##Instructions

In order to run successfully, the following files need to be in the same folder:

• playground.exe
• SimpleVertexShader.vertexshader
• SimpleFragmentShader.fragmentshader

Additionally, the Shape Config file : 'shape.ini' should be present if you wish to change the shape.

The Shape Configuration file has a rigid format that must be followed. Here is a sample config :

shape square

size 0.8

color red

movement vertical

speed 0.4

To explain each line :

• shape - accepts the strings 'square', 'triangle', 'circle' and 'hexagon'.
• size - accepts a scalar value. 1.0 sets the scale to the height of the window, larger than that will make the shape larger than the window.
• color - accepts the strings 'red', 'blue', 'green', 'yellow'
• movement - accepts the strings 'vertical', 'horizontal', 'circular', 'box' and 'none'
• speed - accepts a scalar value. Defines the cycles per second. For example, 0.5 means half a cycle per second, or one cycle per 2 seconds. All characters must be lower case.

In order to change the shape at runtime, press 'Enter'. The shape config file will be read and the new shape will be deployed.

##Development Notes

I decided to learn OpenGL for this test for it's cross-platform capabilities. Knowing that PikPok works in the Mobile and Console Gaming space, DirectX and GDI did not seem appropriate. I found a tutorial with some samples to quickly get a running window, as well as see how standard graphics tasks like shader-binding and putting data into buffers works.

I did try to create my own clean project after that, but being out of practice with C++ and Visual Studio, I ran into a lot of linker errors that I just couldn't figure out. I decided to just write my code on top of a working openGL sample project instead, so I could better spend time finishing all the required features.

I made a base CShape class, which contains the shape's position, color, size, and variables for animation. The CShape class also handles updating the shape's position every frame. I was going to make animation it's own class if I had leftover time. CSquare, CTriangle, CCircle and CHexagon derive from CShape, and the only additional thing they do is Draw themselves.

In hindsight, I should have wrapped OpenGL in a class to keep the main loop tidy, and encapsulate all the initialization in a single function. Asides from being short of time, the reason I didn't was that I wasn't confident that I knew OpenGL well enough to do so at the time.

For parsing my INI file, I wrote a very simple line-by-line text reader. I felt that a single function was sufficient for this task, and writing a class around it seemed like overkill.

I included vld.h during production, and by the of the project, I am happy to report there are no memory leaks. It is worth noting that this is a visual studio 2012 project. I have heard that it might not be backwards compatible, but I'm not sure how to fix that.

##Known Issues

• I am aware that some shapes and movement patterns may display a long trailing tail that goes off into the distance. I am unsure about the cause, my guess is that OpenGL is adding a vector to my buffer that points to some arbitrary coordinate.
• I am also aware that random objects can appear in the window, I have seen green and blue triangles before. My best guess is that garbage data is being used somewhere, although I haven't found it.
• The application may arbitrarily 'pause' for about a second sometimes. I haven't tested this on other computers, and I have exhaustively tried to find out why to no avail.
• Finally, I know that everything appears 'squashed', I have tried to fix it, but for fear of breaking everything when it's already working - and also running out of time, I left it alone.