[ANN] Librend 0.4

ruby-talk
1

Librend 0.4

···

-----------

Real-time rendering on Ruby

Download now! http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=716

* Gracefully degrading functionality! No more installing 6 support
libraries just to get a rotating cube going!
* RMagick support!
* Billboards!
* Vertical text alignment!
* Brings the Ruby interpreter to its knees with very little effort! Is
YOUR machine up to the challenge?!

More information available at http://librend.rubyforge.org

Requirements:
-------------
  For 3D, you need SDL and OpenGL.
  For playing sounds, you only need SDL.
  For drawing vectors to PNG, you only need rcairo.

Recommended:
------------
  Input handling, sounds, window management:
  Ruby/SDL bindings <http://www.kmc.gr.jp/~ohai/rubysdl.en.html>

  Basic 3D:
  Ruby/OpenGL bindings <http://www2.giganet.net/~yoshi/>

  Loading images (Rend::Image, Rend::Texture):
  Imlib2-Ruby bindings <http://pablotron.org/software/imlib2-ruby/>
  or
  RMagick <http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/>

  For drawing 2D vector scenes (Rend::Vectors::VectorScene):
  rcairo Cairo bindings for Ruby. <http://cairographics.org/releases/>

Not so necessary, but nice to have:
-----------------------------------

  If you want to use FTGL text (Rend::Text):
  Ruby FTGL <http://www.rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-ftgl/>

  Advanced 3D, shaders in particular (Rend::Shaders):
  Ruby/GLEW bindings <http://www.rubyforge.org/projects/rubyglew/>

  For a speed boost, get:
  Ruby Inline <http://www.rubyforge.org/projects/rubyinline/>

2

Hi Ilmari,

Librend 0.4
-----------

Real-time rendering on Ruby

[...]

Input handling, sounds, window management:
Ruby/SDL bindings <http://www.kmc.gr.jp/~ohai/rubysdl.en.html&gt;

Looks very nice!!!! I'm wondering, since SDL is used, does that mean Librend
can only open one window?

I had planned to use SDL/OpenGL for my current application, but have switched to FreeGLUT since it allows multiple windows.

Regards,

Bill

···

From: "Ilmari Heikkinen" <ilmari.heikkinen@gmail.com>

3

Yeah, I think it's limited to a single window. GLUT is a better fit
for multiple windows but sadly its input handling is less than stellar
:confused:

There still are remains of the old GLUT backend there, I suppose it
might work with some tweaking. Another possibility would be to write a
GTK/QT backend to manage the input and provide OpenGL context. Might
be a worthwhile goal to pursue for the next version..

-Ilmari

···

On 1/15/06, Bill Kelly <billk@cts.com> wrote:

Hi Ilmari,

From: "Ilmari Heikkinen" <ilmari.heikkinen@gmail.com>
>
> Librend 0.4
> -----------
>
> Real-time rendering on Ruby
[...]
> Input handling, sounds, window management:
> Ruby/SDL bindings <http://www.kmc.gr.jp/~ohai/rubysdl.en.html&gt;

Looks very nice!!!! I'm wondering, since SDL is used, does that mean Librend
can only open one window?

I had planned to use SDL/OpenGL for my current application, but have switched to
FreeGLUT since it allows multiple windows.

4

I had planned to use SDL/OpenGL for my current application, but have switched to
FreeGLUT since it allows multiple windows.

Yeah, I think it's limited to a single window. GLUT is a better fit
for multiple windows but sadly its input handling is less than stellar
:confused:

Ah, rats. Hmm. Is it that it responds poorly/sluggisly to input? Or inconvenient API for getting events? (or...?)

There still are remains of the old GLUT backend there, I suppose it
might work with some tweaking. Another possibility would be to write a
GTK/QT backend to manage the input and provide OpenGL context. Might
be a worthwhile goal to pursue for the next version..

Cool, I wasn't/am not yet familiar with GTK - just did a web search and
found: GtkGLExt http://gtkglext.sourceforge.net/

Looks nice, I'll have to try it out. (Cool, there seem to already be Ruby
bindings: http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/hiki.cgi?Gtk%3A%3AGL )

Regards,

Bill

···

From: "Ilmari Heikkinen" <ilmari.heikkinen@gmail.com>

5

The last time i checked (a year or so ago (or was it three...)), it
didn't have mousewheel support (on win, linux version seemed to have
mousebuttons 4 and 5) and there wasn't a real Windows installer. The
event API is a bit of a pain as well, with all the events going to
separately set callbacks, instead of a single event pipe. Anyhow, it's
been a while since I last used it, so take this with a grain of salt -
maybe things are better nowadays.

Apart from that, it's a pretty good and easy to use system.

-Ilmari

···

On 1/15/06, Bill Kelly <billk@cts.com> wrote:

From: "Ilmari Heikkinen" <ilmari.heikkinen@gmail.com>
>
>> I had planned to use SDL/OpenGL for my current application, but have switched to
>> FreeGLUT since it allows multiple windows.
>
> Yeah, I think it's limited to a single window. GLUT is a better fit
> for multiple windows but sadly its input handling is less than stellar
> :confused:

Ah, rats. Hmm. Is it that it responds poorly/sluggisly to input? Or
inconvenient API for getting events? (or...?)