Class Types

The classes defined by the native PathEngine API can be divided into two types of classes: API objects, and callback interfaces.

For API objects such as iMesh you basically get a handle to an object created internally within PathEngine, and can use the handle to perform operations related to that object.

Each of these API object classes is then mapped to a class on the CLR side that is essentially just a thin wrapper over the pointer to the native object, with a set of methods that call through directly to the corresponding methods in the native PathEngine API.

Callback interfaces, on the other hand, are usually implemented in the application side, as an application side concrete class, with a pointer to an instance of the concrete class then passed in to PathEngine, e.g. to provide access to application side data.

Each of these callback interfaces is mapped to a CLR interface class definition, to be implemented by concrete classes in a CLR language such as Visual Basic or C# on the application side, enabling these CLR language callback implementations to be passed directly in to interface methods which require callbacks.