wx_BGI_Graphics

wx_BGI_Graphics

wx_BGI_Graphics is a cross-platform shared library that keeps the classic Borland BGI programming model usable on modern systems by implementing the API on top of OpenGL, GLFW, GLEW, and wxWidgets.

It is designed for programmers who want a simple graphics API for C, C++, Pascal, Python, and similar environments, while still gaining access to modern features such as retained scenes, multiple cameras, world coordinates, 3D solids, embedded wxWidgets canvases, and optional OpenLB-oriented live viewing.

Project Objectives

1. Preserve the simple BGI programming model for modern platforms.
2. Keep legacy graphics code portable across Windows, Linux, and macOS.
3. Hide most OpenGL complexity behind a small and stable API surface.
4. Provide both classic BGI calls and optional modern extension APIs.
5. Support both lightweight standalone windows and richer wxWidgets embedding.
6. Support OpenLB integration through DDS metadata, material-sampling helpers, and live visualization. OpenLB itself is not included in this shared-lib.

Highlights

• Classic BGI-compatible 2D drawing API via src/wx_bgi.h
• Modern extension helpers via src/wx_bgi_ext.h
• 2D/3D cameras, UCS, and world-coordinate drawing via src/wx_bgi_3d.h
• Retained DDS/CHDOP scene graph with JSON/YAML serialization via src/wx_bgi_dds.h
• Retained affine transforms, set operations, and exact 3D Manifold booleans
• 3D solid primitives, surfaces, overlays, and wxWidgets embedded canvas support
• Optional OpenLB live-visualization and DDS material-bridge support

Dependencies

Core dependencies used by the project:

Dependency	Purpose
GLFW 3.4	Standalone windowing and OpenGL context creation
GLEW 2.2.0	OpenGL extension loading
GLM 1.0.1	Camera, UCS, and transform math
wxWidgets 3.2.5+	Embedded canvas and default windowed backend
nlohmann/json	DDS JSON serialization
yaml-cpp	DDS YAML serialization
Manifold	Exact retained 3D boolean evaluation

Most C/C++ dependencies are fetched automatically by CMake. Optional external tools include Doxygen, LaTeX/MiKTeX, FreePascal, and Python 3.

Releases and Downloads

• Latest release: https://github.com/Andromedabay/wx_bgi_graphics/releases/latest
• Windows x64 binary zip: https://github.com/Andromedabay/wx_bgi_graphics/releases/latest/download/wx_bgi_opengl-windows-x64.zip
• Linux x64 binary tar.gz: https://github.com/Andromedabay/wx_bgi_graphics/releases/latest/download/wx_bgi_opengl-linux-x64.tar.gz
• macOS x64 binary tar.gz: https://github.com/Andromedabay/wx_bgi_graphics/releases/latest/download/wx_bgi_opengl-macos-x64.tar.gz
• Published API docs: https://andromedabay.github.io/wx_bgi_graphics/

Documentation

The documentation is organized into two main hierarchies.

User-Guide

Start here if you want to build the library, run it, and use its public features in applications.

User Guide

• User Guide index
• Getting Started

Developer-Guide

Start here if you want to understand how the project is built, how the major subsystems are organized, how tests are structured, and how the docs pipeline is generated.

Developer Guide

• Developer Guide index
• Architecture Overview
• OpenLB Bridge Plan
• Documentation Pipeline

Public Headers

Header	Purpose
src/wx_bgi.h	Classic BGI C API
src/wx_bgi_ext.h	Modern wxbgi_* extension helpers
src/wx_bgi_3d.h	Cameras, UCS, world-coordinate drawing
src/wx_bgi_dds.h	Retained DDS/CHDOP scene graph
src/wx_bgi_openlb.h	OpenLB live-loop helpers and DDS material-query bridge entry points
src/bgi_types.h	Shared types, structs, and constants

Quick Orientation

• New users should begin with Getting Started.
• For animation/page-buffer workflow, read Tutorial.md.
• For classic and embedded font usage, read Fonts.md.
• For retained scenes and composition, read DDS.md and Object-Operation.md.
• For DDS-to-OpenLB authoring and viewer integration, read OpenLB-Support.md.
• For build, testing, and design internals, use the Developer Guide.

OpenLB Status

The repository now supports DDS external attributes plus material-query helpers for OpenLB-oriented workflows. A DDS-only preview demo is included and works in the standard build. A real OpenLB-coupled smoke target is also wired when WXBGI_ENABLE_OPENLB=ON, but the current public OpenLB release does not compile cleanly under native Windows/MSVC in this environment, so full coupled validation currently requires a Linux, macOS, or WSL-style toolchain.

Screenshot Gallery

See ScreenShots.md for example output and reference images from the current demos.