bindbc-bgfx ~master

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BindBC-bgfx

This project provides a set of both static and dynamic D bindings to bgfx. They are compatible with @nogc and nothrow, and can be compiled with BetterC compatibility. This package is based on and supersedes the old bgfx C99 API bindings by @GoaLitiuM.

| Table of Contents | |-------------------| |License| |bgfx documentation| |Quickstart guide| |Binding-specific changes| |Configurations| |Generating bindings|

License

BindBC-bgfx—as well as every other binding in the BindBC project—is licensed under the Boost Software License.

Bear in mind that you still need to abide by bgfx's license if you use it through these bindings.

bgfx documentation

This readme describes how to use BindBC-bgfx, not bgfx itself. BindBC-bgfx does have some minor API changes from bgfx, which are listed in Binding-specific changes. Otherwise BindBC-bgfx is a direct D binding to the bgfx C++ API, so any existing bgfx documentation and tutorials can be adapted with only minor modifications.

• bgfx's official build instructions.
• bgfx's official API Reference.
• A short guide to help new users get started using bgfx.

Additionally, because these bindings are auto-generated, bgfx's documentation is also embedded within this library's source code.

Quickstart guide

To use BindBC-bgfx in your dub project, add it to the list of dependencies in your dub configuration file. The easiest way is by running dub add bindbc-bgfx in your project folder. The result should look like this:

Example dub.json

"dependencies": {
	"bindbc-bgfx": "~>1.4.0",
},

Example dub.sdl

dependency "bindbc-bgfx" version="~>1.4.0"

By default, BindBC-bgfx is configured to compile as a dynamic binding that is not BetterC-compatible. If you prefer static bindings or need BetterC compatibility, they can be enabled via subConfigurations in your dub configuration file. For configuration naming & more details, see Configurations.

Example dub.json

"subConfigurations": {
	"bindbc-bgfx": "staticBC",
},

Example dub.sdl

subConfiguration "bindbc-bgfx" "staticBC"

If you're using static bindings, then you will need to add the filename your bgfx library to libs.

Example dub.json

"libs": [
	"bgfx-shared-libDebug",
],

Example dub.sdl

libs "bgfx-shared-libDebug"

If you're using static bindings: import bindbc.bgfx in your code, and then you can use all of bgfx. That's it!

import bindbc.bgfx;

void main(){
	auto init = bgfx.Init(0);
	
	init.resolution.width = 800;
	init.resolution.height = 600;
	
	bgfx.init(init);
	
	//etc.
	
	bgfx.shutdown();
}

If you're using dynamic bindings: you need to load bgfx with loadBgfx().

For most use cases, it's best to use BindBC-Loader's error handling API to see if there were any errors while loading the library. This information can be written to a log file before aborting the program.

The load function will also return a member of the LoadMsg enum, which can be used for debugging:

• noLibrary means the library couldn't be found.
• badLibrary means there was an error while loading the library.
• success means that bgfx was loaded without any errors.

Here's a simple example using only the load function's return value:

import bindbc.bgfx;
import bindbc.loader;

/*
This code attempts to load the bgfx shared library using
well-known variations of the library name for the host system.
*/
LoadMsg ret = loadBgfx();
if(ret != LoadMsg.success){
	/*
	Error handling. For most use cases, it's best to use the error handling API in
	BindBC-Loader to retrieve error messages for logging and then abort.
	If necessary, it's possible to determine the root cause via the return value:
	*/
	if(ret == LoadMsg.noLibrary){
		//The bgfx shared library failed to load
	}else if(ret == LoadMsg.badLibrary){
		/*
		One or more symbols failed to load. The likely cause is
		that the shared library is for a lower API version than
		`bgfx.apiVersion` in bindbc-bgfx.
		*/
	}
}

/*
This code attempts to load the bgfx library using a user-supplied file name.
Usually, the name and/or path used will be platform specific, as in this
example which attempts to load `bgfx.dll` from the `libs` subdirectory,
relative to the executable, only on Windows.
*/
version(Windows) loadBgfx("libs/bgfx.dll");

The error handling API in BindBC-Loader can be used to log error messages:

import bindbc.bgfx;

/*
Import the sharedlib module for error handling. Assigning an alias ensures that the
function names do not conflict with other public APIs. This isn't strictly necessary,
but the API names are common enough that they could appear in other packages.
*/
import loader = bindbc.loader.sharedlib;

bool loadLib(){
	LoadMsg ret = loadBgfx();
	if(ret != LoadMsg.success){
		//Log the error info
		foreach(info; loader.errors){
			/*
			A hypothetical logging function. Note that `info.error` and
			`info.message` are `const(char)*`, not `string`.
			*/
			logError(info.error, info.message);
		}
		
		//Optionally construct a user-friendly error message for the user
		string msg;
		if(ret == LoadMsg.noLibrary){
			msg = "This application requires the bgfx library.";
		}
		//A hypothetical message box function
		showMessageBox(msg);
		return false;
	}
	return true;
}

Binding-specific changes

Default constructors

D completely disallows default constructors. Because of this, any default constructors from bgfx take a single int as their first parameter. This int parameter is always discarded, so you may supply any number, but a 0 is recommended for consistency:

auto init = Init(0);

Failing to call the default constructor of a bgfx struct that has one may lead to unintended consequences, and is therefore not recommended:

//The constructor will not be called in either of these cases:
Init init1;
auto init2 = Init(); //no `int` parameter!

Enums

bgfx enums in these bindings are reformatted like so:

void bgfxFn(bgfx_renderer_type_t type); //bgfx_some_type_name_t
//becomes:
void bgfxFn(RendererType type); //SomeTypeName

bgfxFn(BGFX_RENDERER_TYPE_OPENGLES); //BGFX_SOME_TYPE_NAME_SOME_MEMBER
//becomes:
bgfxFn(RendererType.openGLES); //SomeTypeName.someMember

This reformatting follows the D Style.

Configurations

BindBC-bgfx has the following configurations:

┌	DRuntime	BetterC
Dynamic	dynamic	dynamicBC
Static	static	staticBC

For projects that don't use dub, if BindBC-bgfx is compiled for static bindings then the version identifier BindBgfx_Static must be passed to your compiler/linker when building your project.

[!NOTE]\ The version identifier BindBC_Static can be used to configure all of the official BindBC packages used in your program. (i.e. those maintained in the BindBC GitHub organisation) Some third-party BindBC packages may support it as well.

Dynamic bindings

The dynamic bindings have no link-time dependency on the bgfx library, so the bgfx shared library must be manually loaded at runtime from the shared library search path of the user's system. For bgfx, this is typically handled by distributing the bgfx shared library with your program.

The function isBgfxLoaded returns true if any version of the shared library has been loaded and false if not. unloadBgfx can be used to unload a successfully loaded shared library.

Static bindings

Static bindings do not require static linking. The static bindings have a link-time dependency on either the shared or static bgfx library. On Windows, you can link with the static library or, to use the DLLs, the import library. On other systems, you can link with either the static library or directly with the shared library.

When linking with the shared (or import) library, there is a runtime dependency on the shared library just as there is when using the dynamic bindings. The difference is that the shared library is no longer loaded manually—loading is handled automatically by the system when the program is launched. Attempting to call loadBgfx with the static bindings enabled will result in a compilation error.

When linking with the static library, there is no runtime dependency on bgfx. If you decide to use the static bgfx library you will also need to ensure that you link with all of bgfx's link-time dependencies (such as bx, bimg, stdc++, and system API libraries).

Generating bindings

The main bgfx repository already contains the latest generated binding definitions for D, so these files can be copied from bgfx/bindings/d/ over the files in bindbc-bgfx/source/bgfx/ when pairing these bindings with custom versions of bgfx. If you need to regenerate the bindings, you can run genie idl in the bgfx project folder, and copy the regenerated files to bindbc-bgfx/source/bgfx/.