Dex3D – Fully Functional VB6 3D Engine

Environment VB6 (VB5?) and Windows 98

This excellent piece of code shows how to make your very own 3d graphics engine in VB6 using some advanced graphics methods. The code will work on other versions of Windows as long as you comment out all calls to the Win98 GradientFill api call in the msimg32.dll .

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The attached code demonstrates how to:


  • Convert between vectors and orientations

  • Convert between major color formats

  • Use matrices to apply mesh transformations

  • Load 3D Studio files

  • Build 3D primitives from scratch

  • Make use of Msimg32.dll

  • Perform mesh tessellations

The rendering modes supported in the project include:


  • Wireframe

  • Solid

  • Flat

  • Glass

  • Contour

  • Gourad

Along with all the above functionality, the program also supports its own file format (*.dex – Dex3d) and 3D Studio files (*.3ds )

Api Usage

The VB code shows how to use the following Windows GDI API calls:


  • Polygon

  • GradientFill (Win98 only)

  • GetPixel

  • SetPixel

  • MoveToEx

  • LineTo

  • TextOut

  • PolyBezier

  • ShellExecute

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Flowchart for Dex3D Engine

flowchart

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

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