Hints & Tips
Video cards support
HGE will run even on low-end video cards, including built in video cards
such as Intel Solano (i815 chipset).
Batching
For performance reasons Gfx_RenderLine,
Gfx_RenderTriple and Gfx_RenderQuad
accumulate consecutive primitives with the same texture and blending mode and then
render them with a single call to DirectX. In most cases you will not
see any difference and don't have to deal with this batching at all. But to be sure
and safe it is recommended to group your primitive rendering calls first by primitive type,
then by texture, then by blending mode. Also you can use Gfx_StartBatch
and Gfx_FinishBatch for ultra fast rendering of large primitive arrays.
Texture dimensions
The dimensions of any texture must be a power of 2. And it is not recommended to use
textures bigger than 1024x1024, because they can be slow and some video cards may have
no support for them. Try to place all your graphics onto several big textures to minimize
texture switching that affects performance.
Using Z-buffer
Use Z-buffer only if you need to, because this affects performance. By default the
Z-buffer is turned off. To turn it on set the HGE_ZBUFFER system state
to true with System_SetState call.
When the Z-buffer is turned on, it is a good idea to sort your rendering in front-to-back
order for better performance.
Clearing screen
Clear the screen only if you need to, because this affects performance. If you
cover the whole screen with graphics each frame - there is no need to clear.
Although, when using Z-buffer you probably have to clear the screen anyway
to reset it.
Scaling and rotation
If you plan to scale or rotate your sprite - ensure that the graphics spread at least
for 1 pixel beneath the alpha mask and/or bounding box edges to avoid distortion.
Sprite and tile libraries
You can use hgeAnimation helper class as a sprite or tile library.
Just don't call the Update method and select the needed sprite
manually with the SetFrame method.
Cloning
You can use asignment operator (=) or copy constructor to easily clone an instance of most helper classes.
Eg. in case of sprite pointers the syntax will be *sprite2=*sprite1; or hgeSprite *sprite2=new hgeSprite(*sprite1);
Exceptions are hgeGUI, hgeResourceManager and hgeParticleManager.
Distortion mesh and Sprite without a texture
You can use hgeDistortionMesh
and hgeSprite instances without
a texture to apply colorful effects to your whole scene or it's part.
Try using BLEND_ALPHAADD blending mode.
Displaying a mouse cursor
To display a mouse cursor, render anything you want at the coordinates
returned by Input_GetMousePos
in your frame function. For more correct behaviour do this only when
Input_IsMouseOver returns true.
Using external sound routines
If you don't want to use BASS for handling sound, and have your own sound routines,
set HGE_USESOUND system state to false with System_SetState
function before calling System_Initiate. Now you can also get rid of BASS.DLL.
Managing HGE interface pointer
Any time you need access to HGE, you may call the hgeCreate
function, then use the received pointer and release it with Release.
Or you may get the interface once during startup and store it in a global variable, then release during cleanup.
Although the latter is supposed to be 'bad style', this works fine with not very big projects
and all HGE helper classes use this approach.
Float to int conversion
If there are a plenty of float to int conversions in your code, you
may use the /QIfist option of Visual C++ compiler. With that you can't
be sure of the rounding method being used, but in most cases it doesn't matter and
you'll receive improvement in performance. To activate this option, type it into
Project Options text box in the Project->Settings...->C/C++ dialog tab
for debug and release configurations. If you use different compiler you should find
similar option or use one of fast float to int conversion routines from
the net instead of standard cast.
Speed synchronization
To make your game independent of execution speed,
scale all your internal speeds by the value, returned by
Timer_GetDelta.
Alternatively you may set HGE_FPS
system state to use fixed FPS mode.
Resources
While developing, you may keep all your data in plain disk files.
Then just compile the resource pack with pkzip and attach it with
Resource_AttachPack.
Nothing else need to be modified in your code to use resource pack.
See Compiling resource pack section for more information.
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