WACKO SOFTWARE's
Allegro
programming page

INDEX OF ITEMS ON THIS PAGE


<>==> About Allegro <=<>=>


Allegro is an all-purpose multi-platform C programming library developed by several contributors from all over the world. Its main aim is to make game/demo/graphics/sound/input programming much easier. It has a wide range of features (2D graphics, 3D graphics, 3D maths, fixed-point maths, sound, user-input (keyboard, joystick, mouse), interrupts, and the whole kaboodle). This makes Allegro ideal for game-programming, but Allegro can also be used for any other type of app you may think of. In short, it is the best thing since curried sliced-bread.

Allegro has a homepage at: http://alleg.sourceforge.net/


<>==> Screenshots <=<>=>


*PICTURES* We have provided some screens shots of our programs in action. Whenever you see the '*PICTURES*' label or icon, you can follow its link. You will be taken to the part of the screenshots page with the program who'se picture picture-link you just followed.

Those of you with text only browsers can follow the link whenever they see the text '*PICTURES*' and you can then download the pictures for your viewing pleasure later on.

Or alternatively, you can follow this link and go up to the page with all the pictures.


<>==> Downloading <=<>=>


Whenever a title is a link, it means that you can download the program. Following the link will lead you to the part of the downloads page where you can chose which version of the program you want, and which location you want to download the program from. Chose the location that's nearest to you. If you cannot connect, or its busy, then try another location.

Or alternatively, you can follow this link and go down to the page with all the downloads.


<>==> Allegro add-on packages <=<>=>


AllegroPak

Source-code distribuion: *Allegro Sourcecode distribution* Version: 1.0 beta 1a    Date: 1997

AllegroPak is a collection of extra C functions for use with the Allegro library. In other words, it is an add-on Package for Allegro. Most of the package involves Z-buffering, but there are also some general-purpose 3D and non-3D functions. The main features of this package are Z-buffered versions of all of Allegro's polygon-rendering modes (including two new ones which are affine and perspective-correct texture-mapping that is both masked and lit) and z-buffered sprites (both flat ones and ones with depth-maps).

The code and its demos have the following low-level features:

On a slightly higher level it has: All features are fully documented, and there's even an explanation of how some of the code works in the demos.

AllegroPak has its own homepage at http://software.wackonet.net/allegro/AllegroPak.html

Comes as a C sourcecode distribution using the Allegro library.

Pre-compiled versions of the AllegroPak demos are also available.

UPDATE: AllegroPak is no longer maintained. Because it hasn't been maintained in ages, some of its functionality has been duplicated by Allegro (eg. z-buffering, or using AllegroGL instead of Allegro's built in 3D polys), and it only works in 8-bit graphics-modes(256-colours). It probably also suffers from bit-rot (was written for Allegro 2.x and has been known to work on Allegro 3.x) and is probably DJGPP only. But it might just work with Allegro 4.x. However, you may feel free to scavenge the carcass of the sourcecode and extract anything you might find useful.


<>==> Allegro demos <=<>=>


*PICTURES* AllegroPak Demos

Platform: *PC-DOS* Version: SPH_DEMO:1.11a 3DSPDEMO:1.01b    Date: 1997

The AllegroPak demos are compiled PC-DOS executable versions of the two demos that come with AllegroPak.

SPH_DEMO.EXE demonstrates lit Z-buffered texture-mapped 3D spheres and contains three parts. In the first part, there are four Z-buffered gouraud-shaded pyramids with a hole in them (the hole is defined by the transparent colour on the texture). The second part demonstrates a good use of the HSL colourspace to add a rainbow to a single light-sourced pyramid rendered using light-mapped paletted gouraud-shaded rendering. The different lightness levels have been given a hue. You can change the saturation and the 'hue-twist'. The third part is where it gets interesting. It is real-time light-sourced Z-buffered spherical rotated texture mapping using real spheres (as opposed to spherical polygon-meshes). How the spheres are rendered, and where the light comes from can be controlled. The light-source can either be a point which the user can move around, or an infinitely-far light which the user can rotate.

3DSPDEMO.EXE demonstrates a 3D environment with Z-buffered translucent 3D sprites both with and without depth-maps and fog-shading in 8-bit colour.

PC-DOS version written in C using Allegro.


Skin-mapping demo #1

Platform: *PC-DOS* *Allegro Sourcecode available* Version: 1.0    Date: 1997

This demo is a demonstration of the technique of skin-mapping in two dimensions.

Skin-mapping is a way of generating a character from a skeleton and a set of mesh of points. If you just use a mesh of points, you would have to make a seperate mesh (or hierarchy of sub-meshes) for each possible orientation of the character's limbs. Skin-mapping greatly reduces the ammount of memory needed for a character by just recording how near skin-points are to a bone, and when the bones bend, the skin near a joint moves appropriately. It would then be possible to animate a character using the same skin-mesh throughout.

A 3D version will appear one of these days.

Comes with C sourcecode using Allegro.


<>==> Miscelaneous Allegro programs <=<>=>


Atari 8-bit colours program

Platform: *PC-DOS* *Allegro Sourcecode available* Version: 13/6/97    Date: 1997

This program attempts to generate the 256 colours that the Atari 8-bit computers (400/800/XL/XE) could display using an algorithm instead of a look-up table.

Unfortunately, the colours do not come out right, and they look too clean to be the colours of the Atari Rainbow. This may be because the HLS colourspace is being used when the YIQ or YUV colourspace should be used. Perhaps a future version of this program will work with the YIQ or YUV colourspace.

This program is in its infancy, and has been worked on at various times whenever we didn't have much else to do or as an excuse to procrastinate. Someday, It will implement more functionality, so the user actually has some control on how the colours are converted.

If you have comments or suggestions, then let us know.

Comes with C sourcecode using Allegro.


<>==> Interesting things for Allegro datafiles <=<>=>


Atari 8-bit font

Format: PCX image     Version: 1.0 beta 1    Date: 1996

This is the system font used by the Atari 8-bit series of computers. You may want to use this with your programs to give them that retro feeling, or if you're just notalgic about the Atari 8-bits.

At the moment, this font only includes characters 32-127 of the Atari ASCII set (the ATASCII set). We would have to find out if it was possible to use Allegro's font handling system and textout() function to handle charachers from 0-31 and 128-255 (which are just characters 0-127 inverted, although this could be done by using a background colour and an invisible foreground colour).

The font is in .PCX format, and can be loaded into a datafile font with Allegro's grabber utility, and can then be used with textout().


<>==> Other Allegro-based projects <=<>=>


Here are a few more things Wacko Software have been doing with Allegro that are mentioned on the main Wacko Software homepage.

Video Games I Alpha 3a
Play 3 classic games on the same computer simultaneously. The PC-DOS version was programmed in C using DJGPP and Allegro. This does not include the sourcecode, but it may be included someday. This is only an Alpha release, meaning that many things are not complete. We would in the mean time like as much feedback as possible, please.

ChromaPlas 0.95
ChromaPlas is a program that takes the old-skool demo plasma-effect and applies the plasma to various channels of images in different colour-spaces. The result is something psychedelic looking. ChromaPlas is available for all platforms supported by Allegro. Currently, only the PC-Windows version is a screensaver.


<>==> Links to other sites <=<>=>


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Links

For more general-purpose programming/software-related links, see the links sections of the Wacko Software homepage.


<>==> Feedback <=<>=>


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Last update: Tue 28 Jun 2011

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