gfxbox2, a C++ Computer Graphics Sandbox

Original document location.

Git Repository

This project’s canonical repositories is hosted on Gothel Software.

Goals

This project provides a C++ sandbox for computer graphics for our computer science class.

Its examples demonstrate basic usage and physics simulations.

Supported Platforms

C++20 and better where the SDL2 library is supported.

Optional WebAssembly (Wasm) builds with SDL2 via emscripten.

Online WebAssembly Examples

• solarsystem
• spacewars
• freefall01
• pong01
• canonball
• tron
• piviz
• funcdraw
• example01
• sandbox01

Building Binaries

Build Dependencies

• CMake 3.13+ but >= 3.18 is recommended
• C++20 compiler
  • gcc >= 10
  • clang >= 15
• SDL2 library
• emscripten >= 3.1.59 optional for WebAssembly (Wasm)
• SFML library optional
• Example funcdraw
  • Parser generator
    • bison >= 3.2
  • Lexer generator
    • flex
• Optional for lint validation
  • clang-tidy >= 15
• Optional for vscodium integration
  • clangd >= 15
  • clang-tools >= 15
  • clang-format >= 15

Installing build dependencies on Debian (11 or better):

apt install git
apt install build-essential g++ gcc libc-dev libpthread-stubs0-dev 
apt install clang-15 clang-tidy-15 clangd-15 clang-tools-15 clang-format-15
apt install cmake cmake-extras extra-cmake-modules pkg-config
apt install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev
apt install libsfml-dev
apt install bison flex
apt install doxygen graphviz

Perhaps change the clang version-suffix of above clang install line to the appropriate version.

After complete clang installation, you might want to setup the latest version as your default. For Debian you can use this clang alternatives setup script.

WebAssembly (via emscripten)

At time of writing (Debian 12), it is recommended to install emscripten >= 3.1.59 for WebAssembly (Wasm) from its upstream source.

At a later time (more recent Debian > 12 deployment) the Debian default may be functional:

apt install emscripten

Build Procedure

The following is covered with a convenient build script.

For a generic build use:

CPU_COUNT=`getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN`
git clone --recurse-submodule git://jausoft.com/srv/scm/cs_class/gfxbox2.git
cd gfxbox2
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j $CPU_COUNT install doc

Our cmake configure has a number of options, cmake-gui or ccmake can show you all the options. The interesting ones are detailed below:

Changing install path from /usr/local to /usr

-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr

Building debug build:

-DDEBUG=ON

Building with clang and clang-tidy lint validation

-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang 
-DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang++ 
-DCMAKE_CXX_CLANG_TIDY=/usr/bin/clang-tidy;-p;$rootdir/$build_dir

Building examples with SFML

-DUSE_SFML=ON

To build documentation run:

make doc

WebAssembly (via emscripten)

IDE Integration

Eclipse

IDE integration configuration files are provided for

• Eclipse with extensions
  • CDT or CDT @ eclipse.org
  • CMake Support, install C/C++ CMake Build Support with ID org.eclipse.cdt.cmake.feature.group

You can import the project to your workspace via File . Import... and Existing Projects into Workspace menu item.

For Eclipse one might need to adjust some setting in the .project and .cproject (CDT) via Eclipse settings UI, but it should just work out of the box.

VSCodium or VS Code

IDE integration configuration files are provided for

• VSCodium or VS Code with extensions
  • vscode-clangd
  • twxs.cmake
  • ms-vscode.cmake-tools
  • notskm.clang-tidy
  • cschlosser.doxdocgen
  • jerrygoyal.shortcut-menu-bar

For VSCodium one might copy the example root-workspace file to the parent folder of this project (note the filename change) and adjust the path to your filesystem.

cp .vscode/gfxbox2.code-workspace_example ../gfxbox2.code-workspace
vi ../gfxbox2.code-workspace

Then you can open it via File . Open Workspace from File... menu item.

• All listed extensions are referenced in this workspace file to be installed via the IDE
• The local settings.json has clang-tidy enabled
  • If using clang-tidy is too slow, just remove it from the settings file.
  • clangd will still contain a good portion of clang-tidy checks