Visual C++ 6.0 not reading DX SDK 8.1

[Gene]

Hello,

Chose Whorld as an open source project for a class, figured it would be good practice to learn C++. I am trying to compile it with VC++ 6.0 but even after adding the necessary libraries and includes as specified in your ReadMe file I am still getting the same errors as I did before adding them. I looked into the problem a bit to see what it could be, but nothing really helped. Was hoping someone here could help me out.

Thanks.

[Chris Korda]

I might be able to help you but I would more information. What errors exactly? Please include a copy of the error listing in your post. Have you tried compiling one of the SDX sample projects? A simple one for example is:
DirectX 8.1 SDK\all\DXF\DXSDK\samples\Multimedia\DirectDraw\RefreshRate

Have you told VC++ where to find the additional headers? In Tools/Options, Directories tab, I have:
C:\DirectX 8.1 SDK\all\DXF\DXSDK\samples\Multimedia\DirectShow\BaseClasses
C:\DirectX 8.1 SDK\all\DXF\DXSDK\include

Of all my projects to compile you picked a tough one. Whorld uses an older version of the BmpToAvi interface which requires the DirectShow base classes to be compiled correctly. That's a pain because it's very sensitive to versions. FFRend and Fractice are less work to compile because BmpToAvi is implemented as a DLL in those projects. Perhaps you could try compiling one of them instead? chris

[Gene]

Thanks for replying so quickly. I actually got it to work, in directories in VC++ I brought all the DX includes and libraries to the top and did build by selection only. That seemed to do the trick.

[Gene]

Sorry to bother you, one more question. I'm having a bit of trouble navigating around the code due to my limited knowledge of C++ and there being so many files. I am planning to add a few new effects, so I will only be needing to work with the "image" drop down menu. I was hoping you could point me in the right direction in terms of which files are associated with that menu. Thanks.

[Chris Korda]

By "effects" do you mean geometry parameters? If so they must be added in the following places:
ParmDef.h
ParmInfo.*
WhorldView.*
Plus the parameter name's string resource must be added in the form IDS_VP_* where * is the uppercase name in ParmDef.h, e.g. IDS_VP_RING_SPACING. ParmDef.h is evil macro magic; it creates different things in different places depending on the definition of the PARMDEF macro. All of the drawing is done in CWhorldView::Draw, and the other ring-related code is mostly in CWhorldView::TimerHook and CWhorldView::AddRing.

If by "effects" you mean things like Mirror, Fill, Outline, etc. those will require modding MainFrm for the menu handling (c.f. CMainFrame::OnImgFill), and WhorldView.cpp for the graphics implementation (c.f. CWhorldView::SetDrawModeAllRings). Note that mirroring is handled in the DirectDraw stuff, BackBuf.*, but I would tread carefully there, full-screen DirectDraw is pain to debug even with two monitors.

[Gene]

Thanks for all the helpful responses. I am running into a problem when adding my second function. I added the menu item to the images drop down, so now I have "Enhance Lines" and "Dot Lines" below "Mirror" however when I try to activate the dot lines one it also activates the enhance lines, or some of the ones that you made depending on the hex value. I was wondering what hex value I would need to pick for DM_DOT_LINES to avoid collisions with the other functions, and how I would avoid that problem in the future.

[Gene]

The value I picked for DM_ENHANCE_LINES was 0x08 which seems to work independently. Also I had to create a separate enum for each new value. It seems to not like me adding any values to your draw modes.

[Chris Korda]

Those DM_* draw modes are bitmasks, so they'd better all remain powers of 2. No need for a separate enum, most likely you're just missing a comma.

[Gene]

Awesome that worked! Thanks a lot, 2 down 3 to go.

[Gene]

One more question. I see that you defined the default parms at the top of WhorldView.cpp, and then draw the ring in AddRing() using those values. Is there a way to change the parms to say alter ring spacing, or something of that nature through the Draw() function? I sort of played around with the values a bit, but it led me to a dead end.

[Chris Korda]

The data architecture is pretty clear. The Draw function operates on a list of ring structs, and a parameters struct. The relevant view data members are mainly:

PARMS   m_Parms;                // current parameters
PARMS   m_InParms;              // input parameters
COscillator m_Osc[ROWS];        // oscillators
CList<RING, RING&>  m_Ring;     // array of rings

So to add new degrees of freedom you need to modify RING or PARMS.