[Gnu3dkit-dev] New core API

[Philippe C . D . Robert]

Hi,

to give you an idea how the new, simplified core API will/could look 
like I have listed most of the exposed interface classes and protocols 
w/ a short description (internal classes and backend stuff is not 
listed here):

- Classes:

o G3DContextManager

  Manages rendering contexts

o G3DContext

  A rendering context, uses a backend renderer context internally

o G3DCamera

  The camera controller, uses a NSView to draw

o G3DFrustum

  The frustum used by a camera object.

o G3DRotator

  A rotator/trackball controller

o G3DApplication

  The application singleton used to setup a GNU 3DKit application, ie. 
to
  specify the threading model and renderer backend

o G3DGraphNode
  o G3DGroup
  o G3DShape
  o G3DLight

  The simple scene graph. We get rid of a designated root node in the 
new
  design. Of course this can be extended in a utility lib or by 3rd 
party
  developers.

  A further idea is to have sth like a G3DPlugin which would allow the
  incorporation of other structural scene data types.

o G3DShader

  Shaders describe the appearance of a shape. The use of a standard 
shading
  languages would be very interesting here.

o G3DGeometry
  o G3DImplicitSurface
    o G3DQuadric
    o G3DSuperQuadric
  o G3DPatch
    o G3DPatchMesh
  o G3DPolygon
    o ...

  Geometry data is used by shapes, different types will be supported by 
default.

o G3DRenderAction

  A render action renders a 3DKit scene taking in account the initially
  specified threading model. This allows us to separate rendering from 
the scene
  representation.

o G3DCopyAction

  A copy action deep copies a scene graph portion to be reused 
elsewhere.

o G3DCompileAction

  A compile action optimises and compiles a scene graph.

- Protocols:

o G3DAction

o G3DRenderer
o G3DGfxContext


I tried to be closer to the original 3DKit and its thin, flexible API 
but still I did incorporate some missing stuff. I also believe we 
should use pure C for maths functionality, thus I dropped the 
G3DTransform class for example.

How does that sounds to you? Of course this is only a rough overview, 
but I try to come up with a proto as soon as possible, so that we can 
start playing with it.

-Phil
--
Philippe C.D. Robert
http://www.nice.ch/~phip