Project: Thor C Library

Thor C++ Library

Thor is a cross-platform, open-source library which provides several extensions to SFML. It includes many features on top of the basic multimedia functionality supplied with SFML. The Thor C++ Library is intended to relieve SFML users from implementing often-used functionality related to graphics and game programming again and again.

Features

The Thor C++ library comes with the following modules:

Vectors

• 2D Vector algebra functions: Dot product, compute length and angles, ...
• 3D Vector algebra functions: Dot and cross product, compute length and angles, ...
• PolarVector: 2D vector class that stores polar coordinates

Geometry

• Zone class hierarchy for geometric figures
• Base classes for positionable, rotatable and scalable objects

Particles

• ParticleSystem class based on sf::Image, stores and manages particles (lifetime, transformations, color, ...)
• Customizable Emitter and Affector classes

Events

• SfmlEventSystem class to handle SFML events via callbacks
• EventSystem template for user-defined events

Resources

• ResourceManager class template that allows safe and easy loading, storage and access to resources
• ResourcePtr provides shared access to resources
• Predefined helper classes for SFML resources like sf::Image

Multimedia

• ConcaveShape class: As an extension to sf::Shape, it works with concave shapes
• Arrow class to visualize vectors
• Color blending and simple construction of color gradients
• String conversion functions for a few SFML classes like sf::Vector

Time

• StopWatch class: Wrapper around sf::Clock for pausable clocks
• Timer class: Countdown mechanism
• TriggeringTimer class: Countdown invoking callbacks at expiration

Tools

• SingleDispatcher: Dynamic dispatch to unary functions
• DoubleDispatcher: Dynamic dispatch to binary functions (multimethods)
• Other utility like foreach macros

SmartPtr

• ScopedPtr: Local RAII smart pointer
• MovedPtr: Movable smart pointer implementation
• CopiedPtr: Smart pointer with deep copy semantics

Math

• Generalization of trigonometry functions
• Random number generator based on TR1
• Delaunay triangulation

License

Thor is completely free to use for open-source and closed-source projects. Like SFML, it is licensed under the very permissive zlib/libpng license.

Download

The project homepage of Thor is located at http://www.bromeon.ch/thor. There you come across an API documentation, some tutorials and several download packages. The current version of the SDK is 1.0. The library can be built using CMake, for a few configurations there are also precompiled binaries available.

If you like to experience the latest features and modifications, you can also get the code via SVN at http://www.bromeon.ch/svn/thor/trunk.

To install Thor, you need a TR1 conforming standard library implementation and SFML 2. A compatible Git revision of SFML is provided on the homepage.

Examples

Full-fledged example codes are included in the official SDK, but here are a few code snippets that give you a quick impression of the functionality Thor provides.

Vectors

sf::Vector2f a(4.2f, 5.6f);
sf::Vector2f b(7.8f, 1.3f);
float d = thor::DotProduct(a, b);
float w = thor::Angle(a, b);
sf::Vector2f u = thor::UnitVector(a);

Particles

// Color gradient from red to blue to green
thor::ColorGradient gradient = thor::CreateGradient(sf::Color::Red)(1)(sf::Color::Blue)(2)(sf::Color::Green);

// Load image, create particle system, add emitters and affectors
sf::Image image = ...;
thor::ParticleSystem system(image);
system.AddEmitter( thor::DirectionalEmitter::Create(50.f, 3.f) ); // 50 per second, each lives 3s
system.AddAffector( thor::ColorAffector::Create(gradient) );
system.AddAffector( thor::FadeOutAffector::Create() );

// Inside main loop
system.Update(window.GetFrameTime());
system.Draw(window);
window.Display()

Time

// Create pausable clock
thor::StopWatch stopwatch;
stopwatch.Start();
sf::Sleep(3.f);
stopwatch.Stop();
float time = stopwatch.GetElapsedTime();

Resources

// Create image manager and load two images
thor::ResourceManager<sf::Image> imageMgr;
thor::ResourcePtr<sf::Image> p = imageMgr.Acquire( thor::Resources::ImageKey::FromFile("image.jpg") );
thor::ResourcePtr<sf::Image> q = imageMgr.Acquire( thor::Resources::ImageKey::FromSize(300, 200) );

// Use shared smart pointers p and q to refer to the image instances
sf::Sprite sprite1(*p);
sf::Sprite sprite2(*q);