C4-Engine examples

This repository contains a collection of basic examples for C4Engine (https://c4engine.com/).

The examples are intentionally incremental, with each one focusing on a single aspect of the engine. As a result, they are generally simpler and more narrowly focused than the official tutorials. Tutorial-style comments are included throughout the code to explain relevant sections in detail.

To avoid repetition, later examples omit comments for code that was already covered in earlier examples. Some examples introduce little or no new code and instead serve primarily as references for how worlds, materials, or scripts should be structured and designed.

C4 Engine — Adding Examples to the Visual Studio Solution

To add the examples to the C4 Engine Visual Studio solution, follow the steps below.

A video walkthrough of the process is available in the project wiki:
https://github.com/nasosi/C4EngineExamples/wiki

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1. Set Up the Folder Structure

Place the Examples folder inside a V4 subdirectory within the main C4 folder.

Your directory structure should look like this:

C4-Engine/
├── Data/
├── EngineCode/
├── ...
└── V4/
    └── Examples/
        ├── 001_Simple/
        └── 002_Display_Text/

Alternative: Add as a Git Submodule

Instead of creating the folder structure manually, you can add the repository as a Git submodule.

First, create a V4 folder in the root directory of the C4-Engine folder. Then open a command prompt in the C4-Engine root directory and run the following commands:

git submodule add https://github.com/nasosi/C4EngineExamples V4/Examples
git submodule update --init --recursive

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2. Open the C4 Solution

Open the Visual Studio solution located at:

{C4 Engine Root Folder}\VisualStudio-Win\C4\C4.sln

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3. Create a Solution Folder

In Solution Explorer (typically located on the right side of Visual Studio):

1. Right-click the solution (for example, Solution "C4").
2. Select Add → New Solution Folder.
3. Name the folder:

Examples

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4. Add the First Example Project

1. Right-click the newly created Examples solution folder.
2. Select Add → Existing Project.
3. Navigate to:

{C4 Engine Root Folder}\V4\Examples\001_Simple

4. Select the .vcxproj file.
5. Click Open.

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5. Add the Remaining Example Projects

Repeat the following steps for each additional example project:

1. Right-click the Examples solution folder.
2. Select Add → Existing Project.
3. Navigate to the desired example folder.
4. Select its .vcxproj file.

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6. Create Data and Import Junctions

Run the following file from the Examples directory:

{C4 Engine Root Folder}\V4\Examples\CreateJunctions.bat

This will create the required Data and Import junctions for the examples.

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List of Examples

The currently available examples are listed below.

Name	Description
001_Simple	A basic example containing a very simple world. Demonstrates core concepts such as locating a spectator marker, positioning the camera, and setting up basic input handling.
002_Text_Display	Demonstrates how to display static text on the screen.
003_Start_Window	A basic menu implemented using C4 Engine panels. The user can click a button to start the game.
004_Improved_Start_Window	An expanded menu that allows the user to start, resume, or quit the game.
005_Physics_and_Collision	Demonstrates basic physics and collision handling within a world.
006_Simple_Shader	A simple procedural shader example.
007_Simple_Animated_Shader	Demonstrates an animated procedural shader.
008_Adding_Geometry_with_Collision_Programmatically	Demonstrates how to programmatically create geometry with collision enabled.
009_Custom_Controller	Demonstrates a custom controller used to rotate geometry with collision enabled.
010_User_Controlled_Object	A small space-themed environment featuring a user-controlled spacecraft.
011_Texture	Demonstrates texturing and material setup.