Crate all_is_cubes_mesh

Data structures and algorithms for converting all_is_cubes voxel data to triangle meshes for rendering or export.

All of the algorithms here are independent of graphics API, but they require providing vertex and texture data types suitable for the API or data format you wish to use.

Restrictions and caveats:

• The algorithms always generate triangles with counterclockwise winding order.
• The generated meshes are designed for rendering and not for purposes which require “watertight” meshes such as 3D printing systems.
• The generated meshes are in the “blocky” style (have the appearance of being made of axis-aligned cubes) rather than attempting to present a smooth surface (as would be produced by, for example, the marching cubes algorithm); this is consistent with the approach used by all_is_cubes as a whole.

Getting started

BlockMesh and SpaceMesh are the key types; everything else supports their creation and usage. For real-time dynamically modified meshes, use dynamic::ChunkedSpaceMesh.

To support a new API/format, you will need to create suitable implementations of the GfxVertex and texture::Allocator traits, then implement MeshTypes to bundle them together.

Modules

• dynamic
  Updating meshes as their source data changes.
• texture
  Traits for textures used by the meshes this library generates.

Structs

• BlockMesh
  A triangle mesh for a single Block.
• BlockVertex
  Basic vertex data type for a BlockMesh. Implement From<BlockVertex> (and usually GfxVertex) to provide a specialized version fit for the target graphics API.
• MeshMeta
  Index ranges and other metadata about a SpaceMesh, excluding the vertices and indices themselves.
• MeshOptions
  Parameters for creating meshes that aren’t the block/space data itself (or the texture allocator, since that may need to be mutable).
• SpaceMesh
  A triangle mesh representation of a Space (or part of it) which may then be rasterized.

Enums

• Coloring
  Describes the two ways a BlockVertex may be colored; by a solid color or by a texture.
• DepthOrdering
  Identifies a back-to-front order in which to draw triangles (of a SpaceMesh), based on the direction from which they are being viewed.
• IndexSlice
  Data for meshes’ index lists, which may use either 16 or 32-bit values.

Traits

• GetBlockMesh
  Source of BlockMesh values to be assembled into a SpaceMesh.
• GfxVertex
  A custom representation of BlockVertex suitable for a specific graphics system.
• MeshTypes
  Bundle of types chosen to support a specific graphics API or other mesh format.

Functions

• block_meshes_for_space
  Computes BlockMeshes for blocks currently present in a Space. Pass the result to SpaceMesh::new() to use it.

Type Aliases

• BlockMeshes
  Array of BlockMesh indexed by a Space’s block indices; a convenience alias for the return type of block_meshes_for_space. Pass it to SpaceMesh::new() to use it.