MGLib

A Miniature Graphics Library for Learning and Prototyping

Getting Started

Windows

Still working on this

Macos

cd /path/to/mg/lib && make

In your code

#include <mg.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    mg_initialize("My App Name");
    // Use MG Lib here..
    return (0);
}

Compilation examples

C

gcc my_main.c -Ipath/to/mglib/ -Lpath/to/mglib/ -lmg -framework AppKit -framework OpenGL -o my_executable_name

C++

clang++ my_main.cpp -Ipath/to/mglib/ -Lpath/to/mglib/ -lmg -framework AppKit -framework OpenGL -o my_executable_name

Description

MGLib at its core, is a platform layer. MGLib interfaces with the underlying platform and exposes useful functions for drawing. MGLib doesn't really take a unique approach to hooking into the platform. The API is intentionally similar to some of the most popular open source graphics libraries in use today to make porting simpler.

'Robustness' and 'performance' and to a certain extent 'maintainability' were not considered to be first-order priorities in designing this library. Its purpose is simply to lower the bar of entry for novice programmers into graphics and platform interface code. As such, the value given first consideration here is readability, both on the user side, which requires a dead-simple API, and the library side, which requires a straight-forward implementation. Code in the library implementation is intended to be as informative as possible about what is going on. This means that the way in which much of the library is implemented would not be ideal for serious projects, but hopefully the simple design inspires some programmers who are new to graphics to dig into the source files.

On the other hand, a library which is dead-simple to use but can't run a graphics program smoothly is also not useful for learning. Personally, what piqued my interest about graphics programming in the first place was the challenge of drawing complex scenes with lots of vertices and textures at a high frame rate. Learning to use a library that is not at least capable of drawing a 2D game at 60fps would be a bummer, and would, in my opinion, not be worth the time to learn it. Thus, on some level, performance of the library is taken into account.

Future Plans

• Documentation
• Font rendering
• Keyboard input
• Thread Safety
• OpenGL implementation on Windows
• DirectX 11 on Windows
• Gamepad input
• Ability to use custom shaders
• Optimization of performance
• Shippable version?

Author

Nickolas Mayfield

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details

Acknowledgements

• Thanks Sean Barrett for stb_image.h
• 42 Silicon Valley for forcing me to use MiniLibX and inspiring me to create MGLib