Using a renderer

In the Quickstart guide you have learnt that you can quickly get models onto the screen using the submit method. While this works just fine, it is not the recommended approach, as it does not allow you to utilize the BBMOD library to its maximum potential. For this you should use the method render instead.

Method render

What render does is that it only puts render commands into separate render queues (one for each used material), which can be then traversed and executed multiple times, using a different shader, different configuration, different render target (like off-screen surface) etc.

Method render takes exactly the same arguments as submit, so it is easy to switch from one to another. Additionally, since render does not draw the model right away (and so it does not immediately apply materials), you do not have to (and you should not) call bbmod_material_reset before and after render.

For example

/// @desc Draw event
matrix_set(matrix_world, matrix_build(x, y, z, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1));
bbmod_material_reset();
model.submit();
bbmod_material_reset();

becomes

/// @desc Draw event
matrix_set(matrix_world, matrix_build(x, y, z, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1));
model.render();

The thing that handles traversal and execution of render commands is called a renderer.

Renderer

As stated above, when you switch to using method render, you need to create a renderer, which then picks up the created render commands and executes them. We recommend you to create a renderer in a special controller object like OMain, ORenderer or OGameController, based on your likings.

/// @desc Create event
renderer = new BBMOD_Renderer();

/// @desc Step event
renderer.update(delta_time);

/// @desc Draw event
// If you are using a camera, do not forget to apply it here, otherwise the
// models will not be rendered from its perspective!
OPlayer.camera.apply();
// This is what actually executes the render commands:
renderer.render();

/// @desc Clean Up event
renderer.destroy();

Please note that the controller object should execute its draw event after all render commands are created! To ensure this, you can for example place it into a special layer with the lowest depth.

At this point, your game should look exactly the same as when you used submit.

Renderer configuration

Now, when you have got your game running using a renderer, you can configure the renderer further to for example change the resolution scale (render the game at a smaller resolution than the window to increase FPS), enable rendering of dynamic shadows or enable various post-processing effects. There should be a dedicated section for each one of these, but to give you an example:

/// @desc Create event
renderer = new BBMOD_Renderer();
// Enable control over the application surface
renderer.UseAppSurface = true;

/// @desc Post-Draw event
// When UseAppSurface is enabled, you need to call this to draw the application
// surface on screen!
renderer.present();

For the full list of renderer's properties, please refer to its documentation.

Do you find this page helpful?