Open GL Super Bible:OWL-Based OpenGL Programming















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Open GL Super Bible


(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)

Author(s): Waite group Press

ISBN: 1571690735

Publication Date: 08/01/96

 




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Chapter 22OWL-Based OpenGL Programming

What youłll learn in this chapter:


How to...
Functions Youłll Use



Set OWL window styles to support OpenGL
EvCreate

Create and set up the rendering context
EvCreate

Clean up the rendering context when the program terminates
EvDestroy

Place your projection and viewport code
EvSize

Place your rendering code
EvPaint

Prevent screen flicker between renderings
EvEraseBkgnd

Place your palette-management code
EvQueryNewPalette, EvPaletteChanged



It is an undeniable fact that a large and growing number of developers are using C++ for Windows development. Throughout this book, however, we have presented all our source code in C. Fortunately, most C++ programmers can easily follow C source code. On the other hand, if you picked up this book to learn graphics programming, you probably donłt want to have to learn some new syntax along the way.

Although any of the samples in this book can be compiled with a C++ compiler as well as a C compiler, most C++ programmers developing for Windows are not writing C code. Most are using a commercial C++ application framework package, or their own C++ class hierarchy. The point is, most C++ applications donÅ‚t have windows procedures like the ones in this book, nor do they have those “case statements from hell" that handle every conceivable message that may be posted to a window. Instead, there is a framework of classes that embody the Windows screen objects, with member functions handling the processing of messages.
The purpose of this short chapter is to give C++ programmers using a popular application framework a starting place for their OpenGL programs. The application framework for this chapter is Borlandłs Object Windows Library (OWL). The samples and screenshots for this chapter were prepared using Borland C++ 5.0. If you are using MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes), see Chapter 21.
For the purposes of this chapter, we will assume that you are already familiar with the following:

•  Borland C++ and OWL for building Windows NT and Windows 95 applications
•  Chapter 4 of this book, covering OpenGL for Windows and the creation and use of rendering contexts
•  The
palette handling material in Chapter 8

Isolate Your OpenGL Code
For any application, it is good design practice to keep your source code as modular as possible. By isolating functional pieces, it becomes much easier to reuse and maintain the code. By isolating your “pure" OpenGL code into a separate module, you can efficiently replace this module with specific code, while retaining the functionality of the rest of the application. Our sample here makes it relatively simple to take any C program in this book and convert it to C++, using OWL and our test application shell.

We start by declaring three functions in a C source file called glcode.c. The file glcode.h contains the declarations for these functions and is included for access in our TWindowView-derived class file.

// glcode.h
// Declarations for external OpenGL module. These functions are
// defined in glcode.c and are called appropriately by the TWindowView
// derived classes.

extern "C" {
void GLSetupRC(void *pData);
void GLRenderScene(void *pData);
void GLResize(GLsizei h, GLsizei w);
}

The GLSetupRC function is where we will place any code that does initialization for our rendering context. This may be as simple as setting the clear color, or as complex as establishing our lighting conditions. The GLRenderScene function will be called by the WM_PAINT handler of our TWindowView-derived class to do the actual rendering. Finally, GLResize will be called by the WM_SIZE handler, passing the new width and height of the window client area. Here you can do any necessary recalculations to establish the viewing volume and viewport.

Notice that the GLSetupRC and GLRenderScene functions take void pointers. This allows you to pass data of any type to your rendering code without changing the interface. Although we could have made the glcode file a C++ file instead of a C file, itłs easier to move existing C code from any source and include it in the OWL program. Borland C++ will just compile this module as a C file and link it into the rest of the application.
We donłt present the glcode.c file here because the code for our sample is quite lengthy, but wełll use basically the same file for both the OWL and MFC sample programs.
Starting with AppExpert
Many an application written with Visual C++ started life with the AppExpert. The document-view architecture endorsed by AppExpert can be compared favorably to the model-view architecture of other object-oriented programming environments. Even for quick-and-dirty applications or experimental projects, the AppExpert can provide a fully functional SDI (Single Document Interface), MDI (Multiple Document Interface), or dialog-based application shell in less than a minute. It makes sense to start here, building a sample SDI OWL application that uses OpenGL. To create a sample OpenGL scene, wełll add features and functionality to the TWindowView class. You can use the same methods to add OpenGL functionality to any TWindow-derived class.




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