magnum/doc/mainpage.dox

/*
    This file is part of Magnum.

    Copyright © 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Vladimír Vondruš <mosra@centrum.cz>

    Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
    copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
    to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
    the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
    and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
    Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
    in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

    THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
    IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
    FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
    THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
    LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
    FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
    DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
*/

namespace Magnum {
/** @mainpage

%Magnum is 2D/3D graphics engine written in C++11 and modern OpenGL.

@section mainpage-design-goals Design goals

-   **2D is not an ugly stepchild**
    Many engines out there are either purely 2D or 3D and if you want to do
    your next project in 2D only, you have to either relearn another engine
    from scratch or emulate it in 3D, leaving many things overly complicated.
    %Magnum treats 2D equivalently to 3D so you can reuse what you already
    learned for 3D and even combine 2D and 3D in one project.

-   **Forward compatibility**
    If newer technology makes things faster, simpler or more intuitive, it is
    the way to go. If you then really need to, you can selectively backport
    some features and it will be easier than maintaining full backward
    compatibility by default. %Magnum by default relies on decent C++11 support
    and modern OpenGL features, but compatibility functions for older hardware
    and compatibility branch for older compilers are available if you need
    them.

-   **Intuitive, but not restrictive API**
    Scripting languages are often preferred to C/C++ because they tend to do
    more with less -- less complicated APIs, nicer syntax and less boilerplate
    code. %Magnum is designed with scripting language intuitivity in mind, but
    also with speed and static checks that native code and strong typing
    offers. Usually the most common way is the most simple, but if you need
    full control, you can have it.

-   **Extensible and replaceable components**
    If you want to use different mathematical library for specific purposes,
    that new windowing toolkit, your own file formats or another physics
    library, you can. Conversion of data between different libraries can be
    done on top of pre-made skeleton classes, support for file formats is done
    using plugins and platform support is done by writing simple wrapper class.

@section mainpage-platforms Supported platforms

-   **OpenGL** 2.1 through 4.4, core profile functionality and modern
    extensions
-   **OpenGL ES** 2.0, 3.0 and extensions to match desktop OpenGL functionality
-   **Linux** and embedded Linux (natively using GLX/EGL and Xlib or through
    GLUT or SDL2 toolkit)
-   **Windows** (through GLUT or SDL2 toolkit)
-   **Google Chrome** (through [Native Client](https://developers.google.com/native-client/),
    both `newlib` and `glibc` toolchains are supported)

@section mainpage-features Features

-   Vector and matrix library with implementation of complex numbers,
    quaternions and their dual counterparts for representing transformations.
-   Classes wrapping OpenGL and simplifying its usage with direct state access
    and automatic fallback for unavailable features.
-   Extensible scene graph which can be modified for each specific usage.
-   Plugin-based data exchange framework, tools for manipulating meshes,
    textures and images.
-   Pre-made shaders, primitives and other tools for easy prototyping and
    debugging.

@section mainpage-download-build Downloading and building Magnum

Guide @ref building "how to download and build Magnum" on different platforms.

@section mainpage-getting-started Getting started

The best way to get started is to render your first triangle in
@ref example-index "step-by-step tutorial". Then you can dig deeper and try
other examples, read about @ref features "fundamental principles" in the
documentation or start experimenting on your own!

@section mainpage-hacking Hacking Magnum

If you want to hack on this engine, if you spotted a bug, need an feature or
have an awesome idea, you can get a copy of the sources from GitHub and start
right now! There is the already mentioned guide about
@ref building "how to download and build Magnum" and also guide about
@ref coding-style "coding style and best practices" which you should follow to
make the library as consistent and maintainable as possible.

Feel free to get more information or contact the author at:

- GitHub - https://github.com/mosra/magnum
- Website - http://mosra.cz/blog/
- E-mail - mosra@centrum.cz
- Jabber - mosra@jabbim.cz

@section mainpage-license License

%Magnum is licensed under MIT/Expat license:

>
>   Copyright © 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Vladimír Vondruš &lt;mosra@centrum.cz&gt;
>
>   Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
>   copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
>   to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
>   the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
>   and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
>   Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
>
>   The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
>   in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
>
>   THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
>   IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
>   FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
>   THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
>   LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
>   FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
>   DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
>

*/
}