Lesson 1: A basic walkthrough

Writing a 2D or 3D appliction using the acknex engine is a lot easier than writing a general Windows application. There are only three functions that you need to know:

ENGINE_VARS *engine_open(char * commandline)

Initializes the engine, returns a pointer to the engine variables struct (see avars.h), and accepts a command line string with the name of a script, an entity file, or a movie file to be loaded upon initialization, as well as command line options.

BOOL engine_frame(void)

Renders one frame in window or fullscreen mode, while performing collision detection, physics executions, I/O handling and so on. This function is called in the main 'game loop' and returns 0 when the engine is about to quit. The target rendering area can be given by the video_window function - this way the engine can render into an arbitrary window. The first engine_frame call opens the 3D device. Only after that, engine and video functions can be called.

void engine_close(void)

Closes the engine.

Example: Lesson1

In Lesson 1 you'll learn how to write a 3D walkthrough with just only 4 lines of C++ commands: 
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// ackexe.cpp : Tutorial Application, Lesson 1
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Link to the engine library
#pragma comment(lib, "acknex.lib")

// Include the usual Windows headers
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN		
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#include <memory.h>
#include <tchar.h>

// Include the engine data types, variables, and functions
#include "adll.h"

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Lesson 1: Writing an application with just four lines of C
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// This is the Windows main function. It's executed at start
// of the application. Don't be confused by the scary looking 
// arguments, we normally won't need any.

int APIENTRY WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,	// application instance handle
                     HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, // always zero
                     LPTSTR    lpCmdLine,	// application command line
                     int       nCmdShow)	// window flags
{
// If you're used to windows programming, you would normally expect
// here about 150 lines of window definition, class registration, 
// and message loop stuff. You can do that if you want and override
// the engine defaults, but all you really need is:

	engine_open("arena.wmb");

// The engine_open() function initializes the Gamestudio engine,
// and accepts a command line string with the name of a script, 
// or an entity file to be loaded upon initialization. For instance, 
// we could hand over the application command line (char*)lpCmdLine.
// We could also pass options to start in client or server mode.
// Here we're just loading the arena level. 
	
// After loading a level we're ready to render it. The engine_frame() 
// function executes the scripts and physics, and renders the 
// current camera position to the screen if a level is loaded. 
// The function returns zero when a script calls exit() or an Abort 
// button is clicked. 

	while (engine_frame()); 

// For rendering the level, we are just repeating engine_frame() until 
// a 0 value is returned. This is normally our main loop, all 
// the interesting stuff happens here. However, when an entity file 
// name is given for engine_open(), the engine acts as a viewer.
// A default walkthrough movement is activated and we don't want 
// to do anything else at the moment.

	engine_close();

// Someone pressed the Exit icon. Our application is about to end. 
// Before that, the engine must be closed by engine_close().

	return 0;
}
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