ExoEngine 3D Game Engine
An open source C# 3D game engine for Microsoft .NET based
upon OpenGL and NVIDIA's Cg
 

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Other C# Projects:
        ► Exocortex.DSP - A C# Complex Number and FFT Library (open source)


Contents
   1. Introduction
   2. How the Engine Works
   3. Online Documentation
   4. Source Code and Binary Downloads
   5. Change Log		  

1 Introduction

For my fourth year computer graphics course I wrote a little 3D engine using C# and the .NET platform.  I decided to go this route as opposed to the C++ route that everyone else took in the course because I wanted to see whether C# lived up to it's hype.  Surprising, after writing about 600kB of code in C# it seems like it is a decent language after all and possibly an effective replacement for C++ even in the demanding field of real-time 3D game development.  When I compare C# to C++ I find it's best features are garbage collection, less convoluted syntax and true object orientation.  It was a class requirement that I use OpenGL instead of DirectX / Direct3D.

Just a quick disclaimer before I go too far: please remember that this is just an old one-term university project thus don't get your expectations too high.

The included compiled binaries for both the math library and the OpenGL wrapper are compatible with Visual Basic .NET and Visual C++ .NET development projects.


2 How the Engine Works

While this engine used the CsGL OpenGL/C# library created by Lloyd Dupont, I recommend using the more modern Tao OpenGL Framework for future OpenGL-C# work.  The Tao Framework did not exist when I built this 3D engine.

This 3D engine imports it's level/worlds data from the popular Worldcraft editor .  Strangely, Worldcraft outputs it's world/level data in sets of bounding planes which define the contours of solid objects.  Thus one has to convert the bounding plane sets into their respective sets of polygons.  The resulting set of faces is then quickly optimized to remove hidden or redundant faces created by adjacent objects.  Then this face set is converted into a binary space partition tree (commonly called a "BSP tree") representation for both collision detection purposes and efficient visibility calculations.  There is also some auxiliary code that recognizes specifically defined entities in the Worldcraft data such as the animated pond and the duck sprites.

This engine allows for polygons to be rendered using reflection mapping, (fake) Phong shading, Gouraud shading, outline pencil drawing or just simple flat shading.  The engine uses reflection mapping to get the somewhat realistic look of the pond's waves.  The (fake) Phong shading is used on the ducks in order to achieve the smoothly rounded look -- the primary effect of Phong shading (usually called specular reflection) is the viewer/camera dependent white highlights.

Also of interest is the inclusion in this engine of a fairly full featured 3D math and geometry library.  Just check out the project called Exocortex.Geometry3D.



4 Source Code and Binary Downloads

Complete Source Code (1.326 MB)
Includes all source code for engine including both the Cg wrapper library and the C# OpenGL library based on Lloyd Dupont's CsGL library.

ExoEngine Installer (932 kB)
NOTE: Installer requires that you have already installed Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1.  If you don't yet have it you can download it here.  If you want to make use of the Cg shaders you must also install NVIDIA's Visual Studio.NET Cg Toolkit.  It is available here.


5 Change Log