Hands On DarkBASIC Pro

Contents (Volume 1)

Background Information

Algorithms
Stepwise Refinement
Structured English
Desk Checking
Boolean expressions

Starting DarkBASIC Pro

Creating a DarkBASIC Pro Project
Executing a Program
Understanding Screen Output
Text colour, size and font
Adding Comments

Data

Variables and Constants
The Assignment Statement
Arithmetic Calculations
Keyboard Input
READ and DATA
Strings
Creating Random Numbers

Selection

AND, OR and NOT Operators
The IF Statement
The SELECT Statement
Nested IF Statements
Testing Selection Constructs

Iteration

The DO..LOOP Construct
The EXIT Statement
The FOR..NEXT Construct
The SLEEP Statement
The REPEAT..UNTIL Construct
The WHILE..ENDWHILE Construct
Testing Iteration Constructs

Drawing Statements

Drawing Basic Shapes
Erasing Shapes
A First Attempt at Animation

Modular Programming

Creating Functions
Global and Local Variables
Mini-Specs
Parameter Passing
Pre and Post Conditions
Returning a Result

String Functions

Standard String Functions
Creating a Function Library

The Game of Hangman

Black Box Testing
Designing a Game
Equivalence Classes
White Box Testing

Arrays

Defining Arrays
Accessing Array Elements
Multi-dimensional Arrays
Programming Techniques Using Arrays
Searching and Sorting an Array

The Game of Bull and Touch

Advanced Data Types and Operators

INC and DEC Operators
Record Structures
Arrays of Records
Dynamic Lists
Declaring Variables
Queues and Stacks
Shift Operators
Bitwise Operators
Binary, Hexadecimal and Octal Values

Bitmaps

Basic Ideas
Loading a Bitmap
Displaying a Bitmap
Resizing a Bitmap
Positioning a Bitmap

Video Cards and the Screen

Creating a List of Available Display Modes
Creating a List of Installed Video Cards

File Handling

Navigating the Backing Store Structure
Accessing Files
Writing a File
Reading from a File
Random File Access

Handling Music Files

Playing MIDI and MP3 Files
Playing CD Tracks

Displaying Video Files

Accessing the Keyboard

Scan Codes
Detecting Multiple Simultaneous Key Presses

Mathematical Functions

Images

Sprites

Loading and Positioning Sprites
Setting the Sprite Origin
Moving Sprites
Detecting Sprite Collisions
Rebounding Sprites
Animated Sprites

Sound

Playing WAV Files
Creating 3D Sound Effects

2D Vectors

Two Player Space Duel Game

Using the Mouse

Creating Buttons and Rollover Effects

Using a Joystick

Controlling Movement
Using Feedback

Contents (Volume 2)

3D Concepts and Terminology

3D Coordinate system
World Units
Vertices, Edges, and Polygons
Vertex and Surface Normals
3D Primitives
Textures, Cameras, and Lights
Alpha Channels

3D Primitives

Creating 3D Primitives
Positioning 3D Objects
Rotating 3D Objects
Scaling 3D Objects
Cloning 3D Objects
Culling
Merging 3D Objects

Texturing

Adding Texture to a 3D Surface
Mipmaps
Tiling
Creating Seamless Tiles
Video Texturing
Texture Effects
Multiple Texturing
Colouring 3D Objects
Sky Spheres

Cameras

Positioning Cameras
Creating new Cameras
Setting the Camera Viewport
Setting the Aspect Ratio
Setting the Aspect Ratio
Zooming
Camera Range
Tracking
Giving the User Control
Handling Camera Collisions
Outputting Camera Image to a Surface
Locking an Object to the Viewport

Lighting

Types of Light
Light Colour
Creating Lights
Light Range
Creating a Fog Effect

Meshes and Limbs

Creating Meshes
Models with Limbs
Translating Limbs
Texturing Limbs
Glueing an Object to a Limb
Using Limbs to Create a Door

Importing 3D Models

File Formats
Scaling Models
Animated Models
Model Limbs

User Control

Selecting On-Screen Objects

Solitaire - The Board Game

Advanced Lighting and Texturing

Surface Reflection
Light Maps and Bump Maps
Sphere and Cube Mapping
Texture Blending
Alpha Mapping
Cartoon and Rainbow Shading
Shadows

Collisions

Bounding Boxes and Spheres
Detecting a Collision
Line-of-Sight Collisions
Static Collisions

Particles

Standard Particles
Fire Particles
Snow Particles
Particle Examples

BSP Models

Loading BSP
BSP Cameras
BSP Collisions

Elevators - a 3rd Person Game

Creating Terrain

Terrain Contour Images
Texturing Terrain
Advanced Terrain Statements
Treasure Island - a 1st Person Game
Sky Boxes

Landscape Matrices

Creating a Matrix
Texturing a Matrix
Matrix Transparency
Matrix Lighting

Manipulating Vertices

Capturing Vertex Data
Changing Coordinates, Lighting, and Texture
Creating New Shapes

Pointers and Memblocks

Basic Concepts
Using a Pointer
Creating a Memblock
Storing Data in a Memblock
Images, Sounds and 3D Objects in Memblocks

Shaders

Vertex Shaders
Pixel Shaders

ODE

Dynamic and Static Volumes
Gravity, Velocity, Mass

Maths: Vectors and Matrices

3 and 4 Element Vectors
Matrices
Transforming Vertices

Network Programming

Basic Concepts
Setting up a Link
Adding and Removing Players
Sending and Receiving Data
Creating a Multi-Computer Game

FTP

Setting up a Connection
Downloading and Uploading Files

Using DLLs

Creating new DBPro Statements
Adding Highlighting and Help
Using Standard DLLs