TBGL 0.1.8 - quick and hectic info

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi all,

here is brief list of not yet documented improvements in TBGL shipping from thinBASIC 1.2.0.0.

Fixes:
* Problems on ATi Radeon X1600 resulting in hocus pocus quality of display lists solved

Improvements:
* Compatible with next generation of thinBASIC thinCore.DLL, which should result in faster parsing speed
* Up to 12% speed boost in tbgl_m15DrawModel
* Up to 15% speed boost in bone system operations
* Less memory requirements of model normal calculations
* Overall speed can be higher

New functions:
* tbgl_CreateWindowEx ( Caption, xResolution, yResolution, BitDepth, FullScreenFlag) - this allow to specify resolution even in windowed mode

* TBGL_m15RotBoneX Model, BoneID, angleX - for individual axis rotation in models
* TBGL_m15RotBoneY Model, BoneID, angleY
* TBGL_m15RotBoneZ Model, BoneID, angleZ

* TBGL_m15DefBoneLayer Model, BoneID, LayerName$, anchorX, anchorY, anchorZ - defines bone from layer
* TBGL_SetLightParameter light, parameter, a, b, c, d
flexible function, try to experiment with following equates in place of Parameter. Not used ( a,b,c,d ) parameters fill with just zeros:

%TBGL_LIGHT_AMBIENT - ambient color values in [0,1]
%TBGL_LIGHT_DIFFUSE - light color values in [0,1]
%TBGL_LIGHT_SPECULAR - specular values [0,1]
%TBGL_LIGHT_POSITION - position of light x,y,z,w
%TBGL_LIGHT_SPOT_DIRECTION - vector of spotlight
%TBGL_LIGHT_SPOT_EXPONENT - affects spotlight fade out
%TBGL_LIGHT_SPOT_CUTOFF - angle of spotlight "cone"
%TBGL_LIGHT_CONSTANT_ATTENUATION - this and following 2 equates makes light fading setup
%TBGL_LIGHT_LINEAR_ATTENUATION
%TBGL_LIGHT_QUADRATIC_ATTENUATION

* TBGL_UseAlphaTest Flag - use of alpha test on/off

* TBGL_AlphaFunc equate, factor - specifies alpha processing function
%TBGL_NEVER
%TBGL_LESS
%TBGL_EQUAL
%TBGL_LEQUAL
%TBGL_GREATER
%TBGL_NOTEQUAL
%TBGL_GEQUAL
%TBGL_ALWAYS

I'm sorry this is not in help file yet, but I will do it when possible.


Petr

[kryton9]

Thanks Petr, will comment more later, but thanks, it does help just seeing this to see what is there!!

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi,

just reporting about 30% of work on new help topics done.
When it will be finished I will pass it to Eros.


Bye,
Petr

[kryton9]

Awesome, I stopped even thinking about xna for now and having fun with our stuff :)

[Petr Schreiber]

;D

thanks kryton9.
Hope the fun factor will even raise when mouse and other functions ready.
I hope to add new content to help file to get to at least 70% completion during this night.

Still, the most useful "practical" information I will try to demonstrate in TBGL tutorials.
I feel sad for almost no examples presenting even previous generation of TBGL.
So hope this year it will be covered ok :)


Bye,
Petr

[kryton9]

If you watched any of those Blender video tutorials by Neal Hirsig, he did a great job in that he shows one topic at a time and all the videos can be viewed independently and if you need to refer to something else he shows while showing that one you can refer to that video. The videos are grouped nicely too in the order he presents them.

If you could do something like that with thinEdge and tbgl later that would be awesome.

[Petr Schreiber]

Yes,

I'd like to.
But it is question of fight for higher performance box, which is frequently occupied by other family members :)

Will try to do it when it will be possible.
Now I have this priority list in thinBASIC world:

TBGL Help file
TBGL website reloaded with actualised versions of tutorials
Finish OBJ2M15 program with wide options ( or at least some :) ) to not need to start thinEdge to just convert files
Release new thinEdge with better interface, fixed text rendering problem, better OBJ import/export, saving of options and your requested lines-polygon switch
Do thinEdge videos with this latest version


Bye,
Petr

[kryton9]

That list looks very nice Petr, good luck. A nice plan indeed!!

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi kryton9,

first release of new TBGL was sent to Eros already.
It will be included in next thinBASIC release, or I can send it to you directly.

At this time it just simply covers the syntax and meaning of parameters, I plan to add some info about how much the various functions affect the performance when used, if they are resolution dependent and so on later.


Bye,
Petr

[ErosOlmi]

In the meantime new preview will be ready here it is latest TBGL help file.
Thanks Petr.

Eros

[kryton9]

Thanks downloaded and will look now :)