Now that you have "been through" how to set up an OpenGL window it's time to do some drawing to the screen..
In this tutorial we will draw a triangle and a quad.
Since we already have set up our window and view for drawing lets take a look at our render function. To draw something in 3D we will use vertices. These points will define the shape of our geometry. If you don’t know what a vertex, edge or face is click here
To draw a vertex in OpenGL we use glVertex3f or glVertex2f. We focus on OpenGL in 3D so we will use glVertex3f. In glVertex3f the letter f tells OpenGL that we are using float not integer glVertex3i.
Before we start drawing we first call glLoadIdentity() what you are doing is moving back to the center of the screen with the X axis running left to right, the Y axis moving up and down, and the Z axis moving into, and out of the screen.
The center of an OpenGL screen is 0.0f on the X and Y axis. To the left of center would be a negative number. To the right would be a positive number. Moving towards the top of the screen would be a positive number, moving to the bottom of the screen would be a negative number. Moving deeper into the screen is a negative number, moving towards the viewer would be a positive number.
Now we can choose what kind of polygon we want to draw. We use glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); and glBegin(GL_QUADS); for the drawing of our triangle and quad. Always begin our geometry drawing with the function call glBegin and always end it with glEnd. glEnd tells OpenGL we are done drawing. glBegin needs an argument like GL_TRIANGLES. GL_TRIANGLES basically means that we use three vertices to create a triangle shape. And GL_QUADS means four vertices for our quad.
(you can also draw GL_POINTS, GL_LINES etc).
To move or translate our geometry we use glTranslatef(x,y,z). glTranslatef moves along the X, Y and Z axis, in that order. It will translate our geometry matrix. We use it before we draw the triangle and before we draw our quad. If we use glTranslatef(-1.5f, 0.0f, -6.0f); it means –1.5 units in the negative x direction (left) and –6.0 units in the negative z direction (into the screen).
int DrawGLScene(GLvoid) // Here's Where We Do All The Drawing
{
// Clear Screen And Depth Buffer
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
// Reset The Current Modelview Matrix
glLoadIdentity();
//NEW//////////////////NEW//////////////////NEW//////////////////NEW/////////////
glTranslatef(-1.5f,0.0f,-6.0f); // Move 1.5 Left And 6.0 Into The Screen.
glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); // Drawing Using Triangles
glVertex3f( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top
glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); // Bottom Left
glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); // Bottom Right
glEnd(); // Finished Drawing
glTranslatef(3.0f,0.0f,0.0f); // Move Right
glBegin(GL_QUADS); // Draw A Quad
glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top Left
glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f); // Top Right
glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); // Bottom Right
glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); // Bottom Left
glEnd();
//NEW//////////////////NEW//////////////////NEW//////////////////NEW/////////////
return TRUE; // Keep Going
}
If you study the function for a while you will figure out how to do this your self.
Try adding this code into the render function of the OpenGL window tutorial, and
see if it works ;) after all trial and error is the best way to learn..
