Raylib-CsLo 4.0.0

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• About
  • What is Raylib?
  • Super easy to use for 2d!
  • High performance for 3d! (but unsafe to use)
• How to use/install
  • via Nuget
  • via sources
• Linux / OsX / other platform support
• Release timeline
  • RELEASE CANDIDATE
  • RELEASE
• Examples
• Differences from Raylib-Cs
• Extras (1st person, 3rd person cameras)
• Usage Tips / FAQ
• Known Issues:
• How to Contribute
• License options: MPL2.0 or PCL
  • Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL)
  • Private Commercial License (PCL)
• ChangeLog
• Todo

About

Managed C# bindings to Raylib, a friendly 2d/3d game framework similar to XNA / MonoGame.

• Win/Linux/OsX supported.
• Includes bindings for raylib extras: RayGui, Easings, Physac, RlGl, RayMath.
• Minimal bindings + convenience wrappers to make it easier to use.
• Tested and verified ALL 100+ Raylib examples. These ported examples are available to you in the GitHub Repo
• Requires unsafe for 3d workflows.
• Supports net5+, Mono 6.4+, NetCore3+ (via netStandard 2.1)
• Tested on Win10. User Reports Arch Linux works. Please test on other platforms and raise an issue if any problems occur.
• A focus on performance. No runtime allocations if at all possible.
• No intellisense docs. read the raylib cheatsheet for docs or view the examples
• Full source code included in The GitHub Repository, including native sources, allowing you to compile for any platform you wish.

What is Raylib?

Raylib is a friendly-to-use game framework that includes basic scenarios to meet your needs: audio, 2d, 3d, fonts, animation, 2d physics. Somewhat similar to Xna or MonoGame but friendlier. However, Raylib is a C/CPP framework. Raylib-CsLo is a C# Wrapper over the top, which lets you gain raylib's powers to quickly prototype your game ideas.

Super easy to use for 2d!

If you stick with 2d, you don't need to use any unsafe (pointer) code, which lets 2d users feel at home and use Raylib-CsLo as an awesome 2d game framework.

High performance for 3d! (but unsafe to use)

If you use 3d, you need to understand a bit of how pointers work. Raylib uses these to link things like Model, Mesh, and Material. Writing wrappers over these is possible but it would basically be creating a an entirely new framework. I suggest leaving this as-is, as it avoids object allocation (GC Pressure).

Additionally, 3d users: Be sure you check the Usage Tips section below, especially on how you need to use Matrix4x4.Transpose() when sending matricies to Raylib.

How to use/install

via Nuget

1. add the latest version of The Raylib-CsLo Nuget Package to your project
2. Create an example project using it, the following code is coppied from The StandAlone Example's Program.cs

using Raylib_CsLo;

namespace StandaloneExample
{
	public static class Program
	{
		public static async Task Main(string[] args)
		{
			Raylib.InitWindow(1280, 720, "Hello, Raylib-CsLo");
			Raylib.SetTargetFPS(60);
			// Main game loop
			while (!Raylib.WindowShouldClose()) // Detect window close button or ESC key
			{
				Raylib.BeginDrawing();
				Raylib.ClearBackground(Raylib.SKYBLUE);
				Raylib.DrawFPS(10, 10);
				Raylib.DrawText("Raylib is easy!!!", 640 , 360, 50, Raylib.RED);
				Raylib.EndDrawing();
			}
			Raylib.CloseWindow();
		}
	}
}

via sources

1. clone/download the github repository
2. open ./Raylib-CsLo-DEV.sln in Visual Studio 2022.
3. build and run.
   • the Raylib-CsLo.Examples project will run by default, and will run through all (aprox 100+) examples.
4. For a stand-alone example that uses the Nuget Package, see the ./StandaloneExample folder

Linux / OsX / other platform support

The following platforms are shipped in the nuget package:

• win-x64 : confirmed working on Win10, x64. This is the platform used for dev/testing of raylib-cslo.
• linux-x64: confirmed working on Arch Linux. Binaries built under Ubuntu 20.04 so that shold also work.
• osx-x64: not confirmed yet. Please let me know if you try.

You can build the native binaries for whatever platform you need. Please see the readme under https://github.com/NotNotTech/Raylib-CsLo/tree/main/Raylib-CsLo/runtimes for more info.

Release timeline

RELEASE CANDIDATE

• The current status.
• All Raylib features, including Extras bindings
  • raylib : Core features, including Audio.
  • rlgl : OpenGl abstraction
  • raygui : An Imperitive Gui
  • physac : A 2d physics framework
  • easings : for simple animations (Managed Port)
  • raymath : game math library (Managed Port)
• All raylib examples are ported and working (see the github repository for the example project)
• A Nuget package is avalable

RELEASE

• Triggered a few weeks after the last RC issue is fixed. If you find any bugs with the release candidate, be sure to raise an issue!

Examples

Here are links to most the examples. The images/links probably won't work from Nuget. Visit the Github Repo to see it properly.

Core	Shapes	Textures	Text	Models	Shaders	Audio	Physics

Differences from Raylib-Cs

Extras (1st person, 3rd person cameras)

If you need a custom camera, check out the Raylib-Extras-CsLo project, which contains a custom First Person Camera and Third Person Camera. https://github.com/NotNotTech/Raylib-Extras-CsLo

Usage Tips / FAQ

• How do I do SOME_IDEA?
  • All the Raylib examples (100+) have been ported successfully. Please refer to them here: ALL 100+ Raylib examples. If you need more help, ask on Discord.
• Does Raylib-CsLo include the SOME_FUNCTION_YOU_NEED() function?
  • Raylib-CsLo has bindings for everything in the Raylib 4.0 release, including extras like raygui and physac, but with the exception of things in the Known Issues section further below.
• Why didn't you add a wrapper for function SOME_OTHER_FUNCTION_YOU_NEED()?
  • Raylib-CsLo uses a manual marshalling technique, as the built in PInvoke marshalling is not very efficienct. Most API's have wrappers (and all involving string marshalling), but some involving pointers have been left as-is. If you come across a function that you feel needs more wrapping, you can raise an issue or perhaps submit a PR
• How do I convert a string to sbyte* or vice-versa?
  • All API's that take sbyte* have string wrappers, so be sure to look at the overload you can call.
• Do I have to really cast my Enum to int?
  • The autogen bindings are left untouched, however convenience wrappers are added. Usually these will automagically "work" via function overloads, but where this is not possible, try adding an underscore _ to the end of the function/property. For example: Camera3D.projection_ = CameraProjection.CAMERA_ORTHOGRAPHIC; or Gesture gesture = Raylib.GetGestureDetected_();.
  • If all else fails, yes. Cast to (int).
• I ran the examples in a profiler. What are all these sbyte[] arrays being allocated?
  • A pool of sbyte[] is allocated for string marshall purposes, to avoid runtime allocations.
• Can I, Should I use RayMath?
  • Raylib_CsLo.RayMath contains a lot of super helpful functions for doing gamedev related maths.
  • The RayMath helper functions have been translated into C# code. This makes the code pretty fast, but if the same function exists under System.Numerics you should use that instead, because the DotNet CLR treats things under System.Numerics special, and optimizes it better.
• Why are my matricies corrupt?
  • Raylib/OpenGl uses column-major matricies, while dotnet/vulkan/directx uses row-major. When passing your final calculated matrix to raylib for rendering, call Matrix4x4.Transpose(yourMatrix)

Known Issues:

• RayGui: be sure to call RayGui.GuiLoadStyleDefault(); right after you InitWindow(). This is needed to initialize the gui properly. If you don't, if you close a raylib window and then open a new one (inside the same app), the gui will be broken.
• The Text.Unicode example doesn't render unicode properly. Maybe the required font is missing, maybe there is a bug in the example (Utf16 to Utf8 conversion) or maybe there is a bug in Raylib. A hunch: I think it's probably due to the fonts not including unicode characters, but I didn't investigate further.
• Native Memory allocation functions are not ported: use System.Runtime.InteropServices.NativeMemory.Alloc() instead
• LogCustom() is ported but doesn't support variable length arguments.
• Texture2D doesn't exist. it is just an alias for Texture so use that instead. You might want to use using aliases like the following

  //usings to make C# code more like the raylib cpp examples.   
  //to see more stuff like this, look at Raylib-CsLo.Examples/program.cs
  global using Camera = Raylib_CsLo.Camera3D;
  global using RenderTexture2D = Raylib_CsLo.RenderTexture;
  global using Texture2D = Raylib_CsLo.Texture;
  global using TextureCubemap = Raylib_CsLo.Texture;
  global using Matrix = System.Numerics.Matrix4x4;
  

How to Contribute

0. assume you are using Visual Studio (or maybe rider?) and can run dev.sln
1. fork the repo, build and try out the example project
2. Pick something to do

• test/improve support on linux and/or OsX
• improve wrappers for ease of use
• ???? check issues

License options: MPL2.0 or PCL

Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL)

By default, this repository is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL). The MPL is a popular "weak copyleft" license that allows just about anything. For example, you may use/include/static-link this library in a commercial, closed-source project without any burdens. The main limitation of the MPL being that: Modifications to the source code in this project must be open sourced.

The MPL is a great choice, both by providing flexibility to the user, and by encouraging contributions to the underlying project. If you would like to read about the MPL, FOSSA has a great overview of the MPL 2.0 here.

Private Commercial License (PCL)

If for some reason you or your organization really, REALLY can not open source your modifications to this project, I am willing to offer a PCL for USD $1000, half of which will be donated to the upstream raylib project. Payment can be made via github donations. Yes $1000 is a lot of money, so just try to accept the MPL terms and move on with life! If you still think a PCL is what you need, raise an issue or email JasonS aat Novaleaf doot coom to discuss.

ChangeLog

changelog for major releases.

• 4.0.0-rc.5.0 (2021/12/15): No breaking changes. Broaden DotNet support to Net5+, etc (via NetStandard 2.1)
• 4.0.0-rc.4.0 (2021/12/04): No breaking changes. Cleanup and change license from LGPL to MPL, because LGPL doesn't allow private static linking.
• 4.0.0-rc.3 (2021/11/29): No breaking changes. Improve Boolean Marshalling.
• 4.0.0-rc.2 (2021/11/28): Rollup all native code into single binary. Improve bindings compat.
• 4.0.0-rc.1 (2021/11/24): Support for Linux and OsX (hopefully).
• 4.0.0-rc.0 (2021/11/22): physac.dll and bindings for it added. Physics and Audio examples ported. All raylib examples complete!
• 4.0.0-beta.2 (2021/11/22): RayGui, and Easings Raylib.extras ported to managed code. Shapes,Textures, and Text examples ported.
• 4.0.0-beta.0 (2021/11/20): Model, and Shader examples ported.
• 4.0.0-alpha.2 (2021/11/18): Model examples ported. AutoGen Bindings expanded to include all api's exposed by Raylib.dll (adding RayMath, RlGl)
• 4.0.0-alpha.1 (2021/11/16): all Core examples ported, so "feature complete" for the workflows used in those examples (and, complete only for those workflows)

Todo

• soonish
  • Improve XPlat:
    • pending. will aim to have native binaries generated via github actions...
  • exit pre-release
• later