Documentation

Jump to a particular topic bookmarked below, or access the entire documentation section by clicking the big button to the right.

Documentation Bookmarks

SilverLining™ Licensing
How to obtain a license for SilverLining™.

Overview of SilverLining™
A high-level overview of SilverLining™, its components, and its classes.

• SDK Contents
• Distributing SilverLining™ with Your Application
• Overview of SilverLining™
• Windows Build Settings
• Linux Build Settings and Dependencies
• MacOSX Build Settings and Dependencies

Using SilverLining™
Step-by-step examples of how to integrate SilverLining™ into your application.

• A simple example
  • Initialization
  • Infinite Cloud Layers
  • Integrating SilverLining™ with your Rendering Loop
  • Lighting Your Scene with SilverLining™
  • Fog Effects with SilverLining™
• Integration Tips with Popular Scene Graphs
• Using SilverLining™ in Geocentric or ECEF (Earth Centered Earth Fixed) Coordinates
• Simulating Precipitation with SilverLining™
• Manipulating Time with SilverLining™
• Considerations for Multi-Channel and Multi-Context Setups
• Managing Your Own Drawing
• Advanced: using shadow maps
• Using SilverLining™ with High Dynamic Range applications (HDR)
• Tweaking SilverLining™’s Appearance

SilverLining™ Troubleshooting Tips
Troubleshooting tips if you’re getting unexpected results.

SilverLining™ Support
How to get help from Sundog Software, LLC when you’re stuck.

---

How to integrate SilverLining™

SilverLining™ is easy to integrate into your C or C++ – based graphics applications. Here’s an example of how easy it is to integrate SilverLining™ into an OpenGL application; the process is similar for Direct3D.

First, after initializing your graphics subsystem, initialize SilverLining™:

• Atmosphere *atm = new Atmosphere();
• atm->Initialize(Atmosphere::OPENGL);

Let’s say you want to add a deck of cumulus congestus clouds to the scene:

• CloudLayer *cloudLayer = CloudLayerFactory::Create(CUMULUS_CONGESTUS);
• cloudLayer->SetBaseAltitude(1000);
• cloudLayer->SetThickness(100);
• cloudLayer->SetBaseLength(30000);
• cloudLayer->SetBaseWidth(40000);
• cloudLayer->SetDensity(0.25);
• cloudLayer->SetLayerPosition(5000, 5000);
• cloudLayer->SeedClouds(*atm);
• atm->GetConditions()->AddCloudLayer(cloudLayer);

At the beginning of rendering your frame, after setting the view and projection matrices, call:

• atm->BeginFrame(true);

This will draw the sky and do any necessary lighting computations for your scene.

Then, at the end of your frame, call:

• atm->EndFrame();

This will draw the clouds, sorted from back to front.

Of course, there is much more that SilverLining™ can do, but the above code is all that’s required to get up and running with a scene of clouds filling the sky. The complete public API is well-documented and viewable online.

---

API Reference PDF
SilverLining™ Documentation in PDF format
Your SDK includes full documentation in HTML or compiled HTML format. If you prefer your documentation on paper, here’s a nicely formatted PDF version of our documentation and API reference suitable for printing and binding.