Gwin3D is a freeware C++ class library that simplifies 3D graphics
development for Windows.
It is available at no charge for VC++. Borland and GNU versions may
soon be available for Windows.
Like GLUT, Gwin3D is a high-level compliment to OpenGL and GLU and
simplifies the development of bare-bones applications.
Unlike GLUT, however, Gwin3D supplies many of the features needed by
more advanced 3D applications, and also internally and transparently
takes care of much of the housekeeping and performance issues so that
you don't have to.
A 125 page programmer's manual is included.
Gwin3D was designed for a very shallow learning curve. You can start
with the eight lines of source code below and build on it using the
Programmer's Manual only as reference.
Gwin3D manages the world as a heirarchy of 3D objects called
'sprites'. Nested sprites are subject to the attributes of their
parents.
Sprites can be loaded from VRML files created by a freeware modeller
such as Blender, can be drawn by application-defined code, created as
OpenGL display lists, or any combination of these.
You can use as much or as little of Gwin3D as you like, and Gwin3D
provides callback functions and allows class overloading so that it
can be tailored, tweaked, and corrected on a piecemeal basis.
Gwin3D doesn't limit what you can do in your 3D application, it just
makes many of the common tasks easier. Here are a few of them:
- Autotexturing for objects not designed for textures.
- Powerful image file editing functions (BMP, JPG, JP2)
- Loading models from VRML 1.0, VRML 97, and VRML 2.0 files
- Supply VRML polygons to the application.
- Automatic and internal optimization of depth buffer clipping planes
- Both simple and infinite levels of detail (conditional sprite trees)
- Sprite collision detection
- Imposter sup****t
- Billboards
- Translucency
- Material transitioning (smoke, cloud, distant fading sprites etc.)
- Multiple simultaneous background sounds from wav files
- Simplified keyboard and mouse handling
- Conversion to and from 2D window coordinates
- Internal interactive debugger sup****ts error checking, trace, and
breakpoints.
You may redistribute the Gwin3D DLL.
A single license notice window, closed with a mouse click, appears the
first time you use the Gwin3D DLL, and once every few months
afterward.
The Gwin3D SDK (beta 0.1) includes the DLL, im****t LIB, header file,
programmer's manual, and a sample project. It can be downloaded from
here:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~ktl/gwin3d/
Below is the complete source to a console program that displays a
moving 3D model loaded from a VRML file:
#include "Gwin3D.h"
#include "stdio.h"
// this is called periodically to update the window
void _fastcall UpdateFrame(gwWindow *Win)
{
static gwSprite MySprite("MyVrmlFile"); // load a model
MySprite.ModifyRotation(10,17,23); // rotate it
MySprite.Draw(Win); // draw it
}
void main(void)
{
gwWindow MyWindow(UpdateFrame); // create a 3D window
}
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Note: Gwin3D is Copyright (c) 2003 by Kelly Loum, all rights reserved.
See the license agreement via http://home.hiwaay.net/~ktl/gwin3d/
for
details.
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