Context
I am building this multiplayer D&D encounter tool (in C# for WinRT) which is a simple 2D grid based utility where each player can control their character with the DM being able to control the whole environment as well as mobs etc. I decided to use DirectX (through the SharpDX wrapper) as opposed to standard XAML elements (which would probably handle this scenario too) mainly to learn DirectX and possibly to achieve better performance on lower spec PCs (not sure how XAML would handle thousands of sprites on the screen).
Question
Since I am new to DirectX I was wondering what is the best* way to draw the sprites (characters, props, background tiles, etc)?
*By best I mean in terms of performance and GPU memory requirements. My aim is to have this tool to run well even on low spec ARM tablets and I have no idea how demanding each approach is.
Currently I am using the Direct2D BitmapSourceEffect and load each sprite batch using the WIC API. Another approach which I also encountered in various DirectX books is described in this SO question: What is the best pratice[sic] to render sprites in DirectX 11?
Using the BitmapSourceEffect seems to be easier but is it the right tool to do the job? I plan to compare the two approaches later today (in terms of FPS, rendering a large number of sprites), but perhaps you guys can provide more insight into this matter. Thanks!
Related
I need to render video from multiple IP cameras into several controls within the client application.
On top of the video, I should be able to add some OSD such as timestamp and camera name.
What I'm trying to do has nothing to do with 3D since we're talking about digital video with some text on it.
Which API is more suitable for this purpose? Direct3D or Direct2D?
Performance should also be a consideration here.
It used to be that Direct2D was a poor choice for Windows Phone (if you care about that system) because it wasn't supported, but Win Phone 8.1 has it now, so less of an issue.
My experience with D2D was that it offered fast, high quality 2D rendering, and I would say it is a good choice.
You might want to take a look at this article on Code Project. That looks appropriate for your purposes.
If you are certain you only need MS system support, then you're all set.
Another way to go would be a cross platform system like nanovg, which offers nice 2D rendering and would work on a Mac. Of course, you'd need to figure out how to do the video part on non windows systems.
Regarding D3D, you could certainly do it that way, but my guess would be it would make some things trickier to do. Don't forget you can combine the two as well...
Has anyone tried using Scaleform for actual game asset rendering in an iOS game, not just UI. The goal is to utilize vector swf's that will be converted to polygons via Scaleform but have C++ code driving the game (no AS3). If you have tried it how did you feel about the results? Could it render fast enough?
Scaleform has been used in several iOS games as the entire engine (including AS3). Here are some examples:
TinyThief: http://inthefold.autodesk.com/in_the_fold/2013/07/5-ants-brings-tiny-thief-to-ios-and-android-with-autodesk-scaleform-mobile-sdk.html
You Don't Know Jack: http://inthefold.autodesk.com/in_the_fold/2013/01/you-dont-know-jack-qa.html
You can certainly use Scaleform for this purpose. Scaleform includes the Direct Access API (DAPI) which allows C++ to manage Flash resources (this includes creating symbol instances at runtime and managing their states + lifetime).
The GFx::Value class is the basis of DAPI and should provide most, if not all, of the functionality you would need. You may still need some AS3 code to glue some things together, but that should be negligible.
Performance of static vector content is dependent on the complexity of the shape (more paths, more styles => more triangles + batches). I'd try to limit the number of vector (shape) timeline animations because shape morphing will cause re-tessellation. Scaling vector content will also cause re-tessellation, so keep that in mind.
I am working on an image processing app for the iOS, and one of the various stages of my application is a vector based image posterization/color detection.
Now, I've written the code that can, per-pixel, determine the posterized color, but going through each and every pixel in an image, I imagine, would be quite difficult for the processor if the iOS. As such, I was wondering if it is possible to use the graphics processor instead;
I'd like to create a sort of "pixel shader" which uses OpenGL-ES, or some other rendering technology to process and posterize the image quickly. I have no idea where to start (I've written simple shaders for Unity3D, but never done the underlying programming for them).
Can anyone point me in the correct direction?
I'm going to come at this sideways and suggest you try out Brad Larson's GPUImage framework, which describes itself as "a BSD-licensed iOS library that lets you apply GPU-accelerated filters and other effects to images, live camera video, and movies". I haven't used it and assume you'll need to do some GL reading to add your own filtering but it'll handle so much of the boilerplate stuff and provides so many prepackaged filters that it's definitely worth looking into. It doesn't sound like you're otherwise particularly interested in OpenGL so there's no real reason to look into it.
I will add the sole consideration that under iOS 4 I found it often faster to do work on the CPU (using GCD to distribute it amongst cores) than on the GPU where I needed to be able to read the results back at the end for any sort of serial access. That's because OpenGL is generally designed so that you upload an image and then it converts it into whatever format it wants and if you want to read it back then it converts it back to the one format you expect to receive it in and copies it to where you want it. So what you save on the GPU you pay for because the GL driver has to shunt and rearrange memory. As of iOS 5 Apple have introduced a special mechanism that effectively gives you direct CPU access to OpenGL's texture store so that's probably not a concern any more.
Our software produces a lot of data that is georeferenced and recorded over time. We are considering ways to improve the visualisation, and showing the (processed) data in a 3D view, given it's georeferenced, seems a good idea.
I am looking for SO's recommendations for what 3D libraries are best to use as a base when building these kind of visualisations in a Delphi- / C++Builder-based Windows application. I'll add a bounty when I can.
The data
Is recorded over time (hours to days) and is GPS-tagged. So, we have a lot of data following a path over time.
Is spatial: it represents real 3D elements of the earth, such as the land, or 3D elements of objects around the earth.
Is high volume: we could have a point cloud, say, of hundreds of thousands to millions of points. Processed data may display as surfaces created from these point clouds.
From that, you can see that an interactive, spatially-based 3D visualisation seems a good approach. I'm envisaging something where you can easily and quickly navigate around in space, and data will load or be generated on the fly depending on what you're looking at. I would prefer we don't try to write our own 3D library from scratch - for something like this, there have to be good existing libraries we can work from.
So, I'm hoping for a library which supports:
good navigation (is the library based on Euler rotations only, for example? Can you 'pick' objects to rotate around or move with easily?);
modern GPUs (shader-only rendering is ok; being able to hook into the pipeline to write shaders that map values to colours and change dynamically would be great - think data values given a colour through a colour lookup table);
dynamic data / objects (data can be added as it's recorded; and if the data volume is too high, we should be able to page things in and out or recreate them, and only show a sensible subset so that whatever the user's viewport is looking at is there onscreen, but other data can be loaded/regenerated, preferably asynchronously, or at least quickly as the user navigates. Obviously data creation is dependent on us, but a library that has hooks for this kind of thing would be great.)
and technologically, works with Delphi / C++Builder and the VCL.
Libraries
There are two main libraries I've considered so far - I'm looking for knowledgeable opinions about these, or for other libraries I haven't considered.
1. FireMonkey
This is Embarcadero's new UI library, which is only available in XE2 and above. Our app is based on the VCL and we'd want to host this in a VCL window; that seems to be officially unsupported but unofficially works fine, or is available through third-parties.
The mix of UI framework and 3D framework with shaders etc sounds great. But I don't know how complex the library is, what support it has for data that's not a simple object like a cube or sphere, and how well-designed it is. That last link has major criticisms of the 3D side of the library - severe enough I am not sure it's worthwhile in its current state at the time of writing for a non-trivial 3D app.
Is it worth trying to write a new visualisation window in our VCL app using FireMonkey?
2. GLScene
GLScene is a well-known 3D OpenGL framework for Delphi. I have never used it myself so have no experience about how it works or is designed. However, I believe it integrates well into VCL windows and supports shaders and modern GPUs. I do not know how its scene graph or navigation work or how well dynamic data can be implemented.
Its feature list specifically mentions some things I'm interested in, such as easy rotation/movement, procedural objects (implying dynamic data is easy to implement), and helper functions for picking. It seems shaders are Cg only (not GLSL or another non-vendor-specific language.) It also supports "polymorphic image support for texturing (allows many formats as well as procedural textures), easily extendable" - that may just mean many image formats, or it may indicate something where the texture can be dynamically changed, such as for dynamic colour mapping.
Where to from here?
These are the only two major 3D libraries I know of for Delphi or C++Builder. Have I missed any? Are there pros and cons I'm not aware of? Do you have any experience using either of these for this kind of purpose, and what pitfalls should we be wary of or features should we know about and use?
We currently use Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010 and most of our software is written in C++. We have small amounts of Delphi and may consider upgrading IDEs, but we are most likely to wait until the 64-bit C++ compiler is released. For that reason, a library that works in RS2010 might be best.
Thanks for your input :) I'm after high-quality answers, so I'll add a bounty when I can!
I have used GLScene in my 3D geomapping software and although it's not used to an extent you're looking for I can vouch that it seems the most appropriate for what you're trying to do.
GLScene supports terrain rendering and adding customizable objects to the scene. Objects can be interacted with and you can create complex 3D models of objects using the various building blocks of GLScene.
Unfortunately I cannot state how it will work with millions of points, but I do know that it is quite optimized and performs great on minimal hardware - that being said - the target PC I found required a dedicated graphics card capable of using OpenGL 2.1 extensions or higher (I found small issues with integrated graphics cards).
The other library I looked at was DXscene - which appears quite similar to GLScene albeit using DirectX instead of OpenGL. From memory this was a commercial product where GLScene was licensed under GPL. (EDIT - the page seems to be down at the moment : http://www.ksdev.com/index.html)
GLScene is still in active development and provides a fairly comprehensive library of functions, base objects and texturing etc. Things like rotation, translation, pitch, roll, turn, ray casting - to name a few - are all provided for you. Visibility culling is provided for each base object as well as viewing cameras, lighting and meshes. Base objects include cubes, spheres, pipes, tetrahedrons, cones, terrain, grids, 3d text, arrows to name a few.
Objects can be picked with the mouse and moved along 1,2 or 3 axes. Helper functions are included to automatically calculate the top-most object the mouse is under. Complex 3D shapes can be built by attaching base objects to other base objects in a hierarchical manner. So, for example, a car could be built using a rectangle as the base object and attaching four cylinders to it for the wheels - then you can manipulate the 'car' as a whole - since the four cylinders are attached to the base rectangle.
The only downside I could bring to your attention is the sometimes limited help/support available to you. Yes, there is a reference manual and a number of demo applications to show you how to do things such as select objects and move them around, however the reference manual is not complete and there is potential to get 'stuck' on how to accomplish a certain task. Forum support is somewhat limited/sparse. If you have a sound knowledge of 3D basics and concepts I'm sure you could nut it out.
As for Firemonkey - I have had no experience with this so I can't comment. I believe this is more targeted at mobile applications with lower hardware requirements so you may have issues with larger data sets.
Here are some other links that you may consider - I have no experience with them:
http://www.truevision3d.com/
http://www.3impact.com/
Game Development in Delphi
The last one is targeted at game development - but may provide useful information.
Have you tried glData? http://gldata.sourceforge.net/
It is old (~2004, Delphi 7), and I have not personally used the library, but some of the output is amazing.
you can use the GLScene or OpenGL they are good 3D rendering and its very easy to use.
Since you are already using georeferenced data, maybe you should consider embedding GoogleEarth in your Delphi application like this? Then you can add data to it as points, paths, or objects.
I have used PyGame for a while now, and quite enjoyed doing so, but only 2D experience is not going to cut it when I apply for video game jobs, and besides, I have a number of ideas I want to try out in 3D. What 3D library should I go into first? I was considering Irrlicht, which will also force me to work on my C++ again, but I was also looking towards XNA, as it would be cool to write 360 games. Any suggestions?
You can try Unity3D http://unity3d.com/. In the fall they released their engine for free that is cross platform (Mac, Win and possible Linux) and it can also be targeted for iPhone and web browser and is starting to build an open community and looks promising.
I've done some XNA stuff and the Unity tools look pretty good in comparison making it easier to get content into your games.
In my opinion, going with Irrlicht or OGRE is a good idea. It will help you get back in touch with C++ and experiment with 3D without making it too easy. It is a good idea to learn XNA as well and build a few 3D game prototypes there.
Summary: Do both, eventually. Learn OpenGL/DirectX later.
All the best.
XNA Game Studio is a fantastic framework and let's users jump into creating games quite quickly if you are comfortable with the .NET Framework.
However, if you decide that you want to move to the 3D world, you have 1 more dimension to take into consideration and it makes things exponentially harder. Simple collision detection, isn't so simple anymore. However, with the vast amount of information available for XNA Game Studio, you should find yourself getting to grips with the 3rd dimension quite quickly.
If you haven't done the whole Nehe type tutorials, it's probably best to play with the API, so that you get comfortable with it.
Create a Triangle
Spin the Triangle
Color the Triangle
Load some assets (models and textures) and render them
Try your hand at Alpha Blending
Take into consideration that XNA Game Studio does not have a fixed function pipeline and you will have to use Shaders (HLSL).
I have personally used Irrlicht, Ogre3d, Unity & Xna. Because you want to do this to help for when you apply for jobs in the game industry in my opinion I would suggest Irrlicht as you will want to work on your c++ skills. I also suggest Irrlicht as it is a 3D engine not a specific game engine which will allow you to work on your physics and maths skills as well which are highly sought after in the games industry.
I would suggest avoiding Unity if you are looking for experience to take to industry as it is a package that handles a lot for you and as such could limit your learning.
Ogre3D is a viable option as it is similar to Irlicht, maybe look into the tools available to help you make a choice between those two.
Xna is another interesting choice, it will give you a lot of chances to learn as Irrlicht could and there are a huge amount of resources to help you learn but at the same time you lose the c++ experience that comes with irrlicht.