Pencil.Gaming is a gaming library for C#, providing support for OpenGL, GLFW, OpenAL and Lua. It's a stable, cross-platform, open-source (some prefer the term "free") alternative to libraries like XNA, which has pretty much died now, OpenTK, which hasn't been updated for about a year, and SharpDX, which is not cross-platform. A feature that Pencil.Gaming has over most other C# gaming libraries, is that users do not need to install any redistributables!
The OpenGL implementation is based on the OpenTK source code.
A quick overview of the samples:
- [OpenAL utilities] (https://github.com/antonijn/Pencil.Gaming#sample-usage-openal)
- [OpenGL utilities] (https://github.com/antonijn/Pencil.Gaming#sample-usage-glutils)
| Platform | OpenGL core | OpenGL extensions | GLFW | OpenAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux 64-bit | Stable | Stable | Stable | Stable |
| Linux 32-bit | Stable | Stable | Stable | Stable |
| Windows 64-bit | Stable | Stable | Stable | Stable |
| Windows 32-bit | Stable | Stable | Stable | Stable |
| Mac OS X | Stable | Stable | Stable | Stable |
| Platform | OpenGL core | OpenGL extensions | GLFW | OpenAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux 64-bit | Stable | Stable | Stable | Stable |
| Linux 32-bit | Stable | Stable | Broken | Stable |
| Windows 64-bit | Stable | Stable | Stable | Stable |
| Windows 32-bit | Stable | Stable | Untested | Stable |
| Mac OS X | Stable | Stable | Not Implemented | Stable |
This section has been removed. Please refer to the [wiki] (https://github.com/antonijn/Pencil.Gaming/wiki) for GLFW2/3 examples.
Apart from implementing GLFW, Pencil.Gaming also has a few utilities to make your life bearable. Gl.Utils is one of these utility classes provided by Pencil.Gaming. It provides support for cross-platform texture loading, and features a model loading utility (obj files only).
int image = Gl.Utils.LoadImage("myfile.png"); // Works with multiple file formats
Gl.BindTexture(TextureTarget.Texture2D, image);
Gl.Begin(BeginMode.TriangleStrip);
Gl.TexCoord2(0f, 1f);
Gl.Vertex2(0.1f, 0.9f);
Gl.TexCoord2(0f, 0f);
Gl.Vertex2(0.1f, 0.1f);
Gl.TexCoord2(1f, 1f);
Gl.Vertex2(0.9f, 0.9f);
Gl.TexCoord2(1f, 0f);
Gl.Vertex2(0.9f, 0.1f);
Gl.End();
Gl.DeleteTextures(1, ref image);int modelVbo;
int indexVbo;
int numberOfIndices;Gl.Enable(EnapleCap.DepthTest);
Vector4[] vertices;
Vector3[] normals;
Vector2[] texCoords;
int[] indices;
Gl.Utils.LoadModel("model.obj", out vertices, out normals, out texCoords, out indices, false);
numberOfIndices = indices.Length;
Gl.GenBuffers(1, out modelVbo);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, modelVbo);
Gl.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, new IntPtr(vertices.Length * 4 * sizeof(float)), vertices, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, 0);
Gl.GenBuffers(1, out indexVbo);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, indexVbo);
Gl.BufferData(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, new IntPtr(indices.Length * sizeof(int)), indices, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, 0);// NOTE: This uses legacy OpenGL, just to fit in the readme...
Gl.EnableClientState(ArrayCap.VertexArray);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, modelVbo);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, indexVbo);
Gl.VertexPointer(4, VertexPointerType.Float, 4 * sizeof(float), 0);
Gl.DrawElements(BeginMode.Triangles, numberOfIndices, DrawElementsType.UnsignedInt, 0);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, 0);
Gl.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, 0);
Gl.DisableClientState(ArrayCap.VertexArray);Gl.DeleteBuffers(1, ref modelVbo);
Gl.DeleteBuffers(1, ref indexVbo);Lua is a light-weight scripting language, perfectly suitable for use in game development.
Pencil.Gaming provides support for Lua, using the default C# PascalCased identifiers, making it integrate seamlessly with other C# code.
Whereas a C-api function call might be lua_pcall(L, 0, LUA_MULTRET, 0), the Pencil.Gaming C# API call would be Lua.PCall(L, 0, Lua.MultRet, 0).
Another utility is the Al.Utils.BufferFromWav utility, which is able to load wave files into an OpenAL buffer.
uint buffer = Al.Utils.BufferFromWav("MyWaveFile.wav");
uint source;
Al.GenSources(1, out source);
Al.Source(source, AlSourcei.Buffer, (int) buffer);
Al.Source(source, AlSourceb.Looping, true);
Al.SourcePlay(source);
// ...
// ...
// When cleaning up:
Al.DeleteSources(1, ref source);
Al.DeleteBuffers(1, ref buffer);