Features

ANSI C/C++, Pascal, Basic languages.
Powerful and crystal clear set of API functions for maximum productivity.
Flexibility! Use high level functions that do the hard work behind the scenes, or use low level functions to manage the engine down to vertex buffer manipulation, mesh-specific rendering mode, etc.
Integrated rendering, physics and network engines.
No need of engine-specific world editor, just use your favorite 3d modeler!

3D Rendering

Hardware processed (fast!) vertex/pixel shader rendering, per pixel lighting, bump-mapping, bumped environment mapping.
Hardware rendered dynamic volumetric shadows (fast!). Dynamic shadow casting for morphing meshes supported!
Hardware rendered trail and particle systems (fast!), with programmable gravity, air-resistance, ’melting’ and ’burnout’ effects.
Dynamic sun-like and local colored lights.
DirectX® skeletal animation (play/stop/reverse/speed-control), per-bone dynamic control, ragdoll physics, vertex animation (water surfaces, etc), mesh morphing, texture animation!
Retrieve each single bone’s 3d location, runtime (e.g. attach a gun to an arm)!
Built-in chasing cameras, multiple simultaneous viewpoints, split-screen, custom sized viewports.
Classic and dynamic reflection mapping, true mirror surfaces.
Alpha texture mapping, all available blend methods, advanced management of transparency sorting.

2D Rendering

Print functions performing fast text rendering and animation. Fully customizable graphics font sets!
Animated 2d objects can be any shape, as small as a single pixel (per pixel animation) or many times bigger than the screen (scrolling, old-style 2d shoot’em up games, etc). They can be scaled, stretched, rotated.
Fully programmable sprite transparency and master-color (fading, flashing, etc).
Fully programmable sprite z-ordering.
Full-screen and windowed rendering of standard Windows dialogs (default message boxes and custom dialogs with custom controls).

Networking

Built-in synchronized-simulation system, providing straightforward methods to keep synched several simulations running on different connected computers.
DirectPlay’s client/server based networking supporting LAN and Internet connections.
Virtually unlimited number of players. You decide the amount of data to synchronize or share, thus allowing for extreme optimization and massive multiplayer games.

Collision Detection & Physics

Built-in, rock solid physics, accurate collision detection and response.
Ultra-fast ray collision checking (line of sight testing, obstacle detection, etc).
Hi-level functions allowing for easy setup of wheeled vehicles with working suspensions (ultra-realistic car dynamics, accurate driving simulations, etc).
Classic and breakable joints, rotational stops, angular motors, soft constraints, springs.

Sounds/Music

Dynamic 3d sound sources providing easy integration with physics simulation.
Global (position-independent) stereo and mono sounds/music.
Support for .wav and .ogg formats.
Dynamic start/stop/pause/resume control.
Fully hardware processed playing and mixing (while sound card chip works, main CPU is free for other tasks!).

Documentation

Complete (compile and go) examples provided with fully commented source code.
Extensive programmer reference covering all available API functions.
Detailed step-by-step tutorials.
Prompt technical support (e-mail).
Responsive and growing community (online forum).

API

Powerful math and 3d transformation functions.
Complete and straightforward support for keyboard, mouse, joystick, gamepads, steering wheels and other input devices.
Specific functions to dynamically control/retrieve core engine behavior/stats (frame rate, display mode, global rendering settings, etc).
Specific functions to manage simulation recording/replay, game state save/load, etc.
Specific functions to save rendered frames as image sequences, to build .avi/.mpeg clips of the simulation.