
		room->getMaterial(0).MaterialTypeParam = 0.02f; // adjust height for parallax effect
		// drop mesh because we created it with a create.. call.
		tangentMesh->drop();
	}

-
- After we've created a room shaded by per pixel lighting, we add a sphere - into it with the same material, but we'll make it transparent. In addition,
- because the sphere looks somehow like a familiar planet, we make it - rotate. The procedure is similar as before. The difference is that we - are loading
- the mesh from an .x file which already contains a color map so we do - not need to load it manually. But the sphere is a little bit too small - for our needs, so we scale it by the factor 50.
-
- - - - -

// add earth sphere
-
-	scene::IAnimatedMesh* earthMesh = smgr->getMesh("../../media/earth.x");
-	if (earthMesh)
-	{
-		// create mesh copy with tangent informations from original earth.x mesh
-		scene::IMesh* tangentSphereMesh = 
-			smgr->getMeshManipulator()->createMeshWithTangents(earthMesh->getMesh(0));
-
-		// set the alpha value of all vertices to 200
-		smgr->getMeshManipulator()->setVertexColorAlpha(tangentSphereMesh, 200);
-		
-		// scale the mesh by factor 50
-		smgr->getMeshManipulator()->scaleMesh(
-			tangentSphereMesh, core::vector3df(50,50,50));
-
-		// create mesh scene node
-		scene::ISceneNode* sphere = smgr->addMeshSceneNode(tangentSphereMesh);
-		sphere->setPosition(core::vector3df(-70,130,45));
-
-		// load heightmap, create normal map from it and set it
-		video::ITexture* earthNormalMap = driver->getTexture("../../media/earthbump.bmp");
-		driver->makeNormalMapTexture(earthNormalMap, 20.0f);
-		sphere->setMaterialTexture(1, earthNormalMap);
-
-		// adjust material settings
-		sphere->setMaterialFlag(video::EMF_FOG_ENABLE, true);
-		sphere->setMaterialType(video::EMT_NORMAL_MAP_TRANSPARENT_VERTEX_ALPHA); 
-
-		// add rotation animator
-		scene::ISceneNodeAnimator* anim =
-			smgr->createRotationAnimator(core::vector3df(0,0.1f,0));	
-		sphere->addAnimator(anim);
-		anim->drop();
-
-		// drop mesh because we created it with a create.. call.
-		tangentSphereMesh->drop();
-	}

-
- Per pixel lighted materials only look cool when there are moving lights. - So we add some. And because moving lights alone are so boring, we add - billboards
- to them, and a whole particle system to one of them. We start with the - first light which is red and has only the billboard attached.
-
- - - - -

// add light 1 (nearly red)
-	scene::ILightSceneNode* light1 = 
-		smgr->addLightSceneNode(0, core::vector3df(0,0,0), 
-		video::SColorf(0.5f, 1.0f, 0.5f, 0.0f), 200.0f);
-
-	// add fly circle animator to light 1
-	scene::ISceneNodeAnimator* anim = 
-		smgr->createFlyCircleAnimator (core::vector3df(50,300,0),190.0f, -0.003f);
-	light1->addAnimator(anim);
-	anim->drop();
-
-	// attach billboard to the light
-	scene::ISceneNode* bill = 
-		smgr->addBillboardSceneNode(light1, core::dimension2d(60, 60));
-
-	bill->setMaterialFlag(video::EMF_LIGHTING, false);
-	bill->setMaterialType(video::EMT_TRANSPARENT_ADD_COLOR);
-	bill->setMaterialTexture(0, driver->getTexture("../../media/particlered.bmp"));

-
- Now the same again, with the second light. The difference is that we - add a particle system to it too. And because the light moves, the particles - of the particlesystem will follow. If you want to know more about how - particle systems are created in Irrlicht, take a look at the specialFx - example.
- Maybe you will have noticed that we only add 2 lights, this has a simple - reason: The low end version of this material was written in ps1.1 and - vs1.1, which doesn't allow more lights. You could add a third light - to the scene, but it won't be used to shade the walls. But of course, - this will change in future versions of Irrlicht were higher versions - of pixel/vertex shaders will be implemented too.
-
- - - - -

// add light 2 (gray)
-	scene::ISceneNode* light2 = 
-		smgr->addLightSceneNode(0, core::vector3df(0,0,0), 
-		video::SColorf(1.0f, 0.2f, 0.2f, 0.0f), 200.0f);
-
-	// add fly circle animator to light 2
-	anim = smgr->createFlyCircleAnimator (core::vector3df(0,150,0),200.0f); 
-	light2->addAnimator(anim);
-	anim->drop();
-
-	// attach billboard to light
-	bill = smgr->addBillboardSceneNode(light2, core::dimension2d(120, 120));
-	bill->setMaterialFlag(video::EMF_LIGHTING, false);
-	bill->setMaterialType(video::EMT_TRANSPARENT_ADD_COLOR);
-	bill->setMaterialTexture(0, driver->getTexture("../../media/particlewhite.bmp"));
-
-	// add particle system
-	scene::IParticleSystemSceneNode* ps = 
-		smgr->addParticleSystemSceneNode(false, light2);
-
-	ps->setParticleSize(core::dimension2d(30.0f, 40.0f));
-
-	// create and set emitter
-	scene::IParticleEmitter* em = ps->createBoxEmitter(
-		core::aabbox3d(-3,0,-3,3,1,3), 
-		core::vector3df(0.0f,0.03f,0.0f),
-		80,100, 
-		video::SColor(0,255,255,255), video::SColor(0,255,255,255),
-		400,1100);
-	ps->setEmitter(em);
-	em->drop();
-
-	// create and set affector
-	scene::IParticleAffector* paf = ps->createFadeOutParticleAffector();
-	ps->addAffector(paf);
-	paf->drop();
-
-	// adjust some material settings
-	ps->setMaterialFlag(video::EMF_LIGHTING, false);
-	ps->setMaterialTexture(0, driver->getTexture("../../media/fireball.bmp"));
-	ps->setMaterialType(video::EMT_TRANSPARENT_VERTEX_ALPHA);
-
-
-	MyEventReceiver receiver(room, env, driver);
-	device->setEventReceiver(&receiver);

-
- Finally, draw everything. That's it.
-
- - - - -

int lastFPS = -1;
-
-	while(device->run())
-	if (device->isWindowActive())
-	{
-		driver->beginScene(true, true, 0);
-
-		smgr->drawAll();
-		env->drawAll();
-
-		driver->endScene();
-
-		int fps = driver->getFPS();
-
-		if (lastFPS != fps)
-		{
-		  core::stringw str = L"Per pixel lighting example - Irrlicht Engine [";
-		  str += driver->getName();
-		  str += "] FPS:";
-		  str += fps;
-
-		  device->setWindowCaption(str.c_str());
-		  lastFPS = fps;
-		}
-	}
-
-	device->drop();
-	
-	return 0;
-}
-

-
-

	- - Tutorial 11. Per pixel lighting - -
- - This tutorial shows how to use one of the built in more complex materials - in irrlicht: Per pixel lighted surfaces using normal maps and parallax - mapping. It will also show how to use fog and moving particle systems. - And don't panic: You dont need any experience with shaders to use these - materials in Irrlicht. - The program which is described here will look like this: - - - -