Jeff Molofee - NeHe's OpenGL Tutorials

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); // Select The Projection Matrix

glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The Projection Matrix

// Calculate The Aspect Ratio Of The Window

gluPerspective(45.0f,(GLfloat)width/(GLfloat)height,0.1f,100.0f);

glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); // Select The Modelview Matrix

glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The Modelview Matrix

}

In the next section of code we do all of the setup for OpenGL. We set what color to clear the screen to, we turn on the depth buffer, enable smooth shading, etc. This routine will not be called until the OpenGL Window has been created. This procedure returns a value but because our initialization isn't that complex we wont worry about the value for now.

int InitGL(GLvoid) // All Setup For OpenGL Goes Here

{

The next line enables smooth shading. Smooth shading blends colors nicely across a polygon, and smoothes out lighting. I will explain smooth shading in more detail in another tutorial.

glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH); // Enables Smooth Shading

The following line sets the color of the screen when it clears. If you don't know how colors work, I'll quickly explain. The color values range from 0.0f to 1.0f. 0.0f being the darkest and 1.0f being the brightest. The first parameter after glClearColor is the Red Intensity, the second parameter is for Green and the third is for Blue. The higher the number is to 1.0f, the brighter that specific color will be. The last number is an Alpha value. When it comes to clearing the screen, we wont worry about the 4th number. For now leave it at 0.0f. I will explain its use in another tutorial.

You create different colors by mixing the three primary colors for light (red, green, blue). Hope you learned primaries in school. So, if you had glClearColor(0.0f,0.0f,1.0f,0.0f) you would be clearing the screen to a bright blue. If you had glClearColor(0.5f,0.0f,0.0f,0.0f) you would be clearing the screen to a medium red. Not bright (1.0f) and not dark (0.0f). To make a white background, you would set all the colors as high as possible (1.0f). To make a black background you would set all the colors to as low as possible (0.0f).

glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); // Black Background

The next three lines have to do with the Depth Buffer. Think of the depth buffer as layers into the screen. The depth buffer keeps track of how deep objects are into the screen. We won't really be using the depth buffer in this program, but just about every OpenGL program that draws on the screen in 3D will use the depth buffer. It sorts out which object to draw first so that a square you drew behind a circle doesn't end up on top of the circle. The depth buffer is a very important part of OpenGL.

glClearDepth(1.0f); // Depth Buffer Setup

glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); // Enables Depth Testing

glDepthFunc(GL_LEQUAL); // The Type Of Depth Test To Do

Next we tell OpenGL we want the best perspective correction to be done. This causes a very tiny performance hit, but makes the perspective view look a bit better.

glHint(GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL_NICEST); // Really Nice Perspective Calculations

Finally we return TRUE. If we wanted to see if initialization went ok, we could check to see if TRUE or FALSE was returned. You can add code of your own to return FALSE if an error happens. For now we won't worry about it.

return TRUE; // Initialization Went OK

}

This section is where all of your drawing code will go. Anything you plan to display on the screen will go in this section of code. Each tutorial after this one will add code to this section of the program. If you already have an understanding of OpenGL, you can try creating basic shapes by adding OpenGL code below glLoadIdentity() and before return TRUE. If you're new to OpenGL, wait for my next tutorial. For now all we will do is clear the screen to the color we previously decided on, clear the depth buffer and reset the scene. We wont draw anything yet.

The return TRUE tells our program that there were no problems. If you wanted the program to stop for some reason, adding a return FALSE line somewhere before return TRUE will tell our program that the drawing code failed. The program will then quit.

int DrawGLScene(GLvoid) // Here's Where We Do All The Drawing

{

glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); // Clear The Screen And The Depth Buffer

glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The Current Modelview Matrix

return TRUE; // Everything Went OK

}

The next section of code is called just before the program quits. The job of KillGLWindow() is to release the Rendering Context, the Device Context and finally the Window Handle. I've added a lot of error checking. If the program is unable to destroy any part of the Window, a message box with an error message will pop up, telling you what failed. Making it a lot easier to find problems in your code.

GLvoid KillGLWindow(GLvoid) // Properly Kill The Window

{

The first thing we do in KillGLWindow() is check to see if we are in fullscreen mode. If we are, we'll switch back to the desktop. We should destroy the Window before disabling fullscreen mode, but on some video cards if we destroy the Window BEFORE we disable fullscreen mode, the desktop will become corrupt. So we'll disable fullscreen mode first. This will prevent the desktop from becoming corrupt, and works well on both Nvidia and 3dfx video cards!

if (fullscreen) // Are We In Fullscreen Mode?

{

We use ChangeDisplaySettings(NULL,0) to return us to our original desktop. Passing NULL as the first parameter and 0 as the second parameter forces Windows to use the values currently stored in the Windows registry (the default resolution, bit depth, frequency, etc) effectively restoring our original desktop. After we've switched back to the desktop we make the cursor visible again.

ChangeDisplaySettings(NULL,0); // If So Switch Back To The Desktop

ShowCursor(TRUE); // Show Mouse Pointer

}

The code below checks to see if we have a Rendering Context (hRC). If we don't, the program will jump to the section of code below that checks to see if we have a Device Context.

if (hRC) // Do We Have A Rendering Context?

{

If we have a Rendering Context, the code below will check to see if we are able to release it (detach the hRC from the hDC). Notice the way I'm checking for errors. I'm basically telling our program to try freeing it (with wglMakeCurrent(NULL,NULL), then I check to see if freeing it was successful or not. Nicely combining a few lines of code into one line.

if (!wglMakeCurrent(NULL,NULL)) // Are We Able To Release The DC And RC Contexts?

{

If we were unable to release the DC and RC contexts, MessageBox() will pop up an error message letting us know the DC and RC could not be released. NULL means the message box has no parent Window. The text right after NULL is the text that appears in the message box. "SHUTDOWN ERROR" is the text that appears at the top of the message box (title). Next we have MB_OK, this means we want a message box with one button labelled "OK". MB_ICONINFORMATION makes a lower case i in a circle appear inside the message box (makes it stand out a bit more).

MessageBox(NULL,"Release Of DC And RC Failed.","SHUTDOWN ERROR",MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION);

}

Next we try to delete the Rendering Context. If we were unsuccessful an error message will pop up.