Hey there, fellow tech enthusiasts! I’m excited to welcome you back to another installment of my game engine series. In our previous video, we explored the creation of windows in our game engine using the shell framework. We discussed the importance of abstractions and how they allow us to create window logic that’s not tied to a specific platform. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend checking it out before diving into this video, as it lays the foundation for what we’ll be covering today.
In today’s video, we’ll be focusing on adding events to our windows. As you might already know, windows generate events whenever certain actions occur, such as moving the mouse, pressing a key, resizing the window, or even clicking a mouse button. These events play a crucial role in our game engine, as they allow us to create a dynamic and interactive experience for the user.
In previous videos, we’ve already set up the necessary systems to handle events and dispatch them to the appropriate parts of our code. Now, it’s time to connect those systems with our window logic. This will enable us to create and dispatch events whenever something happens inside our window.
One event we’ll be implementing today is the “close” event. Currently, when we click the close button in our Hazel application, nothing happens. But ideally, we want to terminate the program when the close button is clicked. So, let’s get started by connecting the event systems and implementing the close event functionality.
To begin, we need to set a callback function on our window. We’ve already created a function called setEventCallback that allows us to do just that. This function takes in an event reference and sets it as the callback for our window. In our case, we’ll bind it to a real function, rather than using a lambda or any other short-term solution. This will give us more flexibility and maintainability in the long run.
Now, let’s take a closer look at how this callback function works. Inside the callback function, we have access to the window itself using the window pointer. Through some data structures and casts, we can extract the necessary information and create a window close event. After creating the event, we can dispatch it using the event dispatcher we previously implemented.
We’ll repeat this process for other event types as well, such as key presses, mouse events, window resize events, and more. Each event will have its own callback function, which we’ll bind to the appropriate system. By linking these systems together, we’ll create a cohesive event framework that allows us to handle different types of events in our game engine.
To demonstrate how the event dispatcher works, let’s take a quick look at the code:
// Dispatch window close event
if (event.getType() == EventType::WindowClose)
{
dispatchEvent<WindowCloseEvent>(event);
}In this example, we’re checking the type of the incoming event. If it’s a window close event, we dispatch it to the function specifically designed to handle this event type. This allows us to have fine-grained control over how each event is handled within our game engine.
With all the event handling systems in place, we can now run our application and observe the events being logged. As we move the mouse, press keys, resize the window, or close it, the corresponding events will be displayed in our log. This gives us a better understanding of how events are being generated and dispatched within our game engine.
Now that we’ve implemented the event system in our game engine, we have a solid foundation to build upon. Events play a crucial role in creating an immersive and interactive experience for users. With this system in place, we can now focus on implementing more advanced features such as 3D cameras, input polling, and much more.
I hope you found this video informative and helpful in your journey to create your own game engine. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below. Your feedback is always appreciated!
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Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next installment of our game engine series. Happy coding!
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