Great PEXpectations

Another song written on a graphics training course. PEXlib is a 3D graphics API (application programming interface: basically a library). It's powerful, but quite complicated to use until you're used to it.

This song represents a dialogue between a support engineer (like me) and a customer who's trying to get started.

A customer of mine has started using PEX,
He's got the thing on line - but it don't do what he expex;
The choosing of the Visual is wrong -
And that is the subject of his song...

What will I do, and what will I say?
Should I use image or overlay?
How many planes? I hope he explains;
All I can do is to guess!
How do I use transparency?
(Have to confess it confuses me!)
Pseudo and Direct and TrueColor too -
It looks like one hell of a mess!

This customer of mine is trying to use PEX,
His source code looks just fine, but it don't do what he expex;
The colour approximation is all wrong -
And that is now the subject of his song...

What colour type do I choose for this case?
PEXColorRange or PEXColorSpace?
RGB colour or HSV,
Which is the model for me?
How many bits to represent red,
And green and blue; (what was it he said?)
Does this hardware do dithering for me -
And colour recovery?

That customer of mine is getting grief from PEX,
I think he's almost cryin', it don't do what he expex;
He tells me that the renderer is wrong -
And that's become the subject of his song...

Renderer attributes, Oh what a pain!
Got to compile it again and again!
PEXLookupTable, PEXNamesSet,
PEXNPCSubVolume!
Viewports and fonts and renderer state,
(Calling my wife to say I'll be late);
Getting PEX to render the view
Is something you just can't assume.

That customer of mine is happy he's got PEX,
His application's fine, it does what he expex;
He's called to say that now there's nothing wrong,
So one more time we're gonna hear his song...

I have defined my geometry,
Lots of vertices in 3D;
NURBS and splines and polylines,
All in my hierarchy!
Thank you for performance tips,
Such as using triangle strips;
Now my rendering is fine every time -
PEX is the product for me!