Key Features
The Dark GDK contains the following features:
- Use virtually all of the DarkBASIC Professional 5.9 functions from within C++
- Works with Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express
- Small EXE size (starting at 1.8 MB with the 3D engine invoked)
- 6 2D Image Formats Supported
- 5 3D Object File Formats Supported
- Over 1000 game orientated commands
- Binary Space Partioning (BSP) Support
- Potential Visibility Set (PVS)
- Nodetree Optimisation
- Bump Mapping
- Light Mapping
- Environment Mapping
- Sphere Mapping
- Cubic Mapping
- Multi-texturing
- Bone Based Animations
- Pixel and Vertex Shaders
- Cartoon Shading
- Rainbow Rendering
- Code your own Shaders
- Vector and Matrix Manipulation
- Real Time Shadows
- True Reflections
- Lights (Omni, Spot, Directional)
- Matrices and Terrains
- Particle System
- Extremely fast 2D Sprites
- Polygon Collision and Response
- Create Multi-player Games (Lan and Internet)
- Fully Windows XP compliant
- 3D Studio and Direct X Object Support
- Sprite support including flipping, scaling and collision
- Set and control sounds in 3D space
- Load, Play and Loop Music files
- Control 3D Fog depth, distance and colour
- Full Object Rotation control
- Control Object Limbs (direction, angle, rotation, size)
- Create and Delete Object Meshes
- Global or Object based automatic 3D Collision Detection
- Automatic Camera and Camera to Object Orientation Commands
- Create, Position and Colour Lights
- Build, Texture and Map Matrix Landscapes
- System Test Commands let you check for compatibility
File Formats Supported
The Dark GDK natively supports the following Media File Formats. Loaders/Savers for additional formats are available from 3rd party developers or can be written yourself.
| File Format | Name | Load | Save |
| 2D Image - BMP | BMP | Yes | Yes |
| 2D Image - Device Independant Bitmap | DIB | Yes | Yes |
| 2D Image - Portable Network Graphics | PNG | Yes | |
| 2D Image - JPEG | JPG | Yes | Yes |
| 2D Image - DirectDraw Surface | DDS | Yes | Yes |
| 2D Image - Targa | TGA | Yes | |
| 3D Object - 3D Studio | 3DS | Yes | |
| 3D Object - DirectX | X | Yes | Yes |
| 3D Object - MDL | MDL | Yes | |
| 3D Object - MD2 | MD2 | Yes | |
| 3D Object - MD3 | MD3 | Yes | |
| BSP World Support | Quake 2 | Yes | |
| BSP World Support | Quake 3 | Yes | |
| BSP World Support | Half Life | Yes | |
| Sound - Wave File | WAV | Yes | Yes |
| Sound - Windows Media Audio | WMA | Yes | |
| Sound - Windows Media Audio | AIFF | Yes | |
| Sound - Windows Media Audio | AU | Yes | |
| Sound - Windows Media Audio | SND | Yes | |
| Sound - Mpeg Layer 3 | MP3 | Yes | |
| Music - MIDI playback | MIDI | Yes | |
| Music - CD Audio Tracks | CD-Audio | Yes |
Due to the complexity of BSP some file formats may not load correctly.
Some hardware effects may not be compatible with your video card, please check before purchasing.
May conflict with currently installed drivers and / or background software, and may contain system specific bugs correctable by freely available updates from this web site. We endevour to patch all reported bugs as quickly as possible.
