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Basic Tutorial 6: Overlay's and Publishing

Original version by Aeauseth

 
Any problems you encounter while working with this tutorial should be posted to the Mogre Forums.

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes you have knowledge of VB.NET programming and are able to setup and compile an Mogre application (if you have trouble setting up your application, see Mogre Basic Tutorial VB 0 for a detailed setup walkthrough).

Introduction

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the DebugOverlay to display FPS information. You will also learn how to use an overlay to show a mouse cursor. Finally I will show that you can publish this project using the Click Once technique.

As you go through the tutorial you should be slowly adding code to your own project and watching the results as we build it.

Getting Started

As with the previous tutorials, we will be using a pre-constructed code:

 Imports Mogre
 
 Module Module1
 
     Public myKeyboard As MOIS.Keyboard
     Public myMouse As MOIS.Mouse
     Public myCamera As Camera
     Public MyWindow As RenderWindow
     Public myTranslation As Vector3 = Vector3.ZERO
     Public Quitting As Boolean = False
     Public myRotating As Boolean = False
 
     Sub Main()
 
         Try
 
             'Creating the Root Object 
             Dim myRoot As Root = New Root("Plugins.cfg", "ogre.cfg", "ogre.log")
 
             'Defining the Resources 
             Dim cf As New ConfigFile
             cf.Load("resources.cfg", vbTab + ":=", True)
             Dim seci As ConfigFile.SectionIterator = cf.GetSectionIterator
             Dim secName As String, typeName As String, archName As String
             While (seci.MoveNext())
                 secName = seci.CurrentKey
                 Dim settings As ConfigFile.SettingsMultiMap = seci.Current
                 For Each pair As KeyValuePair(Of String, String) In settings
                     typeName = pair.Key
                     archName = pair.Value
                     ResourceGroupManager.Singleton.AddResourceLocation(archName, typeName, secName)
                 Next
             End While
 
             'Setting up the RenderSystem
             If Not myRoot.RestoreConfig Then
                 If Not myRoot.ShowConfigDialog Then
                     Exit Sub
                 End If
             End If
 
             'Creating the Render Window
             MyWindow = myRoot.Initialise(True, "Ogre RenderWindow")
             AddHandler myRoot.FrameStarted, AddressOf FrameStarted
 
             'Initializing Resource Groups
             TextureManager.Singleton.DefaultNumMipmaps = 5
             ResourceGroupManager.Singleton.InitialiseAllResourceGroups()
 
             'Creating the Scene
             Dim myScene As -SceneManager = myRoot.CreateSceneManager(SceneType.ST_GENERIC)
             myCamera = myScene.CreateCamera("Camera")
             myRoot.AutoCreatedWindow.AddViewport(myCamera)
 
 
             Dim myNinja As Entity = myScene.CreateEntity("ninja", "ninja.mesh")
             myScene.RootSceneNode.CreateChildSceneNode.AttachObject(myNinja)
 
             myCamera.Position = New Vector3(0, 200, -400)
             myCamera.LookAt(myNinja.BoundingBox.Center)
 
             'Overlay
 
             'Input handler
             InputClass.Init()
 
             'The Render Loop
             myRoot.StartRendering()
 
 
         Catch ex As System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException
             If OgreException.IsThrown Then
                 MsgBox(OgreException.LastException.FullDescription, MsgBoxStyle.Critical, _
                      "An Ogre  exception has occured!")
             Else
                 MsgBox(ex.ToString, "An error has occured")
             End If
         End Try
 
     End Sub
 
     Public Function FrameStarted(ByVal e As FrameEvent) As Boolean
 
         'Capture buffered input
         myKeyboard.Capture()
         myMouse.Capture()
 
         'Handle player/camera movement
         InputClass.ProcessKeyboard()
 
         myCamera.Position += myCamera.Orientation * myTranslation * e.timeSinceLastFrame
 
         'Debug Overlay
 
         Return Not Quitting
     End Function
 
     Public Class InputClass
 
         Const TRANSLATE As Single = 200
         Const ROTATE As Single = 0.003
 
         Shared Sub Init()
             'Keyboard
             Dim windowHnd As Integer
             MyWindow.GetCustomAttribute("WINDOW", windowHnd)
             Dim myInputManager As MOIS.InputManager = MOIS.InputManager.CreateInputSystem(windowHnd)
             myKeyboard = myInputManager.CreateInputObject(MOIS.Type.OISKeyboard, True)
             AddHandler myKeyboard.KeyPressed, AddressOf InputClass.KeyPressed
             AddHandler myKeyboard.KeyReleased, AddressOf InputClass.KeyReleased
 
             'Mouse
             myMouse = myInputManager.CreateInputObject(MOIS.Type.OISMouse, True)
             AddHandler myMouse.MouseMoved, AddressOf InputClass.MouseMovedListener
             AddHandler myMouse.MousePressed, AddressOf InputClass.MousePressedListener
             AddHandler myMouse.MouseReleased, AddressOf InputClass.MouseReleasedListener
 
         End Sub
 
         Shared Function KeyPressed(ByVal e As MOIS.KeyEvent) As Boolean
             Select Case e.key
 
                 Case MOIS.KeyCode.KC_ESCAPE
                     Quitting = True
             End Select
 
             Return Nothing
         End Function
 
         Shared Function KeyReleased(ByVal e As MOIS.KeyEvent) As Boolean
 
             'This function is just a placeholder
             'It is unlikely you will ever use this
             'Typically you either process unbuffered keyboard input (as in ProcessKeyboard)
             'or you process buffered Keypress
 
             Return Nothing
         End Function
 
         Shared Sub ProcessKeyboard()
 
             'This Sub is typically called via the FrameStarted event.
 
             'Clear previous translation
             myTranslation.z = 0
             myTranslation.x = 0
             myTranslation.y = 0
 
             If myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_UP) Or _
                 myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_W) Then
                 myTranslation.z += -TRANSLATE
             End If
 
             If myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_S) Or _
                 myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_DOWN) Then
                 myTranslation.z += TRANSLATE
             End If
 
             If myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_A) Or _
                 myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_LEFT) Then
                 myTranslation.x += -TRANSLATE
             End If
 
             If myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_D) Or _
                 myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_RIGHT) Then
                 myTranslation.x += TRANSLATE
             End If
 
             If myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_Q) Or _
             myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_PGUP) Or _
             myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_SPACE) Then
                 myTranslation.y += TRANSLATE
             End If
 
             If myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_Z) Or _
                 myKeyboard.IsKeyDown(MOIS.KeyCode.KC_PGDOWN) Then
                 myTranslation.y += -TRANSLATE
             End If
         End Sub
 
         Shared Function MouseMovedListener(ByVal e As MOIS.MouseEvent) As Boolean
             Static myLastX As Integer = e.state.X.abs
             Static myLastY As Integer = e.state.Y.abs
 
             If myRotating Then
                 myCamera.Yaw(e.state.X.rel * -ROTATE)
                 myCamera.Pitch(e.state.Y.rel * -ROTATE)
             End If
 
         End Function
 
         Shared Function MousePressedListener(ByVal e As MOIS.MouseEvent, ByVal id As MOIS.MouseButtonID) As Boolean
             If e.state.ButtonDown(MOIS.MouseButtonID.MB_Right) Then
                 myRotating = True
             End If
         End Function
 
         Shared Function MouseReleasedListener(ByVal e As MOIS.MouseEvent, ByVal id As MOIS.MouseButtonID) As Boolean
             If Not e.state.ButtonDown(MOIS.MouseButtonID.MB_Right) Then
                 myRotating = False
             End If
         End Function
 
     End Class
 
 
 End Module
  

Make sure you can compile and run the application before continuing. If you are having difficulty, refer to the project setup guide or post to the forums. You should see a Ninja.

Overlays

For simplicity we will use an overlay include with the OgreSDK. Add the following code:

             'Overlay
             Dim myPanelOverlay As Overlay = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetByName("Core/DebugOverlay")
             myPanelOverlay.Show()

The Overlay manager will search thru all the resources until it finds "Core/DebugOverlay", which in this case is in C:\OgreSDK\media\packs\OgreCore.zip. Feel free to open the ZIP file to see it's contents. I won't discuss how to create your own overlay yet, you will have to wait until the intermediate tutorials are finished. For now go ahead and compile & run the code.

You should see the Ogre logo and a green box with FPS information. Wouldn't it be nice to actually see the FPS and triangle counts? Well add the following code to the FrameStarted handler:

         'Debug Overlay
         Dim myAvg As OverlayElement = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetOverlayElement("Core/AverageFps")
         Dim myCurr As OverlayElement = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetOverlayElement("Core/CurrFps")
         Dim myBest As OverlayElement = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetOverlayElement("Core/BestFps")
         Dim myWorst As OverlayElement = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetOverlayElement("Core/WorstFps")
         Dim myNumTris As OverlayElement = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetOverlayElement("Core/NumTris")
         Dim myNumBatches As OverlayElement = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetOverlayElement("Core/NumBatches")
         Dim myDebug As OverlayElement = OverlayManager.Singleton.GetOverlayElement("Core/DebugText")
 
         myAvg.Caption = "Average FPS: " & Mogre.StringConverter.ToString(MyWindow.AverageFPS)
         myCurr.Caption = "Current FPS: " & Mogre.StringConverter.ToString(MyWindow.LastFPS)
         myBest.Caption = "Best FPS: " & Mogre.StringConverter.ToString(MyWindow.BestFPS)
         myWorst.Caption = "Worst FPS: " & Mogre.StringConverter.ToString(MyWindow.WorstFPS)
         myNumTris.Caption = "Triangle Count: " & Mogre.StringConverter.ToString(MyWindow.TriangleCount)
         myNumBatches.Caption = "Batch Count: " & Mogre.StringConverter.ToString(MyWindow.BatchCount)

Now compile and run again. Move the camera around and watch the FPS change. You will probably have a FPS of 100+, on my system it is 800+. At most you only need 60 FPS. The FPS will drop as you add more entities to the scene.

Overlay Scripts

The overlay size and properties are stored in the OgreDebugPanel.overlay file. Here is the psudo code:

 // Ogre overlay scripts
 Core/DebugOverlay
 {
        zorder 500
        // Stats block
        container BorderPanel(Core/StatPanel)
        {
                metrics_mode pixels
                vert_align bottom
                left 5 
                top -107
                width 220
                height 102
                material Core/StatsBlockCenter
                border_size 1 1 1 1
                border_material Core/StatsBlockBorder
                border_topleft_uv     0.0000 1.0000 0.0039 0.9961
                border_top_uv         0.0039 1.0000 0.9961 0.9961
                border_topright_uv    0.9961 1.0000 1.0000 0.9961
                border_left_uv        0.0000 0.9961 0.0039 0.0039
                border_right_uv       0.9961 0.9961 1.0000 0.0039
                border_bottomleft_uv  0.0000 0.0039 0.0039 0.0000
                border_bottom_uv      0.0039 0.0039 0.9961 0.0000
                border_bottomright_uv 0.9961 0.0039 1.0000 0.0000
 
                container Panel(Core/BreakPanel)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 5 
                        top 22
                        width 210
                        height 1
                        material Core/StatsBreak
                }
     
                element TextArea(Core/CurrFps)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 5
                        top 5
                        width 90
                        height 30
                        font_name BlueHighway
                        char_height 19
                        caption Current FPS:
                        colour_top 1 1 0.7
                        colour_bottom 1 1 0.7
                }
                element TextArea(Core/AverageFps)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 5
                        top 25
                        width 90
                        height 30
                        font_name BlueHighway
                        char_height 16
                        caption AVERAGE FPS:
                        colour_top 0.5 0.7 0.5
                        colour_bottom 0.3 0.5 0.3
                }
                element TextArea(Core/WorstFps)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 5
                        top 40
                        width 90
                        height 30
                        font_name BlueHighway
                        char_height 16
                        caption WORST FPS:
                        colour_top 0.5 0.7 0.5
                        colour_bottom 0.3 0.5 0.3
                }
                element TextArea(Core/BestFps)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 5
                        top 55
                        width 90
                        height 30
                        font_name BlueHighway
                        char_height 16
                        caption BEST FPS:
                        colour_top 0.5 0.7 0.5
                        colour_bottom 0.3 0.5 0.3
                }
                element TextArea(Core/NumTris)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 5
                        top 70
                        width 90
                        height 30
                        font_name BlueHighway
                        char_height 16
                        caption Triangle Count:
                        colour_top 0.5 0.7 0.5
                        colour_bottom 0.3 0.5 0.3
                }
                element TextArea(Core/NumBatches)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 5
                        top 85
                        width 90
                        height 30
                        font_name BlueHighway
                        char_height 16
                        caption Batch Count:
                        colour_top 0.5 0.7 0.5
                        colour_bottom 0.3 0.5 0.3
                }
                element TextArea(Core/DebugText)
                {
                        metrics_mode pixels
                        left 230
                        top 70
                        width 200
                        height 30
                        font_name BlueHighway
                        char_height 16
                        colour_top 0.5 0.7 0.5
                        colour_bottom 0.3 0.5 0.3
                }
     
        }
        container Panel(Core/LogoPanel)
        {    
                metrics_mode pixels
                horz_align right
                vert_align bottom
                top -75
                left -165
                width 150
                height 75
                material Core/OgreText
        }
 }
 
 // A silly example of how you would do a 3D cockpit
 //Examples/KnotCockpit
 //{
 //    zorder 100
 //    entity knot.mesh(hudKnot)
 //    {
 //        position 0 0 -50
 //        rotation 0 0 0 0
 //    }
 //
 //}

You can get a general idea how the panel is setup and how each overlay element is defined. Again you will have to wait for the intermediate tutorials if you want to create your own.

Publishing

Before we can publish our project we need to make sure all the files we need are listed in our Solution Explorer.

As you recall we took a few shortcuts and used several items from C:\OgreSDK. So we will need to prepare our project so it can stand on it's own.

Preperation

So lets add these items to our project now. Open the resources.cfg file and modify the paths as follows:

 # Resource locations to be added to the 'boostrap' path
 # This also contains the minimum you need to use the Ogre example framework
 [Bootstrap]
 Zip=.\Media\packs/OgreCore.zip
 
 # Resource locations to be added to the default path
 [General]
 FileSystem=.\Media FileSystem=.\Media/fonts
 FileSystem=.\Media/materials/programs
 FileSystem=.\Media/materials/scripts
 FileSystem=.\Media/materials/textures
 FileSystem=.\Media/models
 FileSystem=.\Media/overlays
 FileSystem=.\Media/particle
 FileSystem=.\Media/gui
 FileSystem=.\Media/DeferredShadingMedia
 Zip=.\Media/packs/cubemap.zip
 Zip=.\Media/packs/cubemapsJS.zip
 Zip=.\Media/packs/dragon.zip
 Zip=.\Media/packs/fresneldemo.zip
 Zip=.\Media/packs/ogretestmap.zip
 Zip=.\Media/packs/skybox.zip

Now drag and drop the C:\OgreSDK\Media folder to your Solution Explorer. Ideally you would now set the properties of each of these files to "Copy if newer", but there is alot of them (ugly). I decided to modify my Tutuorial6.vbproj file and replace None Include="media with Content Include="media, which was much faster.

You may have noticed that we modified our "Defining the Resources" section of code to look in two places.

We also need to modify the paths of our Plugins.cfg file as follows:

 # Defines plugins to load
 
 # Define plugin folder
 PluginFolder=./plugins
 
 # Define plugins
 Plugin=RenderSystem_Direct3D9
 Plugin=RenderSystem_GL
 Plugin=Plugin_ParticleFX
 Plugin=Plugin_BSPSceneManager
 Plugin=Plugin_OctreeSceneManager
 Plugin=Plugin_CgProgramManager

Now right click on "Solution Explorer" and create a new folder called "plugins". Now right click on this "plugins" folder and add the existing items listed in the Plugins.cfg file. You should find these files in C:\OgreSDK\bin\release.

Verify that all the files in the plugins have theri Build Action set to 'Content', and the "Copy to Output" set to "Copy if newer"

Verify that all the remaining 'dll' and 'cfg' files in the main Solution Explorer have their Build Action set to 'Content'.

Compile and run to make sure everything still works!

Publish

On the menu bar select Project then click on the Publish tab. Pick a new folder on your hard drive, USB drive, or wherever. I recommend clicking the updates button and checking the auto updates before application starts.

Click the Publish Wizard, follow the prompts and your done. You can burn the publish directory to a CD if you like.

There are a couple of prequesites to running Ogre applications. You must have vcredist_x86.exe and DirectX Redistributables from November 2007 installed. It would be nice to include these as prerequisites to the publishing package, but I don't know how to do this. For now just download and include them with the rest of the package.

You can now take these files to a generic computer and run setup.exe. This is a very simple way to distribute your application.

Conclusion

You have seen how overlays can be used to provide 2D information in a static location. You have also seen that VB.NET can package up all the necessary files, refereneces and dll dependancies, so that you can publish your application. You may find that a custom or commercial setup applcation may be more suitable for your project.

You may have noticed that there are only 6 VB.NET basic tutorials, yet there are 8 ogre basic tutorials. In my opinion the use of CEGUI and other addins are not 'basic'. Look for addin tutorials in the VB.NET intermediate tutorials.

Category:Tutorials?
Category:MOGRE?