MTek-GDL
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| MTek-GDL | |
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| General | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | TheCodingBrony |
| Type | Framework library |
| Version | Release 1.1 |
| Links | |
| Download | |
| Discussion | |
MTek-GDL is a simple object-oriented game development library written in C++ combined with a collection of tools, examples, and additional libraries for simple and advanced game development for the Nintendo Wii and PC (OpenGL) platforms and is ideal for beginners and advanced Wii game programmers... No longer do you have to (painfully) deal with low-level GX and other system functions to get something as simple as loading and displaying a png image file and displaying it unless you want to make good use of the Wii's graphics hardware that is.
Even though this library is designed mostly for 2D game development, it can be used as a base for developing custom 2D and 3D graphics engines as an extension library... For convenience reasons, it is best to maintain such libraries separately from MTek-GDL to avoid interference.
Features
- Graphics
- Simplified system initialization automating video, GX, and audio subsystem initialization.
- Well optimized hardware accelerated image and sprite rendering functions.
- Built-in sprite sheets system for efficient sprites management.
- HDTV friendly low-resolution mode (320x240/432x240 on NTSC/MPAL/EuRGB60, 320x264/432x264 on PAL) for retro style games and emulators.
- Built-in texture conversion functions for I4, I8, IA4, IA8, RGB565, RGB5A3, and RGBA8 texture formats.
- Built-in png image and tpl texture loading functions with mipmap support (mipmaps only possible through tpl files, available only on Wii version).
- Simple font system for fixed-sized font sheets.
- Take screenshots as png images (Wii version only).
- Sound
- Play Microsoft format wav files with full stereo panning.
- Stream ogg vorbis audio files as background music.
- Miscellaneous
- Built-in power and reset button handling complete with fade-out.
- Can be used as a base for advanced game engine development.
- Console mode for debugging purposes.
- PC library included for porting Wii projects to the PC.
Example Screenshots
Screenshot from the simple2d example demonstrating the image, texture, and font features.
Screenshot from the 3dsample example demonstrating simple lighting and uses vertex arrays and display lists for fast model rendering.
Screenshot from the whack-a-cirra minigame example demonstrating the built-in sprite system and a RPG style top-down view.
Screenshot from the tilemap example using vertex arrays for fast tilemap rendering.
Associated Libraries
- zlib
- libpng
- libtremor (binary only)
- oggplayer (modified for file streaming and reverse stereo bug fix)
- valloc (from devKitPSP/PSPSDK modified for MEM2 memory management)
- dolexec (based from FIX94's loadMii forwarder)
Changelog
Release 1.1 (1-25-2015)
- Minor Wii library update (0.43b).
- Made low-res mode more HDTV friendly by enabling interlace jitter when component cables are used (after having a debate with tueidj).
- Removed useless *colTable parameter in gdl::Texture::ConvertRawImage().
- Wii library documentation for gdl::Texture::ConvertRawImage() is now up-to-date (forgot about it in relese 1).
- Corrected some entries in the Wii library documentation.
Release 1 (01-22-2015)
- PC version of the library now included (there might still be some hiccups here and there as most of the development effort went to the Wii version of the library).
- Sprite Mapper tool now included (it is kinda bloaty as it was recycled from an ill-fated game engine made with QB64 some 2 years ago).
- Created and added dolexec forwarder library based on FIX94's loadMii forwarder (no example of it for now but its EXTREMELY easy to use, no joke... Not defined in the template makefile though but its easy to implement anyway).
- Forgot to include bulb.ply for the wii/graphics/3dsample example... Silly me!
- Added spritesets example (WARNING: features ponies).
- Added a silly whack-a-cirra minigame example.
- Added wii/graphics/mipmap example.
- Added wii/graphics/tilemap example.
- Added wii/graphics/displaylist example.
- Wii library updated to v0.42b:
- Added built-in power off/reset handling with fade-out (only effective during a gdl::PrepDisplay()/gdl::Display() loop). Pressing the reset button won't do a hot-reset (restarts the running application) but instead, brings you back to the Homebrew Channel. This can be overridden with SYS_SetResetCallback() and SYS_SetPowerCallback().
- Added non-interlaced low resolution mode (320x240/432x240 on NTSC/MPAL/EURGB60, 320x264/432x264 on PAL) which will do great for retro styled games or emulators. Will always be recognized as 480i even with component cables.
- Added gdl::Texture::LoadTexture() function supporting single texture TPL files... Mipmapped textures are accepted but color-index textures and TPL files containing more than 1 texture are not supported.
- Added TPL texture file support in gdl::Image::LoadImage()... Filter mode and texture format parameters specified to the function are ignored when loading TPL files.
- Added I4, I8, IA4, and IA8 texture format support for the gdl::Texture and gdl::Image classes.
- gdl::Texture::ConvertFromRaw() and gdl::Image::LoadImage() now uses MEM2 for storing temporary pixel data to help prevent malloc from jumping into MEM2 when loading lots of large images, can be reverted back to MEM1 allocation by specifying -DGDL_GC_COMPAT when compiling.
- gdl::Image::LoadImage() now supports 8-bit palettized PNG images but it'll be converted into an RGB image upon loading.
Release 0 (01-01-2015)
- Initial "New Year's Eve" release.