V. Scott Gordon - Computer Graphics Programming in OpenGL Using C++

COMPUTER GRAPHICS
PROGRAMMING IN OPENGL
WITH C++

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COMPUTER GRAPHICS
PROGRAMMING IN OPENGL
WITH C++

V. Scott Gordon, Ph.D.

California State University, Sacramento

John Clevenger, Ph.D.

California State University, Sacramento

MERCURY LEARNING AND INFORMATION

Dulles, Virginia
Boston, Massachusetts
New Delhi

Copyright 2019 by MERCURY LEARNING AND INFORMATION LLC. All rights reserved.

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V. Scott Gordon & John Clevenger.
Computer Graphics Programming in OpenGL with C++
ISBN: 978-1-683922-21-6

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Contents

Preface

This book is designed primarily as a textbook for a typical computer science undergraduate course in OpenGL 3D graphics programming. However, we have also endeavored to create a text that could be used to teach oneself, without an accompanying course. With both of those aims in mind, we have tried to explain things as clearly and simply as we can. All of the programming examples are stripped down and simplified as much as possible, but they are still complete so that the reader may run them all as presented.

One of the things that we hope is unique about this book is that we have strived to make it accessible to a beginnerthat is, someone new to 3D graphics programming. While there is by no means a lack of information available on the topicquite the contrarymany students are initially overwhelmed. This text is our attempt to write the book we wish we had had when we were starting out, with step-by-step explanations of the basics, progressing in an organized manner up through advanced topics. We considered titling the book shader programming made easy; however, we dont think that there really is any way of making shader programming easy. We hope that we have come close.

This book teaches OpenGL programming in C++. There are several advantages to learning graphics programming in C++:

OpenGLs native language is C, so a C++ program can make direct OpenGL function calls.

OpenGL applications written in C++ typically exhibit very high performance.

C++ offers modern programming constructs (classes, polymorphism, etc.) not available in C.

C++ is a popular language choice for using OpenGL, and a large number of instructional resources for OpenGL are available in C++.

It is worth mentioning that there do exist other language bindings for OpenGL. Popular alternatives exist for Java, C#, Python, and many others. This textbook focuses only on C++.

Another thing that makes this book unique is that it has a sister textbook: Computer Graphics Programming in OpenGL with Java. The two books are organized in lockstep, with the same chapter and section numbers and topics, figures, exercises, and theoretical descriptions. Wherever possible, the code is organized similarly. Of course, the use of C++ versus Java leads to considerable programming differences. Still, we believe that we have provided virtually identical learning paths, even allowing a student to choose either option within a single classroom.

An important point of clarification is that there exist both different versions of OpenGL (briefly discussed later) and different variants of OpenGL. For example, in addition to standard OpenGL (sometimes called desktop OpenGL), there exists a variant called OpenGL ES, which is tailored for development of embedded systems (hence the ES). Embedded systems include devices such as mobile phones, game consoles, automobiles, and industrial control systems. OpenGL ES is mostly a subset of standard OpenGL, eliminating a large number of operations that are typically not needed for embedded systems. OpenGL ES also adds some additional functionality, typically application-specific operations for particular target environments. This book focuses on standard OpenGL.

Yet another variant of OpenGL is called WebGL. Based on OpenGL ES, WebGL is designed to support the use of OpenGL in web browsers. WebGL allows an application to use JavaScript to invoke OpenGL ES operations, which makes it easy to embed OpenGL graphics into standard HTML (web) documents. Most modern web browsers support WebGL, including Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera. Since web programming is outside the scope of this book, we will not cover any WebGL specifics. Note however that because WebGL is based on OpenGL ES, which in turn is based on standard OpenGL, much of what