Exercises

Creating a new engine sample

Before moving on to the actual exercises, lets start by creating your own empty sample, which will be expanded upon the next steps.

Start by creating a new folder in the engine/samples directory, i.e., engine/samples/my-own-sample. Make sure to add a main.cpp to that folder, with the following base code:

#include <cubos/engine/prelude.hpp>

using namespace cubos::engine;

int main()
{
      Cubos cubos{};
      cubos.run();
}

The final step is to add your new sample to the CMake configuration, at engine/samples/CMakeLists.txt. Open that file, and add a new line of the form make_sample(DIR "my-own-sample" ASSETS).

If you now reconfigure CMake, you should be able to launch the target engine-sample.my-own-sample. Don't worry if nothing shows up yet - in Cubos you only get what you ask for, and in the code above we didn't do anything except run an empty application.

Showing a cube

Try making your sample open a window and show a simple voxel cube! To do this, you will need to:

1. Add the Renderer plugin.
2. Create a VoxelPalette.
3. Create a VoxelGrid.
4. Create a PointLight.
5. Create a Camera and add it to ActiveCameras.

You can take inspiration from the Hello Cubos Renderer samples.

Replace the cube by an actual voxel model

Of course we don't expect developers to generate their voxel models through code! Change your sample to show an actual voxel model, created and stored in a .qb file. You can create one using MagicaVoxel, or simply download an existing model from the internet.

Cubos doesn't handle .qb files directly: it only supports .grd's and .pal's, our own formats for voxel grids and palettes. You can use QUADRADOS to convert a .qb to a .grd and .pal. Check out its feature guide for more information.

Take a look at the Voxels sample to figure out how you can load those files into the actual sample.

Move the voxel model on input

Make the model you added previously move when some buttons are pressed. You will need to:

1. Add the Input plugin.
2. Create an input bindings asset.
3. Add a system which uses the Input resource to move the model.

Check out the Input sample for inspiration.