Introduction

OpenB3D is a lightweight OpenGL 1.4+ 3D engine written in C++, this is the BlitzMax wrapper for it. OpenB3D is based on MiniB3D which was based on Blitz3D. Help might be found at the SyntaxBomb MiniB3D Board or the BlitzCoder OpenB3D Board.

Features

• Works with Legacy BRL BlitzMax but is really supposed to be for BlitzMax NG on Windows, Mac or Linux
• Object-oriented with methods and a procedural interface of functions, like MiniB3D
• Entities are objects (and not integer handles like Blitz3D) so you must specify their type
• Types are as in MiniB3D, but fields are all pointers, except Tlists which are the same
• Coordinate system is not OpenGL orientation, it is left-handed like Blitz3D
• Works with BRL.MaxGui like MiniB3D, this allows more control of windows
• BRL.Max2d provides 2D-in-3D rendering, along with BRL.Graphics this adds many 2D commands found in Blitz3D
• The STB Image library loads texture formats, this provides support for TGA, BMP, GIF and PSD
• BRL image loaders are used for PNG and JPG as they were more stable
• Support for DDS with compressed textures in video memory but this needs a module tweak to Max2D (now in latest NG)
• File streams for textures and meshes for Incbin and zip files with Koriolis.Zipstream
• 3D model formats are 3DS, OBJ (no animation), B3D (skeletal animation) and MD2 (vertex interpolation)
• Several more 3D formats can be loaded with the Assimp wrapper but no animation yet
• Collision detection with Blitz3D's ellipsoid-to-something collisions, dynamic collisions are possible
• Realtime textures created with BackBufferToTex, CameraToTex and DepthBufferToTex
• Shader post-processing with either CameraToTex rendering to screen sprite or PostFX rendering to framebuffer
• Quaternions are used for rotations instead of Eulers like MiniB3D, avoids Gimbal lock
• Terrains are like Blitz3D, UpdateNormals replaces TerrainShading, alpha maps and shaders now work
• Vertex and Fragment shaders examples written to comply with GLSL 1.10 (GL 2.0)
• Shader effects include bump map, toon, per pixel lighting, anti alias, colorgrading, depth of field, bloom
• Dynamic lighting and linear fog with either fixed function or shaders
• Realtime volumetric stencil shadows with self-shadowing from multiple lights - no soft shadows
• Stencil commands for mirror and portal type effects
• CSG (constructive solid geometry) combine, subtract and intersect
• Event-based entity control system called Actions, triggered once and then automatically update
• Basic physics system consisting of constraints and rigid bodies
• Newton library wrapper has support for primitives but no vehicles, ragdolls, etc
• Sprites are all from a single surface, so very fast
• Particle emitter system with callback function for custom controls, uses sprites
• Particle Candy module for alternative particle system, not completed
• Software anti-alias like MiniB3D, multisample hardware anti-alias but only in Windows with a module tweak

Status

I have very little spare time to work on the wrapper now but I will still try to look at pull requests and respond to issues that address bugs whether on Github or the boards.

Installation

• Extract the zip to BlitzMax/mod folder
• Remove -master from the openb3d folder name - modules must end in .mod
• On Windows, you need a working version of the MinGW compiler
• On Mac, you need a compatible version of XCode installed
• On Linux, read this guide How To: Install BlitzMax NG on Win/Mac/Ubuntu 64-bit
• To build with BRL Blitzmax, open Cmd, cd to BlitzMax/bin and type bmk makemods -d openb3d
• For Blitzmax NG in 64-bit use bmk makemods -d -w -g x64 openb3d - on Unix use ./bmk
• Or from MaxIDE enable Quick Build, Debug, GUI App and Build Modules
• To syntax highlight the commands use ./makedocs or MaxIDE's Rebuild Documentation

License

The library is licensed with the GNU LGPL 2.1 or later with an exception to allow static linking and the wrapper is licensed with the permissive zlib license.

Credits

The OpenB3D library was based iMiniB3D, other core parts were ported from Warner Engine and MiniB3D Extended.

• Blitz3D by Mark Sibly
• MiniB3D and iMiniB3D by Simon Harrison
• OpenB3D by Angelo Rosina (Angros47)
• Warner Engine by Bram den Hond
• MiniB3D Extended by Benjamin Rössig (klepto2)
• bOGL 2 by Alex Gilding (Leushenko)
• I am grateful to: RonTek, Krischan, KippyKip, Spinduluz, DruggedBunny, Hezkore for their coding help