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Cocos3D

Cocos3D 2.0.2

Copyright (c) 2010-2014 The Brenwill Workshop Ltd. All rights reserved.

This document is written in Markdown format. For best results, use a Markdown reader.

Table of Contents

About Cocos3D

Cocos3D is a sophisticated, yet intuitive. and easy-to-use, 3D application development framework for the iOS, Android, and Mac OSX platforms. With Cocos3D, you can build sophisticated, dynamic 3D games and applications using Objective-C.

  • Build 3D apps for iOS devices, Android devices, or Mac computers running OSX. The same 3D content and game logic will run unchanged under iOS, Android, or Mac OSX.
  • Use OpenGL programmable pipelines for sophisticated GLSL shader rendering, or use OpenGL fixed pipelines for simpler configurable rendering.
  • Supports OpenGL ES 2.0 or OpenGL ES 1.1 on iOS and Android devices, and OpenGL on Mac OSX.
  • Seamless integration with Cocos2D. Rendering of all 3D model objects occurs within a special Cocos2D layer, which fits seamlessly into the Cocos2D node hierarchy, allowing 2D nodes such as controls, labels, and health bars to be drawn under, over, or beside 3D model objects. With this design, 2D objects, 3D objects, and sound can interact with each other to create a rich, synchronized audio-visual experience.
  • Seamless integration with the iOS UIViewController framework.
  • Pluggable loading framework for 3D models exported from familiar 3D editors such as Blender, 3ds Max or Cheetah3D, or through industry standard 3D object files such as Collada or PowerVR POD, or even from your own customized object file formats.
  • Loading 3D models, textures and GLSL shaders can be performed on a background thread while the scene is being displayed, and automatically added to the scene when loading is complete.
  • 3D models can be selected and positioned by touch events and gestures, allowing intuitive user interaction with the objects in the 3D world.
  • 3D models can include animation sequences, with full or fractional animation, in multiple tracks. Animation tracks can be blended together, and cross-fading actions can be used to smoothly transition between tracks.
  • 3D model objects can be arranged in sophisticated structural assemblies, allowing child objects to be moved and oriented relative to their parent structure.
  • 3D models and assemblies can be easily duplicated. Each duplicated model can be independently controlled, animated, colored, or textured. But fear not, underlying mesh data is shared between models. You can quickly and easily create swarming hoards to populate your 3D world, without worrying about device memory limitations.
  • 3D models, cameras, and lighting can be manipulated and animated using familiar Cocos2D Actions, allowing you to quickly and easily control the dynamics of your 3D world, in a familiar, and easy-to-use programming paradigm.
  • 3D objects can be covered with dynamic materials and textures to create rich, realistic imagery.
  • Multi-texturing and bump-mapped textures are available, allowing you to create sophisticated surface effects.
  • Vertex skinning, also often referred to as bone rigging, allowing soft-body meshes to be realistically deformed based on the movement of an underlying skeleton constructed of bones and joints.
  • Automatic shadowing of models using shadow volumes.
  • Collision detection between nodes.
  • Ray-casting for nodes intersected by a ray, and the local location of intersection on a node or mesh, right down to the exact mesh intersection location and face.
  • The 3D camera supports both perspective and orthographic projection options.
  • Objects can dynamically track other objects as they move around the world. The 3D camera can dynamically point towards an object as it moves, and other objects can dynamically point towards the camera as it moves.
  • Lighting effects include multiple lights, attenuation with distance, spotlights, and fog effects.
  • Mesh data can be shared between 3D objects, thereby saving precious device memory.
  • Mesh data can freely, and automatically, use OpenGL vertex buffer objects to improve performance and memory management.
  • Culling of 3D objects outside of the camera frustum is automatic, based on pluggable, customizable object bounding volumes.
  • Automatic ordering and grouping of 3D objects minimizes OpenGL state changes and improves rendering performance. Pluggable sorters allow easy customization of object sorting, ordering, and grouping for optimal application performance.
  • Rendering to texture for dynamic textures within a scene, or to create sophisticated post-processing effects.
  • Automatic rendering of the scene to an environment map texture, to create automatic environment reflections and refractions.
  • Integrated particle systems:
    • 3D point particles provide efficient but sophisticated particle effects.
    • 3D mesh particles allow particles to be created from any 3D mesh template (eg- spheres, cones, boxes, POD models, etc).
  • Automatic OpenGL state machine shadowing means that the OpenGL functions are invoked only when a state really has changed, thereby reducing OpenGL engine calls, and increasing OpenGL throughput.
  • Sophisticated performance metrics API and tools collect real-time application drawing and updating performance statistics, for logging or real-time display.
  • Sophisticated math library eliminates the need to use OpenGL ES function calls for matrix mathematics.
  • Fully documented API written entirely in familiar Objective-C. No need to switch to C or C++ to work with 3D artifacts.
  • Extensive logging framework to trace program execution, including all OpenGL ES function calls.
  • Includes demo applications and Xcode templates to get you up and running quickly.

Installation

  1. The Cocos3D framework works with Cocos2D. Before installing Cocos3D, you must download and install Cocos2D.

    The same Cocos3D distribution can be used with Cocos2D 3.2, 3.1, 3.0, 2.2, 2.1 and 1.1. Link to Cocos2D 2.1 or above to make use of the more advanced shader-based programmable-pipeline available with OpenGL ES 2.0 (iOS) or OpenGL (OSX). Or link to Cocos2D 1.1 to use the simpler configurable fixed-pipeline of OpenGL ES 1.1 (iOS), and avoid the need to work with GLSL shaders.

    Note: Cocos3D 2.0 is not compatible with Cocos2D 3.3 and above, as substantial changes to integration design were made in Cocos2D 3.3. Development of Cocos3D 3.0 is underway, which will provide exciting new features, and compatibility with future versions of Cocos2D. Cocos3D 3.0 will not retain compatibility with versions of Cocos2D earlier than Cocos2D 3.3, and will not support OpenGLES 1.1.

  2. Download the latest Cocos3D release.

  3. Unzip the Cocos3D distribution file.

  4. Open a Terminal session, navigate to the unzipped Cocos3D distribution directory, and run the install-cocos3d script as follows:

     ./install-cocos3d.sh -2 path-to-cocos2d

    A Cocos2D distribution must be installed. With the -2 option, you specify the version of Cocos2D to which the Cocos3D demo apps and starter projects should be linked.

    As the name implies, the path-to-cocos2d parameter is the path to the Cocos2D distribution that was downloaded into the specified folder. You may use either a relative path, or an absolute path. If for some reason the relative path cannot be correctly resolved on your system, or the resulting links to the Cocos2D library are not accurate, try again using the full absolute path. An example of using a relative path is:

     ./install-cocos3d.sh -2 "../cocos2d-swift-3.2.1"

    When using Cocos2D 3.1 or earlier, you also have the option of setting path-to-cocos2d to one of (v3, v2, or v1), which will link the Cocos3D demo apps to the Cocos2D Xcode template libraries that were most recently installed. When using this format, you must have previously installed the corresponding version of Cocos2D. This option is not available with Cocos2D 3.2 because, as of Cocos2D 3.2, Xcode template projects are no longer available.

    If you encounter errors during installation, it's typically because you are trying to run the installer without first navigating to the Cocos3D distribution directory. Be sure to run the installer from the Cocos3D distribution directory.

  5. That's it!

Keep in mind that Cocos3D does not "patch" your Cocos2D installation. Instead, you install Cocos3D alongside Cocos2D, and link to it using the installation script.

Your First Cocos3D Project

The Cocos3D distribution includes a starter app Xcode project that you can use as a starting point for developing your own app. Once you have completed the installation steps above, copy the Projects/CC3HelloWorld folder from the Cocos3D distribution folder to the location where you want to develop your application. Once copied, you can rename the Xcode project to the name of your own app.

The starter app presents a 3D take on the ubiquitous hello, world application. In addition to demonstrating how to load and display a 3D model, this application animates the model, and includes simple user interaction by having the 3D object visibly respond to finger touches.

The CC3HelloWorldScene.m file is where all the interesting action happens. To add your own 3D content, or to change the activty and interactivity of the 3D content, edit the methods in that file.

You can also edit the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method in the AppDelegate.m file to tweak the basic setup of your Cocos3D application. This method is where the Cocos3D framework is hooked into the Cocos2D framework, and Apple's OpenGL ES framework.

NOTE: The hello-world.pod 3D model data file used for the hello, world message model is fairly large, because converting a font to a mesh results in a LOT of triangles. When adapting this template project for your own application, don't forget to remove the 'hello-world.pod' from the Resources folder of your project!

Learning Cocos3D

Wondering how to get started? View Harry Dart-O’Flynn’s wonderful Starting Cocos3D collection of video tutorials!

To learn more about Cocos3D, please refer to the Cocos3D Wiki and the latest API documentation.

You can create a local copy of the API documentation using Doxygen to extract the documentation from the source files. There is a Doxygen configuration file to output the API documents in the same format as appears online in the folder Docs/API within the Cocos3D distribution.

The best way to understand what Cocos3D can do is to look at the examples and code in the demo applications that are included in the Cocos3D distribution, as described in the next section.

Demo Applications

The best way to understand what Cocos3D can do is to look at the examples and code in the demo applications that are included in the Cocos3D distribution. These demos, particularly the CC3HelloWorld and CC3DemoMashUp apps, will help you understand how to use Cocos3D, and demonstrate many of the key features and capabilities of Cocos3D.

For convenience, to access all of the demos together, open either the cocos3d-iOS.xcworkspace or cocos3d-OSX.xcworkspace Xcode workspace. You can also open each demo project individually in the Projects folder.

The demo apps within the Cocos3D distribution are pre-configured to use Cocos2D 3.2.1. To build and run the demo apps with a different version of Cocos2D, follow the steps described below in the section titled Cocos2D Version Compatibility.

The following demo apps are included in the Cocos3D distribution:

###CC3HelloWorld

This basic, easy-to-understand, starter app presents a 3D take on the ubiquitous hello, world application. In addition to demonstrating how to load and display a 3D model, this application animates the model, and includes simple user interaction by having the 3D object visibly respond to finger touches.

The CC3HelloWorld Xcode project is also designed to be used as the starting point for developing your own app. To do so, copy the Projects/CC3HelloWorld folder from the Cocos3D distribution folder to the location where you want to develop your application. Once copied you can rename the Xcode project to the name of your own app. For more info, see the section titled Your First Cocos3D Project, and read the README.md file within the CC3HelloWorld Xcode project.

###CC3DemoMashUp

Please read the class notes of the CC3DemoMashUpScene class for a full description of how to run and interact with this demo, and what features it covers.

Your camera hovers over a scene that includes animated robots, bouncing beach-balls, spinning globes, and a selection of animated teapots. This is a sophisticated demo that showcases many interesting features of Cocos3D, including:

  • loading mesh models, cameras and lights from 3D model files stored in the PowerVR POD format
  • creating mesh models from static header file data
  • sharing mesh data across several nodes with different materials
  • loading 3D models from a POD file converted from a Collada file created in a 3D editor (Blender)
  • assembling nodes into a hierarchical parent-child structual assembly.
  • programatic creation of spherical, box and plane meshes using parametric definitions.
  • texturing a 3D mesh from a CCTexture image
  • transparency and alpha-blending
  • translucent and transparent textures
  • coloring a mesh with a per-vertex color blend
  • multi-texturing an object using texture units by combining several individual textures into overlays
  • DOT3 bump-map texturing of an object to provide high-resolution surface detail on a model with few actual vertices
  • Vertex skinning with a soft-body mesh bending and flexing based on the movement of skeleton bone nodes.
  • Copying soft-body nodes to create a completely separate character, with its own skeleton, that can be manipulated independently of the skeleton of the original.
  • animating 3D models using a variety of standard Cocos2D CCActionIntervals
  • overlaying the 3D scene with 2D Cocos2D controls such as joysticks and buttons
  • embedding 2D Cocos2D text labels into the 3D scene
  • incorporating 2D Cocos2D CCParticleEmitters into the 3D scene (as a sun and explosion fire)
  • emitting 3D point particles from a moving nozzle, with realistic distance attenuation
  • emitting two different types of 3D mesh particles, with distinct textures, from a moving nozzle, with each particle moving, rotating, and fading independently
  • creating a tightly focused spotlight whose intensity attenuates with distance
  • directing the 3D camera to track a particular target object
  • directing an object to track the camera, always facing (looking at) the camera (aka halo objects)
  • directing an object to track another object, always facing (looking at) that object
  • selecting a 3D object by touching the object on the screen with a finger
  • placing a 3D object on another at a point that was touched with a finger
  • adding a small CC3Layer/CC3Scene pair as a child window to a larger CC3Layer/CC3Scene pair.
  • moving, scaling and fading a CC3Layer and its CC3Scene
  • creating parametric boxes and texturing all six sides of the box with a single texture.
  • adding an object as a child of another, but keeping the original orientation of the child (addAndLocalizeChild:)
  • handling touch-move events to create swipe gestures to spin a 3D object using rotation around an arbitrary axis
  • toggling between opacity and translucency using the isOpaque property
  • choosing to cull or display backfaces (shouldCullBackFaces)
  • creating and deploying many independent copies of a node, while sharing the underlying mesh data
  • drawing a descriptive text label on a node using CC3Node shouldDrawDescriptor property.
  • drawing a wireframe bounding box around a node using CC3Node shouldDrawWireframeBox property.
  • automatically zooming the camera out to view all objects in the scene
  • constructing and drawing a highly tessellated rectangular plane mesh using CC3PlaneNode
  • caching mesh data into GL vertex buffer objects and releasing vertex data from application memory
  • retaining vertex location data in application memory (retainVertexLocations) for subsequent calculations
  • moving the pivot location (origin) of a mesh to the center of geometry of the mesh.
  • attaching application-specific userData to any node
  • applying a texture to all six sides of a parametric box
  • displaying direction marker lines on a node to clarify its orientation during development.
  • displaying a repeating texture pattern across a mesh
  • creating and displaying shadow volumes to render shadows for selected nodes
  • detecting the local location of where a node was touched using ray tracing
  • collision detection between nodes
  • texturing a node with only a small section of single texture
  • using the CC3Scene onOpen method to initiate activity when a scene opens
  • using pinch and pan gestures to control the movement of the 3D camera
  • using tap gestures to select 3D objects, and pan gestures to spin 3D objects
  • bitmapped font text labels
  • moving individual vertex location programmatically
  • using OpenGL ES 2.0 shaders.
  • loading PowerVR PFX effects files and applying them to materials
  • environmental reflections using a cube mapped texture.
  • render-to-texture the scene for display within the scene.
  • render-to-texture to create additional visual effects using post-rendering image processing.
  • render depth-to-texture to visualize the contents of the depth buffer.
  • read pixels from a rendered framebuffer
  • replace framebuffer and texture pixels with programmatic content
  • create CGImageRef from a rendered framebuffer
  • dynamically generate an environmental cube-map for creating a real-time dynamic reflective surfaces.
  • apply multiple animation tracks to a model, blend them together, and smoothly transition between animation tracks using a cross-fade action.

In addition, there are a number of interesting options for you to play with by uncommenting certain lines of code in the methods of this class that build objects in the 3D scene, including experimenting with:

  • simple particle generator with multi-colored, light-interactive, particles
  • simple particle generator with meshes updated less frequently to conserve performance
  • different options for ordering nodes when drawing, including ordering by mesh or texture
  • configuring the camera for parallel/isometric/orthographic projection instead of the default perpective projection
  • mounting the camera on a moving object, in this case a bouncing ball
  • mounting the camera on a moving object, in this case a bouncing ball, and having the camera stay focused on the rainbow teapot as both beach ball and teapot move and rotate
  • directing an object to track another object, always facing that object, but only rotating in one direction (eg- side-to-side, but not up and down).
  • displaying 2D labels (eg- health-bars) overlayed on top of the 3D scene at locations projected from the position of 3D objects
  • disabling animation for a particular node, in this case the camera and light
  • invading with an army of teapots instead of robots
  • ignore lighting conditions when drawing a node to draw in pure colors and textures
  • displaying descriptive text and wireframe bounding boxes on every node
  • displaying a dynamic bounding box on a 3D particle emitter.
  • making use of a fixed bounding volume for the 3D particle emitter to improve performance.
  • permitting a node to cast a shadow even when the node itself is invisible by using the shouldCastShadowsWhenInvisible property
  • Skybox using a cube mapped texture.
  • Cocos2D CCSprite displaying the television screen rendered texture

###CC3Demo3DTiles

A simple demo that lays out multiple small Cocos3D scenes as layers in a larger controllable Cocos2D layer. The effect is a grid of tiles, with each tile displaying a separate 3D scene, each containing its own camera and lighting. The main node in each 3D tile can be rotated under touch control.

This demonstrates the ability to simply include 3D objects in an otherwise 2D game, and techniques for optimizing under those conditions. It also demonstrates touch control when many 3D scene are visible concurrently.

###CC3Performance

This is a simple demo of the performance characteristics of Cocos3D. It demonstrates how to collect detailed statistics about your application's performance. In doing so, it presents a number of models, and, through the user interface, allows you to control the type of model loaded, and how many copies to render.

You can dynamically experiment with how different model types, sizes and quantities affect the performance of Cocos3D. You can also use this performance demo app to compare performance across different devices.

###CC3DemoMultiScene

This demo app is a sophisticated combination of several of the demo apps listed above. It demonstrates how to include Cocos3D in a UIView using Xcode Storyboards, and how to transition between different 3D scenes within an app. Using standard UIKit controls, you can load and transition between several of the Cocos3D demos listed above.

By default, this demo app uses Main.storyboard, which is a Universal Storyboard suitable for use with either iPad or iPhone layouts. However, Univeral Storyboards require iOS8. If you encounter issues with previous iOS versions, the project also includes Main_iPad.storyboard, which can be used with previous versions of iOS on an iPad. You can set the app to use this alternate Storyboard in the General tab of the CC3DemoMultiScene Target build settings, within Xcode.

Adding Cocos3D to an existing Cocos2D Project

Instead of starting with the CC3HelloWorld starter application project, you can add Cocos3D to an existing Cocos2D application (for example MyCocos2DApp), to allow you to add 3D content to your existing 2D application or game.

Note: Cocos3D 2.0 is compatible with Cocos2D 3.2, 3.1, 3.0, 2.2, 2.1 and 1.1. Cocos3D 2.0 is not compatible with Cocos2D 3.3 and above, as substantial changes to integration design were made in Cocos2D 3.3. Development of Cocos3D 3.0 is underway, which will provide exciting new features, and compatibility with future versions of Cocos2D. Cocos3D 3.0 will not retain compatibility with versions of Cocos2D earlier than Cocos2D 3.3, and will not support OpenGLES 1.1.

  1. The first step is to add the Cocos3D Static Library project as a subproject to your Cocos2D Xcode project, as follows:

    1. Copy the Projects/CC3StatLib folder from the Cocos3D distribution to the MyCocos2DApp/MyCocos2DApp/Libraries folder within your Cocos2D app.

    2. Open your MyCocos2DApp.xcodeproj Xcode project.

    3. Drag the Cocos3D static library Xcode subproject at MyCocos2DApp/MyCocos2DApp/Libraries/CC3StatLib/cocos3d-iOS.xcodeproj to the Libraries group in the Project Navigator panel of your MyCocos2DApp Xcode project (if you are building an OSX app, drag the cocos3d-OSX.xcodeproj subproject instead).

    4. Drag the Cocos3D GLSL shader folder at MyCocos2DApp/MyCocos2DApp/Libraries/CC3StatLib/cocos3d-GLSL to the MyCocos2DApp group in the Project Navigator panel of your MyCocos2DApp Xcode project. When prompted for the target to add the source code to, select the MyCocos2DApp target. Once added, these files will appear in the Copy Bundle Resources list on the Build Phases tab of the MyCocos2DApp target.

  2. Next, within Xcode, you need to tell your Cocos2D app project how to link to the code and components of the Cocos3D subproject:

    1. Select your MyCocos2DApp project in the Xcode Project Navigator panel.

    2. Select the Build Phases tab of the MyCocos2DApp target

      1. Open the Target Dependencies list and add the cocos3d target to the list.
      2. Open the Link Binary with Libraries list, and add the libcocos3d.a library to the list.

    3. Select the Build Settings tab

      1. In the Header Search Paths (aka HEADER_SEARCH_PATHS) entry, add an entry to "$(SRCROOT)/$(PROJECT_NAME)/Libraries/CC3StatLib/cocos3d" (including the double-quote marks), and mark it as recursive.
      2. In the Other Linker Flags (aka OTHER_LDFLAGS) entry, add an entry for -lstdc++.

  3. Cocos3D requires a depth buffer to provide 3D depth realism. You can add a depth buffer in your application code in the AppDelegate.m file. For Cocos2D 3.0 and above, in the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method, add the following line in the constructor for the config dictionary passed to the setupCocos2dWithOptions: method:

     CCSetupDepthFormat: @GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT16,         // Cocos3D requires a depth buffer

    This will create a basic 16-bit depth buffer, which covers most needs. If you want higher depth accuracy, you can use @GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT24_OES. And if you will be using shadow volume effects, use @GL_DEPTH24_STENCIL8_OES to create a combined depth and stencil buffer.

  4. Add your custom CC3Layer and CC3Scene source files (MyCC3Layer.h, MyCC3Layer.m, MyCC3Scene.h, and MyCC3Scene.m), and any 3D resources your app requires, to the MyCocos2DApp target of your MyCocos2DApp.xcodeproj Xcode project.

  5. You can add a 3D component by adding code similar to the following within one of your customized 2D scene layouts (eg - MyCocos2DScene.m):

     #import "MyCC3Layer.h"
 
 ...
 
 CC3Layer* cc3Layer = [[MyCC3Layer alloc] init];
 cc3Layer.contentSize = CGSizeMake(300.0, 200.0);
 cc3Layer.position = CGPointMake(100.0, 100.0);
 [self addChild: cc3Layer];

Using Cocos3D with SpriteBuilder

You can use Cocos3D to add 3D content to games created with SpriteBuilder. Adding Cocos3D to SpriteBuilder is similar to adding Cocos3D to an existing Cocos2D app, as described above in Adding Cocos3D to an existing Cocos2D Project.

Note: Cocos3D 2.0 is compatible with SpriteBuilder 1.2, 1.1 and 1.0. Cocos3D 2.0 is not compatible with SpriteBuilder 1.3 and above, as substantial changes to integration design were made in SpriteBuilder 1.3. Development of Cocos3D 3.0 is underway, which will provide exciting new features, and compatibility with future versions of SpriteBuilder.

To add Cocos3D your SpriteBuilder project, create your SpriteBuilder app (for example MySpriteBuilderApp.spritebuilder) as you normally would, then follow these instructions to add Cocos3D to it:

  1. The first step is to add the Cocos3D Static Library project as a subproject to your SpriteBuilder Xcode project, as follows:

    1. Copy the Projects/CC3StatLib folder from the Cocos3D distribution to the MySpriteBuilderApp.spritebuilder/Source/libs folder within your SpriteBuilder app.

    2. Open your MySpriteBuilderApp.xcodeproj Xcode project.

    3. Drag the Cocos3D static library Xcode subproject at MySpriteBuilderApp.spritebuilder/Source/libs/CC3StatLib/cocos3d-iOS.xcodeproj to the libs group in the Project Navigator panel of your MySpriteBuilderApp Xcode project (if you are building an OSX app, drag the cocos3d-OSX.xcodeproj subproject instead).

    4. Drag the Cocos3D GLSL shader folder at MySpriteBuilderApp.spritebuilder/Source/libs/CC3StatLib/cocos3d-GLSL to the Project Navigator panel of your MySpriteBuilderApp Xcode project. When prompted for the target to add the source code to, select the MySpriteBuilderApp target. Once added, these files will appear in the Copy Bundle Resources list on the Build Phases tab of the MySpriteBuilderApp target.

  2. Next, within Xcode, you need to tell your SpriteBuilder app project how to link to the code and components of the Cocos3D subproject:

    1. Select your MySpriteBuilderApp project in the Xcode Project Navigator panel.

    2. Select the Build Phases tab of the MySpriteBuilderApp target

      1. Open the Target Dependencies list and add the cocos3d target to the list.
      2. Open the Link Binary with Libraries list, and add the libcocos3d.a library to the list.

    3. Select the Build Settings tab

      1. In the Header Search Paths (aka HEADER_SEARCH_PATHS) entry, add an entry to "Source/libs/CC3StatLib/cocos3d" (including the double-quote marks), and mark it as recursive.
      2. In the Other Linker Flags (aka OTHER_LD_FLAGS) entry, add an entry for -lstdc++.

  3. Cocos3D requires a depth buffer to provide 3D depth realism. You can add a depth buffer in your application code in the AppDelegate.m file. In the AppContoller application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method, add the following line somewhere before the call to setupCocos2dWithOptions:

     cocos2dSetup[CCSetupDepthFormat] = @GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT16;        // Cocos3D requires a depth buffer

    This will create a basic 16-bit depth buffer, which covers most needs. If you want higher depth accuracy, you can use @GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT24_OES. And if you will be using shadow volume effects, use @GL_DEPTH24_STENCIL8_OES to create a combined depth and stencil buffer.

  4. Add your custom CC3Layer and CC3Scene source files (MyCC3Layer.h, MyCC3Layer.m, MyCC3Scene.h, and MyCC3Scene.m), and any 3D resources your app requires, to the MySpriteBuilderApp target of your MySpriteBuilderApp.xcodeproj Xcode project.

  5. You're now ready to add 3D content to your SpriteBuilder interface. As with any Cocos3D application, you provide 3D content by creating a custom subclass of CC3Layer. Open your MySpriteBuilderApp.spritebuilder project, and add your custom CC3Layer to your SpriteBuilder layout as follows:

    1. Drag a Node from the SpriteBuilder component palette to your layout.
    2. Set the Custom class property of the new component to the name of your custom MyCC3Layer class.
    3. Set the Content size property to the size at which you want your want your 3D scene to be displayed.
    4. When first placed, the MyCC3Layer component will be added as a child of the root node of the SpriteBuilder scene. If you want the MyCC3Layer node to move as part of another node, you can use the SpriteBuilder timeline hierarchy to reposition the node to be a child of a different parent.
    5. Save and Publish your new SpriteBuilder layout.
    6. Build and run your app from Xcode to see your new 3D content.
    7. Repeat for all 3D sprites that you want to add to your SpriteBuilder scene.

Cocos2D Version Compatibility

Cocos3D is compatible with Cocos2D 3.2, 3.1, 3.0, 2.2 and 2.1, when using programmable-pipeline OpenGL ES 2.0 under iOS and Android, or OpenGL under OSX, and is compatible with Cocos2D 1.1, when using fixed-pipeline OpenGL ES 1.1 under iOS and Android.

Note: Cocos3D 2.0 is not compatible with Cocos2D 3.3 and above, as substantial changes to integration design were made in Cocos2D 3.3. Development of Cocos3D 3.0 is underway, which will provide exciting new features, and compatibility with future versions of Cocos2D. Cocos3D 3.0 will not retain compatibility with versions of Cocos2D earlier than Cocos2D 3.3, and will not support OpenGLES 1.1.

The demo apps within the Cocos3D distribution are pre-configured to use Cocos2D 3.2.1. To build and run the demo apps with a different version of Cocos2D, follow the steps described here:

  1. Run the install-cocos3d.sh script again and identify the new version of Cocos2D to be linked. Keep in mind that you must link Cocos2D 2.1 or above if you want to use OpenGL ES 2.0 (iOS & Android) or OpenGL (OSX) with a programmable rendering pipeline, and you must link Cocos2D 1.1 if you want to use OpenGL ES 1.1 (iOS & Android) with a fixed rendering pipeline.

  2. In the Xcode Project Navigator panel, delete the reference to the cocos2d group in the cocos2d-library-iOS or cocos2d-library-OSX project.

  3. Add the newly linked Cocos2D files to the project by dragging the cocos2d folder from the Cocos3D distribution folder into the cocos2d-library-iOS or cocos2d-library-OSX project in the Xcode Project Navigator panel. When prompted for the target to add the source code to, select the cocos2d target.

  4. In the Xcode Project Navigator panel, delete the reference to the cocos2d-chipmunk group in the cocos2d-chipmunk-library-iOS or cocos2d-chipmunk-library-OSX project.

  5. Add the newly linked Cocos2D Chipmunk files to the project by dragging the cocos2d-chipmunk folder from the Cocos3D distribution folder into the cocos2d-chipmunk-library-iOS or cocos2d-chipmunk-library-OSX project in the Xcode Project Navigator panel. When prompted for the target to add the source code to, select the cocos2d-chipmunk target.

  6. If you are using Cocos2D 3.2, configure the CCNoARC.m file to use Manual Refernce Counting:

    1. Select the cocos2d-library-iOS or cocos2d-library-OSX project.

    2. Select the Build Phases tab of the cocos2d target.

    3. Open the Compile Sources list and locate the entry for the CCNoARC.m file.

    4. On the CCNoARC.m entry, double-click the Compiler Flags column and enter the -fno-objc-arc compiler flag. As the name implies, the CCNoARC.m file uses Manual Refernce Counting (MRC) instead of Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), to improve performance.

  7. Cocos2D 3.0 and above, uses Automatic Reference Counting (ARC). Cocos2D 2.2 and below do not. You must set the appropriate compiler build setting to ensure the compiler will use the correct technique.

    1. In the cocos2d-library-iOS or cocos2d-library-OSX project, select the cocos2d target in your project settings.
    2. Select the Build Settings tab.
    3. Locate the Objective-C Automatic Reference Counting (aka CLANG_ENABLE_OBJC_ARC) setting for the cocos2d target. If you are now linking to Cocos2D 3.0 or above, set this property to YES. If you are now linking to Cocos2D 2.2 or below, set this property to NO. Make sure you change only the setting for the cocos2d target within your project. Do not change the setting for the cocos2d-library-iOS or cocos2d-library-OSX project itself.
    4. The cocos2d-chipmunk part of the Cocos2D library does not use ARC. Ensure the Objective-C Automatic Reference Counting (aka CLANG_ENABLE_OBJC_ARC) setting of the cocos2d-chipmunk target is always set to NO.

  8. Cocos2D 2.2 and above supports compiling to the ARM64 architecture. Cocos2D 2.1 and below do not support compiling to the ARM64 architecture. Because of this, by default, the Valid Architectures (aka VALID_ARCHS) build setting for all demo Xcode Projects in the Cocos3D distribution is set to $(ARCHS_STANDARD_32_BIT) (which resolves to armv7 armv7s), so that the demo projects will compile with all versions of Cocos2D. If you are now linking to Cocos2D 2.2 or above, you can set this property to $(ARCHS_STANDARD) (or simply remove this setting from the Project), in all demo Projects, to allow compilation to include the ARM64 architecture.

  9. As a development optimization, if you are now linking to Cocos2D 2.2 or above, you can set the value of the Build Active Architecture Only (aka ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH) build setting in the Debug configuration in all demo projects to YES. You should not do this if you are linking to Cocos2D 2.1 or below, as this will prohibit you from building the demo apps on devices that use the ARM64 processor.

  10. If you have already built the demo app using the old version of Cocos2D, delete the contents of your ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData folder before attempting to compile again.

Compiling for Android

Cocos3D (along with Cocos2D) is written in Objective-C. Cocos3D has partnered with Apportable to bring your 3D apps and games to the Android platform. The Apportable SDK is a free SDK for porting Objective-C applications to Android.

To build and install your app or game project for the Android platform:

  1. Download and install the Apportable SDK.
  2. Open a Terminal window and navigate to the Xcode project folder of your Cocos3D app.
  3. Run the command: apportable install to build and install your Cocos3D app on an Android device connected to your computer.

Please refer to the Apportable SDK documentation for more information about building, installing, and debugging your app on Android. If you are building an OpenGL ES 1.1 app, you will need to modify the configuration.json file in your Xcode project, as indicated in that file.

Creating POD 3D Model Files

Cocos3D reads 3D model content from POD files.

If you are using Blender, Maya, or 3DS Max as your 3D editor, you can install the PVRGeoPOD plugin from Imagination Technologies to export directly from your editor to the POD file format.

For other editors, you can export your 3D model to a file in COLLADA 1.4 format, and then use the standalone PVRGeoPOD app to convert the COLLADA file to the POD format.

Both the standalone and plugin versions of PVRGeoPOD are available free of charge from Imagination Technologies, the supplier of the GPU's used in iOS devices.

Read the full instructions for more info on where to get the PVRGeoPOD converter, and how to use it to generate POD files.

If you are using Blender as your 3D editor, and have many .blend files to export to POD format, you can use the command-line batch tool available in the Tools/Blender-POD Batch Converter folder in the Cocos3D distribution. See the README.txt file in that folder for instructions. The Blender-POD Batch Converter tool was created by Cocos3D user Nikita Medvedev.

Demo Models

Some of the POD models that appear in the demo and template apps were designed in Blender and exported to POD files using the PowerVR PVRGeoPOD converter.

As a reference for the creation of your own 3D models for use in Cocos3D, you can find the original Blender files for these POD models in the Models folder in the Cocos3D distribution.