set of basic functions?

suliman · Post by **suliman** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:01 am

hi

Most of my irrlicht-qs are regarding basic functions that most anybody might need to do most any game. And normally some people responds with their own version of that functionality (as they needed it themself for their own game).

So: Is there any set or library with basic/"must have" irrlicht-funtions? Like

return terrain-height at position (x,z)
find mouse pos (where it hits terrain or whatever)
more graphic-function wraps

Often some functionality can be found throughout the tutorials but im asking for if anyone has a good and clean function-set that can be used with short, nice function calls for most basic functions?

Thanks
Erik

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:43 pm

Umm, these functions are all part of Irrlicht, so you just have to read the API. It's bundled with the latest SDK 1.2.

JP · Post by JP » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:58 pm

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/docu/index.html

suliman · Post by **suliman** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:18 pm

really? what are these functions names? I cannot find them in the docs and last time i used irrlicht (ver 0.6) there were no such functions, people tried to make their own functions and they were quite buggy i tell you.

Im especially interested in:
return terrain-height at position (x,z)
find mouse pos (where it hits terrain or whatever)

Thanks.
Erik

JP · Post by JP » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:22 pm

the mouse position from 2D to 3D is in ISceneCollisionManager, i don't know about the heightmap stuff though!

suliman · Post by **suliman** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:46 pm

yes i know, i asked about if these is a set of user-made functions like

returnTerrainYValue(myTerrain,vector3d(20,0,40);

As the procedure for doing such a thing (and many other this in irrlicht) consists of many calls, and the documention is very hard to follow when being new to the engine (its hard to know where to go next, as there is no "related" links).

As a result, when you have read it all and cannot put it all together in a working manner, you ask in the forums. Many of the qs here regards basic functionality that are available in (often a non-obvious combination of)irrlicht functions but very hard for beginners to put together.

I guess what a wonder about is more like "is there any gameEngine wrapper for irrlicht?". And i dont mean engine like "fix my sound/network support bla bla". A generic wrapper sort of.

JP · Post by JP » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:44 pm

I don't think there's any wrapper like you're suggesting, other than IrrWizard which is like an extension to Irrlicht which basically creates a very simple version of an FPS game which you can then edit, so it gives you all the basic functionatlity you might need to get started. It can also be used for non-FPS games if you don't want to do one of them!

As for the terrain height function you're after you could look in the FAQ, How to & tools list forum or the code snippets forum, i have a feeling there might be something in one of those!

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:56 pm

Check the terrain example. I added Spintz' get height function which is also shown in the window title. Read the code on how to use it!

oldskoolPunk · Post by **oldskoolPunk** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:59 pm

For me, as a beginning Irrlicht user, it is sometimes hard to figure out the correct syntax for somthing that you want to do. I think a simple example of using somthing could be included with the description would be very nice, but could be alot of work including and example line for each description.

A recent example of this was when trying to set a light to directional. Nowhere on the entire anything could i find an example. Finally Jared on #irrlicht explained to me exactly how to do this (after several hours of trying on my own)

Code: Select all

light->getLightData().Type=ELT_DIRECTIONAL;

Very simple now that I know how to do this, but was VERY hard before I knew the correct syntax.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:04 am

Yes, example code helps, but also the search button. You will immediately get hundreds of useful results with the search for 'directional AND light'. I guess there will be a tutorial on this stuff once we get the light scene nodes cleaned up.

sgt_pinky · Post by **sgt_pinky** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:52 am

Hi suliman,

I guess the advantage of Irrlicht being an open source project is that when you collect/create functions that don't exist, you can submit them to the patch tracker and then everyone can benefit - just like you benefit from the hard work of those that have contributed to Irrlicht so far!

Cheers,

Pinky