These functions are declared in the following header file. Link with allegro_primitives.

 #include <allegro5/allegro_primitives.h>

General

al_get_allegro_primitives_version

uint32_t al_get_allegro_primitives_version(void)

Source Code

Returns the (compiled) version of the addon, in the same format as al_get_allegro_version.

al_init_primitives_addon

bool al_init_primitives_addon(void)

Source Code

Initializes the primitives addon.

Returns: True on success, false on failure.

See also: al_shutdown_primitives_addon

al_shutdown_primitives_addon

void al_shutdown_primitives_addon(void)

Source Code

Shut down the primitives addon. This is done automatically at program exit, but can be called any time the user wishes as well.

See also: al_init_primitives_addon

High level drawing routines

High level drawing routines encompass the most common usage of this addon: to draw geometric primitives, both smooth (variations on the circle theme) and piecewise linear. Outlined primitives support the concept of thickness with two distinct modes of output: hairline lines and thick lines. Hairline lines are specifically designed to be exactly a pixel wide, and are commonly used for drawing outlined figures that need to be a pixel wide. Hairline thickness is designated as thickness less than or equal to 0. Unfortunately, the exact rasterization rules for drawing these hairline lines vary from one video card to another, and sometimes leave gaps where the lines meet. If that matters to you, then you should use thick lines. In many cases, having a thickness of 1 will produce 1 pixel wide lines that look better than hairline lines. Obviously, hairline lines cannot replicate thicknesses greater than 1. Thick lines grow symmetrically around the generating shape as thickness is increased.

Pixel-precise output

While normally you should not be too concerned with which pixels are displayed when the high level primitives are drawn, it is nevertheless possible to control that precisely by carefully picking the coordinates at which you draw those primitives.

To be able to do that, however, it is critical to understand how GPU cards convert shapes to pixels. Pixels are not the smallest unit that can be addressed by the GPU. Because the GPU deals with floating point coordinates, it can in fact assign different coordinates to different parts of a single pixel. To a GPU, thus, a screen is composed of a grid of squares that have width and length of 1. The top left corner of the top left pixel is located at (0, 0). Therefore, the center of that pixel is at (0.5, 0.5). The basic rule that determines which pixels are associated with which shape is then as follows: a pixel is treated to belong to a shape if the pixel's center is located in that shape. The figure below illustrates the above concepts:

Diagram showing a how pixel output is calculated by the GPU given the mathematical description of several shapes.

Diagram showing a how pixel output is calculated by the GPU given the mathematical description of several shapes.

This figure depicts three shapes drawn at the top left of the screen: an orange and green rectangles and a purple circle. On the left are the mathematical descriptions of pixels on the screen and the shapes to be drawn. On the right is the screen output. Only a single pixel has its center inside the circle, and therefore only a single pixel is drawn on the screen. Similarly, two pixels are drawn for the orange rectangle. Since there are no pixels that have their centers inside the green rectangle, the output image has no green pixels.

Here is a more practical example. The image below shows the output of this code:

/* blue vertical line */
al_draw_line(0.5, 0, 0.5, 6, color_blue, 1);
/* red horizontal line */
al_draw_line(2, 1, 6, 1, color_red, 2);
/* green filled rectangle */
al_draw_filled_rectangle(3, 4, 5, 5, color_green);
/* purple outlined rectangle */
al_draw_rectangle(2.5, 3.5, 5.5, 5.5, color_purple, 1);
Diagram showing a practical example of pixel output resulting from the invocation of several primitives addon functions.

Diagram showing a practical example of pixel output resulting from the invocation of several primitives addon functions.

It can be seen that lines are generated by making a rectangle based on the dashed line between the two endpoints. The thickness causes the rectangle to grow symmetrically about that generating line, as can be seen by comparing the red and blue lines. Note that to get proper pixel coverage, the coordinates passed to the al_draw_line had to be offset by 0.5 in the appropriate dimensions.

Filled rectangles are generated by making a rectangle between the endpoints passed to the al_draw_filled_rectangle.

Outlined rectangles are generated by symmetrically expanding an outline of a rectangle. With a thickness of 1, as depicted in the diagram, this means that an offset of 0.5 is needed for both sets of endpoint coordinates to exactly line up with the pixels of the display raster.

The above rules only apply when multisampling is turned off. When multisampling is turned on, the area of a pixel that is covered by a shape is taken into account when choosing what color to draw there. This also means that shapes no longer have to contain the pixel's center to affect its color. For example, the green rectangle in the first diagram may in fact be drawn as two (or one) semi-transparent pixels. The advantages of multisampling is that slanted shapes will look smoother because they will not have jagged edges. A disadvantage of multisampling is that it may make vertical and horizontal edges blurry. While the exact rules for multisampling are unspecified, and may vary from GPU to GPU, it is usually safe to assume that as long as a pixel is either completely covered by a shape or completely not covered, then the shape edges will be sharp. The offsets used in the second diagram were chosen so that this is the case: if you use those offsets, your shapes (if they are oriented the same way as they are on the diagram) should look the same whether multisampling is turned on or off.

al_draw_line

void al_draw_line(float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2,
   ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws a line segment between two points.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_soft_line

al_draw_triangle

void al_draw_triangle(float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2,
   float x3, float y3, ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws an outlined triangle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_filled_triangle, al_draw_soft_triangle

al_draw_filled_triangle

void al_draw_filled_triangle(float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2,
   float x3, float y3, ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draws a filled triangle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_triangle

al_draw_rectangle

void al_draw_rectangle(float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2,
   ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws an outlined rectangle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_filled_rectangle, al_draw_rounded_rectangle

al_draw_filled_rectangle

void al_draw_filled_rectangle(float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2,
   ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draws a filled rectangle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_rectangle, al_draw_filled_rounded_rectangle

al_draw_rounded_rectangle

void al_draw_rounded_rectangle(float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2,
   float rx, float ry, ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws an outlined rounded rectangle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_filled_rounded_rectangle, al_draw_rectangle

al_draw_filled_rounded_rectangle

void al_draw_filled_rounded_rectangle(float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2,
   float rx, float ry, ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draws an filled rounded rectangle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_rounded_rectangle, al_draw_filled_rectangle

al_calculate_arc

void al_calculate_arc(float* dest, int stride, float cx, float cy,
   float rx, float ry, float start_theta, float delta_theta, float thickness,
   int num_points)

Source Code

When thickness <= 0 this function computes positions of num_points regularly spaced points on an elliptical arc. When thickness > 0 this function computes two sets of points, obtained as follows: the first set is obtained by taking the points computed in the thickness <= 0 case and shifting them by thickness / 2 outward, in a direction perpendicular to the arc curve. The second set is the same, but shifted thickness / 2 inward relative to the arc. The two sets of points are interleaved in the destination buffer (i.e. the first pair of points will be collinear with the arc center, the first point of the pair will be farther from the center than the second point; the next pair will also be collinear, but at a different angle and so on).

The destination buffer dest is interpreted as a set of regularly spaced pairs of floats, each pair holding the coordinates of the corresponding point on the arc. The two floats in the pair are adjacent, and the distance (in bytes) between the addresses of the first float in two successive pairs is stride. For example, if you have a tightly packed array of floats with no spaces between pairs, then stride will be exactly 2 * sizeof(float).

Example with thickness <= 0:

const int num_points = 4;
float points[num_points][2];
al_calculate_arc(&points[0][0], 2 * sizeof(float), 0, 0, 10, 10, 0, ALLEGRO_PI / 2, 0, num_points);

assert((int)points[0][0] == 10);
assert((int)points[0][1] == 0);

assert((int)points[num_points - 1][0] == 0);
assert((int)points[num_points - 1][1] == 10);

Example with thickness > 0:

const int num_points = 4;
float points[num_points * 2][2];
al_calculate_arc(&points[0][0], 2 * sizeof(float), 0, 0, 10, 10, 0, ALLEGRO_PI / 2, 2, num_points);

assert((int)points[0][0] == 11);
assert((int)points[0][1] == 0);
assert((int)points[1][0] == 9);
assert((int)points[1][1] == 0);

assert((int)points[(num_points - 1) * 2][0] == 0);
assert((int)points[(num_points - 1) * 2][1] == 11);
assert((int)points[(num_points - 1) * 2 + 1][0] == 0);
assert((int)points[(num_points - 1) * 2 + 1][1] == 9);

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_arc, al_calculate_spline, al_calculate_ribbon

al_draw_pieslice

void al_draw_pieslice(float cx, float cy, float r, float start_theta,
   float delta_theta, ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws a pieslice (outlined circular sector).

Parameters:

Since: 5.0.6, 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_filled_pieslice

al_draw_filled_pieslice

void al_draw_filled_pieslice(float cx, float cy, float r, float start_theta,
   float delta_theta, ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draws a filled pieslice (filled circular sector).

Parameters:

Since: 5.0.6, 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_pieslice

al_draw_ellipse

void al_draw_ellipse(float cx, float cy, float rx, float ry,
   ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws an outlined ellipse.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_filled_ellipse, al_draw_circle

al_draw_filled_ellipse

void al_draw_filled_ellipse(float cx, float cy, float rx, float ry,
   ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draws a filled ellipse.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_ellipse, al_draw_filled_circle

al_draw_circle

void al_draw_circle(float cx, float cy, float r, ALLEGRO_COLOR color,
   float thickness)

Source Code

Draws an outlined circle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_filled_circle, al_draw_ellipse

al_draw_filled_circle

void al_draw_filled_circle(float cx, float cy, float r, ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draws a filled circle.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_circle, al_draw_filled_ellipse

al_draw_arc

void al_draw_arc(float cx, float cy, float r, float start_theta,
   float delta_theta, ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws an arc.

Parameters:

See also: al_calculate_arc, al_draw_elliptical_arc

al_draw_elliptical_arc

void al_draw_elliptical_arc(float cx, float cy, float rx, float ry, float start_theta,
   float delta_theta, ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws an elliptical arc.

Parameters:

Since: 5.0.6, 5.1.0

See also: al_calculate_arc, al_draw_arc

al_calculate_spline

void al_calculate_spline(float* dest, int stride, float points[8],
   float thickness, int num_segments)

Source Code

Calculates a Bézier spline given 4 control points. If thickness <= 0, then num_segments of points are required in the destination, otherwise twice as many are needed. The destination buffer should consist of regularly spaced (by distance of stride bytes) doublets of floats, corresponding to x and y coordinates of the vertices.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_spline, al_calculate_arc, al_calculate_ribbon

al_draw_spline

void al_draw_spline(float points[8], ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness)

Source Code

Draws a Bézier spline given 4 control points.

Parameters:

See also: al_calculate_spline

al_calculate_ribbon

void al_calculate_ribbon(float* dest, int dest_stride, const float *points,
   int points_stride, float thickness, int num_segments)

Source Code

Calculates a ribbon given an array of points. The ribbon will go through all of the passed points. If thickness <= 0, then num_segments of points are required in the destination buffer, otherwise twice as many are needed. The destination and the points buffer should consist of regularly spaced doublets of floats, corresponding to x and y coordinates of the vertices.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_ribbon, al_calculate_arc, al_calculate_spline

al_draw_ribbon

void al_draw_ribbon(const float *points, int points_stride, ALLEGRO_COLOR color,
   float thickness, int num_segments)

Source Code

Draws a ribbon given an array of points. The ribbon will go through all of the passed points. The points buffer should consist of regularly spaced doublets of floats, corresponding to x and y coordinates of the vertices.

Parameters:

See also: al_calculate_ribbon

Low level drawing routines

Low level drawing routines allow for more advanced usage of the addon, allowing you to pass arbitrary sequences of vertices to draw to the screen. These routines also support using textures on the primitives with the following restrictions:

For maximum portability, you should only use textures that have dimensions that are a power of two, as not every videocard supports textures of different sizes completely. This warning is relaxed, however, if the texture coordinates never exit the boundaries of a single bitmap (i.e. you are not having the texture repeat/tile). As long as that is the case, any texture can be used safely. Sub-bitmaps work as textures, but cannot be tiled.

Some platforms also dictate a minimum texture size, which means that textures smaller than that size will not tile properly. The minimum size that will work on all platforms is 32 by 32.

A note about pixel coordinates. In OpenGL the texture coordinate (0, 0) refers to the top left corner of the pixel. This confuses some drivers, because due to rounding errors the actual pixel sampled might be the pixel to the top and/or left of the (0, 0) pixel. To make this error less likely it is advisable to offset the texture coordinates you pass to the al_draw_prim by (0.5, 0.5) if you need precise pixel control. E.g. to refer to pixel (5, 10) you'd set the u and v to 5.5 and 10.5 respectively.

See also: Pixel-precise output

al_draw_prim

int al_draw_prim(const void* vtxs, const ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL* decl,
   ALLEGRO_BITMAP* texture, int start, int end, int type)

Source Code

Draws a subset of the passed vertex array.

Parameters:

Returns: Number of primitives drawn

For example to draw a textured triangle you could use:

ALLEGRO_COLOR white = al_map_rgb_f(1, 1, 1);
ALLEGRO_VERTEX v[] = {
   {.x = 128, .y = 0, .z = 0, .color = white, .u = 128, .v = 0},
   {.x = 0, .y = 256, .z = 0, .color = white, .u = 0, .v = 256},
   {.x = 256, .y = 256, .z = 0, .color = white, .u = 256, .v = 256}};
al_draw_prim(v, NULL, texture, 0, 3, ALLEGRO_PRIM_TRIANGLE_LIST);

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX, ALLEGRO_PRIM_TYPE, ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL, al_draw_indexed_prim

al_draw_indexed_prim

int al_draw_indexed_prim(const void* vtxs, const ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL* decl,
   ALLEGRO_BITMAP* texture, const int* indices, int num_vtx, int type)

Source Code

Draws a subset of the passed vertex array. This function uses an index array to specify which vertices to use.

Parameters:

Returns: Number of primitives drawn

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX, ALLEGRO_PRIM_TYPE, ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL, al_draw_prim

al_draw_vertex_buffer

int al_draw_vertex_buffer(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER* vertex_buffer,
   ALLEGRO_BITMAP* texture, int start, int end, int type)

Source Code

Draws a subset of the passed vertex buffer. The vertex buffer must not be locked. Additionally, to draw onto memory bitmaps or with memory bitmap textures the vertex buffer must support reading (i.e. it must be created with the ALLEGRO_PRIM_BUFFER_READWRITE).

Parameters:

Returns: Number of primitives drawn

Since: 5.1.3

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER, ALLEGRO_PRIM_TYPE

al_draw_indexed_buffer

int al_draw_indexed_buffer(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER* vertex_buffer,
   ALLEGRO_BITMAP* texture, ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER* index_buffer,
   int start, int end, int type)

Source Code

Draws a subset of the passed vertex buffer. This function uses an index buffer to specify which vertices to use. Both buffers must not be locked. Additionally, to draw onto memory bitmaps or with memory bitmap textures both buffers must support reading (i.e. they must be created with the ALLEGRO_PRIM_BUFFER_READWRITE).

Parameters:

Returns: Number of primitives drawn

Since: 5.1.8

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER, ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER, ALLEGRO_PRIM_TYPE

al_draw_soft_triangle

void al_draw_soft_triangle(
   ALLEGRO_VERTEX* v1, ALLEGRO_VERTEX* v2, ALLEGRO_VERTEX* v3, uintptr_t state,
   void (*init)(uintptr_t, ALLEGRO_VERTEX*, ALLEGRO_VERTEX*, ALLEGRO_VERTEX*),
   void (*first)(uintptr_t, int, int, int, int),
   void (*step)(uintptr_t, int),
   void (*draw)(uintptr_t, int, int, int))

Source Code

Draws a triangle using the software rasterizer and user supplied pixel functions. For help in understanding what these functions do, see the implementation of the various shading routines in addons/primitives/tri_soft.c. The triangle is drawn in two segments, from top to bottom. The segments are deliniated by the vertically middle vertex of the triangle. One of the two segments may be absent if two vertices are horizontally collinear.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_triangle

al_draw_soft_line

void al_draw_soft_line(ALLEGRO_VERTEX* v1, ALLEGRO_VERTEX* v2, uintptr_t state,
   void (*first)(uintptr_t, int, int, ALLEGRO_VERTEX*, ALLEGRO_VERTEX*),
   void (*step)(uintptr_t, int),
   void (*draw)(uintptr_t, int, int))

Source Code

Draws a line using the software rasterizer and user supplied pixel functions. For help in understanding what these functions do, see the implementation of the various shading routines in addons/primitives/line_soft.c. The line is drawn top to bottom.

Parameters:

See also: al_draw_line

Custom vertex declaration routines

al_create_vertex_decl

ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL* al_create_vertex_decl(const ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT* elements, int stride)

Source Code

Creates a vertex declaration, which describes a custom vertex format.

Parameters:

Returns: Newly created vertex declaration.

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT, ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL, al_destroy_vertex_decl

al_destroy_vertex_decl

void al_destroy_vertex_decl(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL* decl)

Source Code

Destroys a vertex declaration.

Parameters:

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT, ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL, al_create_vertex_decl

Vertex buffer routines

al_create_vertex_buffer

ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER* al_create_vertex_buffer(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL* decl,
   const void* initial_data, int num_vertices, int flags)

Source Code

Creates a vertex buffer. Can return NULL if the buffer could not be created (e.g. the system only supports write-only buffers).

Note:

This is an advanced feature, often unsupported on lower-end video cards. Be extra mindful of this function failing and make arrangements for fallback drawing functionality or a nice error message for users with such lower-end cards.

Parameters:

Since: 5.1.3

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER, al_destroy_vertex_buffer

al_destroy_vertex_buffer

void al_destroy_vertex_buffer(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER* buffer)

Source Code

Destroys a vertex buffer. Does nothing if passed NULL.

Since: 5.1.3

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER, al_create_vertex_buffer

al_lock_vertex_buffer

void* al_lock_vertex_buffer(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER* buffer, int offset,
   int length, int flags)

Source Code

Locks a vertex buffer so you can access its data. Will return NULL if the parameters are invalid, if reading is requested from a write only buffer, or if the buffer is already locked.

Parameters:

Since: 5.1.3

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER, al_unlock_vertex_buffer

al_unlock_vertex_buffer

void al_unlock_vertex_buffer(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER* buffer)

Source Code

Unlocks a previously locked vertex buffer.

Since: 5.1.3

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER, al_lock_vertex_buffer

al_get_vertex_buffer_size

int al_get_vertex_buffer_size(ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER* buffer)

Source Code

Returns the size of the vertex buffer

Since: 5.1.8

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER

Index buffer routines

al_create_index_buffer

ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER* al_create_index_buffer(int index_size,
    const void* initial_data, int num_indices, int flags)

Source Code

Creates a index buffer. Can return NULL if the buffer could not be created (e.g. the system only supports write-only buffers).

Note:

This is an advanced feature, often unsupported on lower-end video cards. Be extra mindful of this function failing and make arrangements for fallback drawing functionality or a nice error message for users with such lower-end cards.

Parameters:

Since: 5.1.8

See also: ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER, al_destroy_index_buffer

al_destroy_index_buffer

void al_destroy_index_buffer(ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER* buffer)

Source Code

Destroys a index buffer. Does nothing if passed NULL.

Since: 5.1.8

See also: ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER, al_create_index_buffer

al_lock_index_buffer

void* al_lock_index_buffer(ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER* buffer, int offset,
    int length, int flags)

Source Code

Locks a index buffer so you can access its data. Will return NULL if the parameters are invalid, if reading is requested from a write only buffer and if the buffer is already locked.

Parameters:

Since: 5.1.8

See also: ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER, al_unlock_index_buffer

al_unlock_index_buffer

void al_unlock_index_buffer(ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER* buffer)

Source Code

Unlocks a previously locked index buffer.

Since: 5.1.8

See also: ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER, al_lock_index_buffer

al_get_index_buffer_size

int al_get_index_buffer_size(ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER* buffer)

Source Code

Returns the size of the index buffer

Since: 5.1.8

See also: ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER

Polygon routines

al_draw_polyline

void al_draw_polyline(const float* vertices, int vertex_stride,
   int vertex_count, int join_style, int cap_style,
   ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness, float miter_limit)

Source Code

Draw a series of line segments.

The stride is normally 2 * sizeof(float) but may be more if the vertex coordinates are in an array of some structure type, e.g.

struct VertexInfo {
   float x;
   float y;
   int id;
};

void my_draw(struct VertexInfo verts[], int vertex_count, ALLEGRO_COLOR c)
{
   al_draw_polyline((float *)verts, sizeof(VertexInfo), vertex_count,
      ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN_NONE, ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP_NONE, c, 1.0, 1.0);
}

The stride may also be negative if the vertices are stored in reverse order.

Since: 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_polygon, ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN, ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP

al_draw_polygon

void al_draw_polygon(const float *vertices, int vertex_count,
   int join_style, ALLEGRO_COLOR color, float thickness, float miter_limit)

Source Code

Draw an unfilled polygon. This is the same as passing ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP_CLOSED to al_draw_polyline.

Since: 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_filled_polygon, al_draw_polyline, ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN

al_draw_filled_polygon

void al_draw_filled_polygon(const float *vertices, int vertex_count,
   ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draw a filled, simple polygon. Simple means it does not have to be convex but must not be self-overlapping.

When the y-axis is facing downwards (the usual), the coordinates must be ordered anti-clockwise.

Since: 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_polygon, al_draw_filled_polygon_with_holes

al_draw_filled_polygon_with_holes

void al_draw_filled_polygon_with_holes(const float *vertices,
   const int *vertex_counts, ALLEGRO_COLOR color)

Source Code

Draws a filled simple polygon with zero or more other simple polygons subtracted from it - the holes. The holes cannot touch or intersect with the outline of the filled polygon.

All hole vertices must use the opposite order (clockwise with y down) of the polygon vertices. All hole vertices must be inside the main polygon and no hole may overlap the main polygon.

For example:

float vertices[] = {
      0,   0, // filled polygon, upper left corner
      0, 100, // filled polygon, lower left corner
    100, 100, // filled polygon, lower right corner
    100,   0, // filled polygon, upper right corner
     10,  10, // hole, upper left
     90,  10, // hole, upper right
     90,  90  // hole, lower right
};
int vertex_counts[] = {
   4, // number of vertices for filled polygon
   3, // number of vertices for hole
   0  // terminator
};

There are 7 vertices: four for an outer square from (0, 0) to (100, 100) in anti-clockwise order, and three more for an inner triangle in clockwise order. The outer main polygon uses vertices 0 to 3 (inclusive) and the hole uses vertices 4 to 6 (inclusive).

Since: 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_filled_polygon, al_draw_filled_polygon_with_holes, al_triangulate_polygon

al_triangulate_polygon

bool al_triangulate_polygon(
   const float* vertices, size_t vertex_stride, const int* vertex_counts,
   void (*emit_triangle)(int, int, int, void*), void* userdata)

Source Code

Divides a simple polygon into triangles, with zero or more other simple polygons subtracted from it - the holes. The holes cannot touch or intersect with the outline of the main polygon. Simple means the polygon does not have to be convex but must not be self-overlapping.

Parameters:

Since: 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_filled_polygon_with_holes

Structures and types

ALLEGRO_VERTEX

typedef struct ALLEGRO_VERTEX ALLEGRO_VERTEX;

Source Code

Defines the generic vertex type, with a 3D position, color and texture coordinates for a single texture. Note that at this time, the software driver for this addon cannot render 3D primitives. If you want a 2D only primitive, set z to 0. Note that you must initialize all members of this struct when you're using it. One exception to this rule are the u and v variables which can be left uninitialized when you are not using textures.

Fields:

See also: ALLEGRO_PRIM_ATTR

ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL

typedef struct ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL;

Source Code

A vertex declaration. This opaque structure is responsible for describing the format and layout of a user defined custom vertex. It is created and destroyed by specialized functions.

See also: al_create_vertex_decl, al_destroy_vertex_decl, ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT

ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT

typedef struct ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT;

Source Code

A small structure describing a certain element of a vertex. E.g. the position of the vertex, or its color. These structures are used by the al_create_vertex_decl function to create the vertex declaration. For that they generally occur in an array. The last element of such an array should have the attribute field equal to 0, to signify that it is the end of the array. Here is an example code that would create a declaration describing the ALLEGRO_VERTEX structure (passing this as vertex declaration to al_draw_prim would be identical to passing NULL):

/* On compilers without the offsetof keyword you need to obtain the
 * offset with sizeof and make sure to account for packing.
 */
ALLEGRO_VERTEX_ELEMENT elems[] = {
   {ALLEGRO_PRIM_POSITION, ALLEGRO_PRIM_FLOAT_3, offsetof(ALLEGRO_VERTEX, x)},
   {ALLEGRO_PRIM_TEX_COORD_PIXEL, ALLEGRO_PRIM_FLOAT_2, offsetof(ALLEGRO_VERTEX, u)},
   {ALLEGRO_PRIM_COLOR_ATTR, 0, offsetof(ALLEGRO_VERTEX, color)},
   {0, 0, 0}
};
ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL* decl = al_create_vertex_decl(elems, sizeof(ALLEGRO_VERTEX));

Fields:

See also: al_create_vertex_decl, ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL, ALLEGRO_PRIM_ATTR, ALLEGRO_PRIM_STORAGE

ALLEGRO_PRIM_TYPE

typedef enum ALLEGRO_PRIM_TYPE

Source Code

Enumerates the types of primitives this addon can draw.

ALLEGRO_PRIM_ATTR

typedef enum ALLEGRO_PRIM_ATTR

Source Code

Enumerates the types of vertex attributes that a custom vertex may have.

See also: ALLEGRO_VERTEX_DECL, ALLEGRO_PRIM_STORAGE

ALLEGRO_PRIM_STORAGE

typedef enum ALLEGRO_PRIM_STORAGE

Source Code

Enumerates the types of storage an attribute of a custom vertex may be stored in. Many of these can only be used for ALLEGRO_PRIM_USER_ATTR attributes and can only be accessed via shaders. Usually no matter what the storage is specified the attribute gets converted to single precision floating point when the shader is run. Despite that, it may be advantageous to use more dense storage formats (e.g. ALLEGRO_PRIM_NORMALIZED_UBYTE_4 instead of ALLEGRO_PRIM_FLOAT_4) when bandwidth (amount of memory sent to the GPU) is an issue but precision is not.

See also: ALLEGRO_PRIM_ATTR

ALLEGRO_VERTEX_CACHE_SIZE

#define ALLEGRO_VERTEX_CACHE_SIZE 256

Source Code

Defines the size of the transformation vertex cache for the software renderer. If you pass less than this many vertices to the primitive rendering functions you will get a speed boost. This also defines the size of the cache vertex buffer, used for the high-level primitives. This corresponds to the maximum number of line segments that will be used to form them.

ALLEGRO_PRIM_QUALITY

#define ALLEGRO_PRIM_QUALITY 10

Source Code

Controls the quality of the approximation of curved primitives (e.g. circles). Curved primitives are drawn by approximating them with a sequence of line segments. By default, this roughly corresponds to error of less than half of a pixel.

ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN

typedef enum ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN

Source Code

ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN styles

ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN styles

See the picture for the difference.

The maximum miter length (relative to the line width) can be specified as parameter to the polygon functions.

Since: 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_polygon

ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP

typedef enum ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP

Source Code

ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP styles

ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP styles

See the picture for the difference.

ALLEGRO_LINE_CAP_CLOSED is different from the others - it causes the polygon to have no caps. (And the ALLEGRO_LINE_JOIN style will determine how the vertex looks.)

Since: 5.1.0

See also: al_draw_polygon

ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER

typedef struct ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER ALLEGRO_VERTEX_BUFFER;

Source Code

A GPU vertex buffer that you can use to store vertices on the GPU instead of uploading them afresh during every drawing operation.

Since: 5.1.3

See also: al_create_vertex_buffer, al_destroy_vertex_buffer

ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER

typedef struct ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER ALLEGRO_INDEX_BUFFER;

Source Code

A GPU index buffer that you can use to store indices of vertices in a vertex buffer on the GPU instead of uploading them afresh during every drawing operation.

Since: 5.1.8

See also: al_create_index_buffer, al_destroy_index_buffer

ALLEGRO_PRIM_BUFFER_FLAGS

typedef enum ALLEGRO_PRIM_BUFFER_FLAGS

Source Code

Flags to specify how to create a vertex or an index buffer.

Since: 5.1.3

See also: al_create_vertex_buffer, al_create_index_buffer

Allegro version 5.2.4 - Last updated: 2018-02-25 20:26:09 UTC