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I'm writing a program that can draw a line between two points with filled circles. The circles:
- shouldn't overlap each other
- be as close together as possible
- and the centre of each circle should be on the line.
I've written a function to produce the circles, however I'm having trouble calculating position of each circle so that they are correctly lined up
void addCircles(scrPt endPt1, scrPt endPt2)
{
float xLength, yLength, length, cSquare, slope;
int numberOfCircles;
// Get the x distance between the two points
xLength = abs(endPt1.x - endPt2.x);
// Get the y distance between the two points
yLength = abs(endPt1.y - endPt2.y);
// Get the length between the points
cSquare = pow(xLength, 2) + pow(yLength, 2);
length = sqrt(cSquare);
// calculate the slope
slope = (endPt2.y - endPt1.y) / (endPt2.x - endPt1.x);
// Find how many circles fit inside the length
numberOfCircles = round(length / (radius * 2) - 1);
// set the position of each circle
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfCircles; i++)
{
scrPt circPt;
circPt.x = endPt1.x + ((radius * 2) * i);
circPt.y = endPt1.y + (((radius * 2) * i) * slope);
changeColor();
drawCircle (circPt.x, circPt.y);
}
This is what the above code produces:
I'm quite certain that the issue lies with this line, which sets the y value of the circle:
circPt.y = endPt1.y + (((radius * 2) * i) * slope);
Any help would be greatly appreciated
I recommend to calculate the direction of the line as a unit vector:
float xDist = endPt2.x - endPt1.x;
float yDist = endPt2.y - endPt1.y;
float length = sqrt(xDist*xDist + yDist *yDist);
float xDir = xDist / length;
float yDir = yDist / length;
Calculate the distance from one center point to the next one, numberOfSegments is the number of sections and not the number of circles:
int numberOfSegments = (int)trunc( length / (radius * 2) );
float distCpt = numberOfSegments == 0 ? 0.0f : length / (float)numberOfSegments;
A center point of a circle is calculated by the adding a vector the the start point of the line. The vector pints in the direction of the line and its length is given, by the distance between 2 circles multiplied by the "index" of the circle:
for (int i = 0; i <= numberOfSegments; i++)
{
float cpt_x = endPt1.x + xDir * distCpt * (float)i;
float cpt_y = endPt1.y + yDir * distCpt * (float)i;
changeColor();
drawCircle(cpt_x , cpt_y);
}
Note, the last circle on a line may be redrawn, by the first circle of the next line. You can change this by changing the iteration expression of the for loop - change <= to <:
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfSegments; i++)
In this case at the end of the line won't be drawn any circle at all.
Are there any tutorials out there that explain how I can draw a sphere in OpenGL without having to use gluSphere()?
Many of the 3D tutorials for OpenGL are just on cubes. I have searched but most of the solutions to drawing a sphere are to use gluSphere(). There is also a site that has the code to drawing a sphere at this site but it doesn't explain the math behind drawing the sphere. I have also other versions of how to draw the sphere in polygon instead of quads in that link. But again, I don't understand how the spheres are drawn with the code. I want to be able to visualize so that I could modify the sphere if I need to.
One way you can do it is to start with a platonic solid with triangular sides - an octahedron, for example. Then, take each triangle and recursively break it up into smaller triangles, like so:
Once you have a sufficient amount of points, you normalize their vectors so that they are all a constant distance from the center of the solid. This causes the sides to bulge out into a shape that resembles a sphere, with increasing smoothness as you increase the number of points.
Normalization here means moving a point so that its angle in relation to another point is the same, but the distance between them is different.
Here's a two dimensional example.
A and B are 6 units apart. But suppose we want to find a point on line AB that's 12 units away from A.
We can say that C is the normalized form of B with respect to A, with distance 12. We can obtain C with code like this:
#returns a point collinear to A and B, a given distance away from A.
function normalize(a, b, length):
#get the distance between a and b along the x and y axes
dx = b.x - a.x
dy = b.y - a.y
#right now, sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2) = distance(a,b).
#we want to modify them so that sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2) = the given length.
dx = dx * length / distance(a,b)
dy = dy * length / distance(a,b)
point c = new point
c.x = a.x + dx
c.y = a.y + dy
return c
If we do this normalization process on a lot of points, all with respect to the same point A and with the same distance R, then the normalized points will all lie on the arc of a circle with center A and radius R.
Here, the black points begin on a line and "bulge out" into an arc.
This process can be extended into three dimensions, in which case you get a sphere rather than a circle. Just add a dz component to the normalize function.
If you look at the sphere at Epcot, you can sort of see this technique at work. it's a dodecahedron with bulged-out faces to make it look rounder.
I'll further explain a popular way of generating a sphere using latitude and longitude (another
way, icospheres, was already explained in the most popular answer at the time of this writing.)
A sphere can be expressed by the following parametric equation:
F(u, v) = [ cos(u)*sin(v)*r, cos(v)*r, sin(u)*sin(v)*r ]
Where:
r is the radius;
u is the longitude, ranging from 0 to 2π; and
v is the latitude, ranging from 0 to π.
Generating the sphere then involves evaluating the parametric function at fixed intervals.
For example, to generate 16 lines of longitude, there will be 17 grid lines along the u axis, with a step of
π/8 (2π/16) (the 17th line wraps around).
The following pseudocode generates a triangle mesh by evaluating a parametric function
at regular intervals (this works for any parametric surface function, not just spheres).
In the pseudocode below, UResolution is the number of grid points along the U axis
(here, lines of longitude), and VResolution is the number of grid points along the V axis
(here, lines of latitude)
var startU=0
var startV=0
var endU=PI*2
var endV=PI
var stepU=(endU-startU)/UResolution // step size between U-points on the grid
var stepV=(endV-startV)/VResolution // step size between V-points on the grid
for(var i=0;i<UResolution;i++){ // U-points
for(var j=0;j<VResolution;j++){ // V-points
var u=i*stepU+startU
var v=j*stepV+startV
var un=(i+1==UResolution) ? endU : (i+1)*stepU+startU
var vn=(j+1==VResolution) ? endV : (j+1)*stepV+startV
// Find the four points of the grid
// square by evaluating the parametric
// surface function
var p0=F(u, v)
var p1=F(u, vn)
var p2=F(un, v)
var p3=F(un, vn)
// NOTE: For spheres, the normal is just the normalized
// version of each vertex point; this generally won't be the case for
// other parametric surfaces.
// Output the first triangle of this grid square
triangle(p0, p2, p1)
// Output the other triangle of this grid square
triangle(p3, p1, p2)
}
}
The code in the sample is quickly explained. You should look into the function void drawSphere(double r, int lats, int longs):
void drawSphere(double r, int lats, int longs) {
int i, j;
for(i = 0; i <= lats; i++) {
double lat0 = M_PI * (-0.5 + (double) (i - 1) / lats);
double z0 = sin(lat0);
double zr0 = cos(lat0);
double lat1 = M_PI * (-0.5 + (double) i / lats);
double z1 = sin(lat1);
double zr1 = cos(lat1);
glBegin(GL_QUAD_STRIP);
for(j = 0; j <= longs; j++) {
double lng = 2 * M_PI * (double) (j - 1) / longs;
double x = cos(lng);
double y = sin(lng);
glNormal3f(x * zr0, y * zr0, z0);
glVertex3f(r * x * zr0, r * y * zr0, r * z0);
glNormal3f(x * zr1, y * zr1, z1);
glVertex3f(r * x * zr1, r * y * zr1, r * z1);
}
glEnd();
}
}
The parameters lat defines how many horizontal lines you want to have in your sphere and lon how many vertical lines. r is the radius of your sphere.
Now there is a double iteration over lat/lon and the vertex coordinates are calculated, using simple trigonometry.
The calculated vertices are now sent to your GPU using glVertex...() as a GL_QUAD_STRIP, which means you are sending each two vertices that form a quad with the previously two sent.
All you have to understand now is how the trigonometry functions work, but I guess you can figure it out easily.
If you wanted to be sly like a fox you could half-inch the code from GLU. Check out the MesaGL source code (http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/).
See the OpenGL red book: http://www.glprogramming.com/red/chapter02.html#name8
It solves the problem by polygon subdivision.
My example how to use 'triangle strip' to draw a "polar" sphere, it consists in drawing points in pairs:
const float PI = 3.141592f;
GLfloat x, y, z, alpha, beta; // Storage for coordinates and angles
GLfloat radius = 60.0f;
int gradation = 20;
for (alpha = 0.0; alpha < GL_PI; alpha += PI/gradation)
{
glBegin(GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP);
for (beta = 0.0; beta < 2.01*GL_PI; beta += PI/gradation)
{
x = radius*cos(beta)*sin(alpha);
y = radius*sin(beta)*sin(alpha);
z = radius*cos(alpha);
glVertex3f(x, y, z);
x = radius*cos(beta)*sin(alpha + PI/gradation);
y = radius*sin(beta)*sin(alpha + PI/gradation);
z = radius*cos(alpha + PI/gradation);
glVertex3f(x, y, z);
}
glEnd();
}
First point entered (glVertex3f) is as follows the parametric equation and the second one is shifted by a single step of alpha angle (from next parallel).
Although the accepted answer solves the question, there's a little misconception at the end. Dodecahedrons are (or could be) regular polyhedron where all faces have the same area. That seems to be the case of the Epcot (which, by the way, is not a dodecahedron at all). Since the solution proposed by #Kevin does not provide this characteristic I thought I could add an approach that does.
A good way to generate an N-faced polyhedron where all vertices lay in the same sphere and all its faces have similar area/surface is starting with an icosahedron and the iteratively sub-dividing and normalizing its triangular faces (as suggested in the accepted answer). Dodecahedrons, for instance, are actually truncated icosahedrons.
Regular icosahedrons have 20 faces (12 vertices) and can easily be constructed from 3 golden rectangles; it's just a matter of having this as a starting point instead of an octahedron. You may find an example here.
I know this is a bit off-topic but I believe it may help if someone gets here looking for this specific case.
Python adaptation of #Constantinius answer:
lats = 10
longs = 10
r = 10
for i in range(lats):
lat0 = pi * (-0.5 + i / lats)
z0 = sin(lat0)
zr0 = cos(lat0)
lat1 = pi * (-0.5 + (i+1) / lats)
z1 = sin(lat1)
zr1 = cos(lat1)
glBegin(GL_QUAD_STRIP)
for j in range(longs+1):
lng = 2 * pi * (j+1) / longs
x = cos(lng)
y = sin(lng)
glNormal(x * zr0, y * zr0, z0)
glVertex(r * x * zr0, r * y * zr0, r * z0)
glNormal(x * zr1, y * zr1, z1)
glVertex(r * x * zr1, r * y * zr1, r * z1)
glEnd()
void draw_sphere(float r)
{
float pi = 3.141592;
float di = 0.02;
float dj = 0.04;
float db = di * 2 * pi;
float da = dj * pi;
for (float i = 0; i < 1.0; i += di) //horizonal
for (float j = 0; j < 1.0; j += dj) //vertical
{
float b = i * 2 * pi; //0 to 2pi
float a = (j - 0.5) * pi; //-pi/2 to pi/2
//normal
glNormal3f(
cos(a + da / 2) * cos(b + db / 2),
cos(a + da / 2) * sin(b + db / 2),
sin(a + da / 2));
glBegin(GL_QUADS);
//P1
glTexCoord2f(i, j);
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a) * cos(b),
r * cos(a) * sin(b),
r * sin(a));
//P2
glTexCoord2f(i + di, j);//P2
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a) * cos(b + db),
r * cos(a) * sin(b + db),
r * sin(a));
//P3
glTexCoord2f(i + di, j + dj);
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a + da) * cos(b + db),
r * cos(a + da) * sin(b + db),
r * sin(a + da));
//P4
glTexCoord2f(i, j + dj);
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a + da) * cos(b),
r * cos(a + da) * sin(b),
r * sin(a + da));
glEnd();
}
}
One way is to make a quad that faces the camera and write a vertex and fragment shader that renders something that looks like a sphere. You could use equations for a circle/sphere that you can find on the internet.
One nice thing is that the silhouette of a sphere looks the same from any angle. However, if the sphere is not in the center of a perspective view, then it would appear perhaps more like an ellipse. You could work out the equations for this and put them in the fragment shading. Then the light shading needs to changed as the player moves, if you do indeed have a player moving in 3D space around the sphere.
Can anyone comment on if they have tried this or if it would be too expensive to be practical?
First, see:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/105180/positioning-a-widget-involving-intersection-of-line-and-a-circle
I have an algorithm that solves for the height of an object given a circle and an offset.
It sort of works but the height is always off:
Here is the formula:
and here is a sketch of what it is supposed to do:
And here is sample output from the application:
In the formula, offset = 10 and widthRatio is 3. This is why it is (1 / 10) because (3 * 3) + 1 = 10.
The problem, as you can see is the height of the blue rectangle is not correct. I set the bottom left offsets to be the desired offset (in this case 10) so you can see the bottom left corner is correct. The top right corner is wrong because from the top right corner, I should only have to go 10 pixels until I touch the circle.
The code I use to set the size and location is:
void DataWidgetsHandler::resize( int w, int h )
{
int tabSz = getProportions()->getTableSize() * getProportions()->getScale();
int r = tabSz / 2;
agui::Point tabCenter = agui::Point(
w * getProportions()->getTableOffset().getX(),
h * getProportions()->getTableOffset().getY());
float widthRatio = 3.0f;
int offset = 10;
int height = solveHeight(offset,widthRatio,tabCenter.getX(),tabCenter.getY(),r);
int width = height * widthRatio;
int borderMargin = height;
m_frame->setLocation(offset,
h - height - offset);
m_frame->setSize(width,height);
m_borderLayout->setBorderMargins(0,0,borderMargin,borderMargin);
}
I can assert that the table radius and table center location are correct.
This is my implementation of the formula:
int DataWidgetsHandler::solveHeight( int offset, float widthRatio, float h, float k, float r ) const
{
float denom = (widthRatio * widthRatio) + 1.0f;
float rSq = denom * r * r;
float eq = widthRatio * offset - offset - offset + h - (widthRatio * k);
eq *= eq;
return (1.0f / denom) *
((widthRatio * h) + k - offset - (widthRatio * (offset + offset)) - sqrt(rSq - eq) );
}
It uses the quadratic formula to find what the height should be so that the distance between the top right of the rectangle, bottom left, amd top left are = offset.
Is there something wrong with the formula or implementation? The problem is the height is never long enough.
Thanks
Well, here's my solution, which looks to resemble your solveHeight function. There might be some arithmetic errors in the below, but the method is sound.
You can think in terms of matching the coordinates at the point of the circle across
from the rectangle (P).
Let o_x,o_y be the lower left corner offset distances, w and h be the
height of the rectangle, w_r be the width ratio, dx be the desired
distance between the top right hand corner of the rectangle and the
circle (moving horizontally), c_x and c_y the coordinates of the
circle's centre, theta the angle, and r the circle radius.
Labelling it is half the work! Simply write down the coordinates of the point P:
P_x = o_x + w + dx = c_x + r cos(theta)
P_y = o_y + h = c_y + r sin(theta)
and we know w = w_r * h.
To simplify the arithmetic, let's collect some of the constant terms, and let X = o_x + dx - c_x and Y = o_y - c_y. Then we have
X + w_r * h = r cos(theta)
Y + h = r sin(theta)
Squaring and summing gives a quadratic in h:
(w_r^2 + 1) * h^2 + 2 (X*w_r + Y) h + (X^2+Y^2-r^2) == 0
If you compare this with your effective quadratic, then as long as we made different mistakes :-), you might be able to figure out what's going on.
To be explicit: we can solve this using the quadratic formula, setting
a = (w_r^2 + 1)
b = 2 (X*w_r + Y)
c = (X^2+Y^2-r^2)
Are there any tutorials out there that explain how I can draw a sphere in OpenGL without having to use gluSphere()?
Many of the 3D tutorials for OpenGL are just on cubes. I have searched but most of the solutions to drawing a sphere are to use gluSphere(). There is also a site that has the code to drawing a sphere at this site but it doesn't explain the math behind drawing the sphere. I have also other versions of how to draw the sphere in polygon instead of quads in that link. But again, I don't understand how the spheres are drawn with the code. I want to be able to visualize so that I could modify the sphere if I need to.
One way you can do it is to start with a platonic solid with triangular sides - an octahedron, for example. Then, take each triangle and recursively break it up into smaller triangles, like so:
Once you have a sufficient amount of points, you normalize their vectors so that they are all a constant distance from the center of the solid. This causes the sides to bulge out into a shape that resembles a sphere, with increasing smoothness as you increase the number of points.
Normalization here means moving a point so that its angle in relation to another point is the same, but the distance between them is different.
Here's a two dimensional example.
A and B are 6 units apart. But suppose we want to find a point on line AB that's 12 units away from A.
We can say that C is the normalized form of B with respect to A, with distance 12. We can obtain C with code like this:
#returns a point collinear to A and B, a given distance away from A.
function normalize(a, b, length):
#get the distance between a and b along the x and y axes
dx = b.x - a.x
dy = b.y - a.y
#right now, sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2) = distance(a,b).
#we want to modify them so that sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2) = the given length.
dx = dx * length / distance(a,b)
dy = dy * length / distance(a,b)
point c = new point
c.x = a.x + dx
c.y = a.y + dy
return c
If we do this normalization process on a lot of points, all with respect to the same point A and with the same distance R, then the normalized points will all lie on the arc of a circle with center A and radius R.
Here, the black points begin on a line and "bulge out" into an arc.
This process can be extended into three dimensions, in which case you get a sphere rather than a circle. Just add a dz component to the normalize function.
If you look at the sphere at Epcot, you can sort of see this technique at work. it's a dodecahedron with bulged-out faces to make it look rounder.
I'll further explain a popular way of generating a sphere using latitude and longitude (another
way, icospheres, was already explained in the most popular answer at the time of this writing.)
A sphere can be expressed by the following parametric equation:
F(u, v) = [ cos(u)*sin(v)*r, cos(v)*r, sin(u)*sin(v)*r ]
Where:
r is the radius;
u is the longitude, ranging from 0 to 2π; and
v is the latitude, ranging from 0 to π.
Generating the sphere then involves evaluating the parametric function at fixed intervals.
For example, to generate 16 lines of longitude, there will be 17 grid lines along the u axis, with a step of
π/8 (2π/16) (the 17th line wraps around).
The following pseudocode generates a triangle mesh by evaluating a parametric function
at regular intervals (this works for any parametric surface function, not just spheres).
In the pseudocode below, UResolution is the number of grid points along the U axis
(here, lines of longitude), and VResolution is the number of grid points along the V axis
(here, lines of latitude)
var startU=0
var startV=0
var endU=PI*2
var endV=PI
var stepU=(endU-startU)/UResolution // step size between U-points on the grid
var stepV=(endV-startV)/VResolution // step size between V-points on the grid
for(var i=0;i<UResolution;i++){ // U-points
for(var j=0;j<VResolution;j++){ // V-points
var u=i*stepU+startU
var v=j*stepV+startV
var un=(i+1==UResolution) ? endU : (i+1)*stepU+startU
var vn=(j+1==VResolution) ? endV : (j+1)*stepV+startV
// Find the four points of the grid
// square by evaluating the parametric
// surface function
var p0=F(u, v)
var p1=F(u, vn)
var p2=F(un, v)
var p3=F(un, vn)
// NOTE: For spheres, the normal is just the normalized
// version of each vertex point; this generally won't be the case for
// other parametric surfaces.
// Output the first triangle of this grid square
triangle(p0, p2, p1)
// Output the other triangle of this grid square
triangle(p3, p1, p2)
}
}
The code in the sample is quickly explained. You should look into the function void drawSphere(double r, int lats, int longs):
void drawSphere(double r, int lats, int longs) {
int i, j;
for(i = 0; i <= lats; i++) {
double lat0 = M_PI * (-0.5 + (double) (i - 1) / lats);
double z0 = sin(lat0);
double zr0 = cos(lat0);
double lat1 = M_PI * (-0.5 + (double) i / lats);
double z1 = sin(lat1);
double zr1 = cos(lat1);
glBegin(GL_QUAD_STRIP);
for(j = 0; j <= longs; j++) {
double lng = 2 * M_PI * (double) (j - 1) / longs;
double x = cos(lng);
double y = sin(lng);
glNormal3f(x * zr0, y * zr0, z0);
glVertex3f(r * x * zr0, r * y * zr0, r * z0);
glNormal3f(x * zr1, y * zr1, z1);
glVertex3f(r * x * zr1, r * y * zr1, r * z1);
}
glEnd();
}
}
The parameters lat defines how many horizontal lines you want to have in your sphere and lon how many vertical lines. r is the radius of your sphere.
Now there is a double iteration over lat/lon and the vertex coordinates are calculated, using simple trigonometry.
The calculated vertices are now sent to your GPU using glVertex...() as a GL_QUAD_STRIP, which means you are sending each two vertices that form a quad with the previously two sent.
All you have to understand now is how the trigonometry functions work, but I guess you can figure it out easily.
If you wanted to be sly like a fox you could half-inch the code from GLU. Check out the MesaGL source code (http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/).
See the OpenGL red book: http://www.glprogramming.com/red/chapter02.html#name8
It solves the problem by polygon subdivision.
My example how to use 'triangle strip' to draw a "polar" sphere, it consists in drawing points in pairs:
const float PI = 3.141592f;
GLfloat x, y, z, alpha, beta; // Storage for coordinates and angles
GLfloat radius = 60.0f;
int gradation = 20;
for (alpha = 0.0; alpha < GL_PI; alpha += PI/gradation)
{
glBegin(GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP);
for (beta = 0.0; beta < 2.01*GL_PI; beta += PI/gradation)
{
x = radius*cos(beta)*sin(alpha);
y = radius*sin(beta)*sin(alpha);
z = radius*cos(alpha);
glVertex3f(x, y, z);
x = radius*cos(beta)*sin(alpha + PI/gradation);
y = radius*sin(beta)*sin(alpha + PI/gradation);
z = radius*cos(alpha + PI/gradation);
glVertex3f(x, y, z);
}
glEnd();
}
First point entered (glVertex3f) is as follows the parametric equation and the second one is shifted by a single step of alpha angle (from next parallel).
Although the accepted answer solves the question, there's a little misconception at the end. Dodecahedrons are (or could be) regular polyhedron where all faces have the same area. That seems to be the case of the Epcot (which, by the way, is not a dodecahedron at all). Since the solution proposed by #Kevin does not provide this characteristic I thought I could add an approach that does.
A good way to generate an N-faced polyhedron where all vertices lay in the same sphere and all its faces have similar area/surface is starting with an icosahedron and the iteratively sub-dividing and normalizing its triangular faces (as suggested in the accepted answer). Dodecahedrons, for instance, are actually truncated icosahedrons.
Regular icosahedrons have 20 faces (12 vertices) and can easily be constructed from 3 golden rectangles; it's just a matter of having this as a starting point instead of an octahedron. You may find an example here.
I know this is a bit off-topic but I believe it may help if someone gets here looking for this specific case.
Python adaptation of #Constantinius answer:
lats = 10
longs = 10
r = 10
for i in range(lats):
lat0 = pi * (-0.5 + i / lats)
z0 = sin(lat0)
zr0 = cos(lat0)
lat1 = pi * (-0.5 + (i+1) / lats)
z1 = sin(lat1)
zr1 = cos(lat1)
glBegin(GL_QUAD_STRIP)
for j in range(longs+1):
lng = 2 * pi * (j+1) / longs
x = cos(lng)
y = sin(lng)
glNormal(x * zr0, y * zr0, z0)
glVertex(r * x * zr0, r * y * zr0, r * z0)
glNormal(x * zr1, y * zr1, z1)
glVertex(r * x * zr1, r * y * zr1, r * z1)
glEnd()
void draw_sphere(float r)
{
float pi = 3.141592;
float di = 0.02;
float dj = 0.04;
float db = di * 2 * pi;
float da = dj * pi;
for (float i = 0; i < 1.0; i += di) //horizonal
for (float j = 0; j < 1.0; j += dj) //vertical
{
float b = i * 2 * pi; //0 to 2pi
float a = (j - 0.5) * pi; //-pi/2 to pi/2
//normal
glNormal3f(
cos(a + da / 2) * cos(b + db / 2),
cos(a + da / 2) * sin(b + db / 2),
sin(a + da / 2));
glBegin(GL_QUADS);
//P1
glTexCoord2f(i, j);
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a) * cos(b),
r * cos(a) * sin(b),
r * sin(a));
//P2
glTexCoord2f(i + di, j);//P2
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a) * cos(b + db),
r * cos(a) * sin(b + db),
r * sin(a));
//P3
glTexCoord2f(i + di, j + dj);
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a + da) * cos(b + db),
r * cos(a + da) * sin(b + db),
r * sin(a + da));
//P4
glTexCoord2f(i, j + dj);
glVertex3f(
r * cos(a + da) * cos(b),
r * cos(a + da) * sin(b),
r * sin(a + da));
glEnd();
}
}
One way is to make a quad that faces the camera and write a vertex and fragment shader that renders something that looks like a sphere. You could use equations for a circle/sphere that you can find on the internet.
One nice thing is that the silhouette of a sphere looks the same from any angle. However, if the sphere is not in the center of a perspective view, then it would appear perhaps more like an ellipse. You could work out the equations for this and put them in the fragment shading. Then the light shading needs to changed as the player moves, if you do indeed have a player moving in 3D space around the sphere.
Can anyone comment on if they have tried this or if it would be too expensive to be practical?
I think I understand why calling glRotate(#, 0, 0, 0) results in a divide-by-zero. The rotation vector, a, is normalized: a' = a/|a| = a/0
Is that the only situation glRotate could result in a divide-by-zero? Yes, I know glRotate is deprecated. Yes, I know the matrix is on the OpenGL manual. No, I don't know linear algebra enough to confidently answer the question from the matrix. Yes, I think it would help. Yes, I asked this already in #opengl (can you tell?). And no, I didn't get an answer.
I would say yes. And I would say that you are right about the normalization step as well. The matrix shown in the OpenGL manual only consists of multiplications. And multiplying a vector would result into the same. Of course, it would do strange things if you result in a vector of (0,0,0). OpenGL states in the same manual that |x,y,z|=1 (or OpenGL will normalize).
So IF it wouldn't normalize, you would end up with a very empty matrix of:
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 1
Which will implode your object in the strangest ways. So DON'T call this function with a zero-vector. If you would like to, tell me why.
And I recommend using a library like GLM to do your matrix calculations if it gets too complicated for some simple glRotates.
Why should it divide by zero when you can check for that?:
/**
* Generate a 4x4 transformation matrix from glRotate parameters, and
* post-multiply the input matrix by it.
*
* \author
* This function was contributed by Erich Boleyn (erich#uruk.org).
* Optimizations contributed by Rudolf Opalla (rudi#khm.de).
*/
void
_math_matrix_rotate( GLmatrix *mat,
GLfloat angle, GLfloat x, GLfloat y, GLfloat z )
{
GLfloat xx, yy, zz, xy, yz, zx, xs, ys, zs, one_c, s, c;
GLfloat m[16];
GLboolean optimized;
s = (GLfloat) sin( angle * DEG2RAD );
c = (GLfloat) cos( angle * DEG2RAD );
memcpy(m, Identity, sizeof(GLfloat)*16);
optimized = GL_FALSE;
#define M(row,col) m[col*4+row]
if (x == 0.0F) {
if (y == 0.0F) {
if (z != 0.0F) {
optimized = GL_TRUE;
/* rotate only around z-axis */
M(0,0) = c;
M(1,1) = c;
if (z < 0.0F) {
M(0,1) = s;
M(1,0) = -s;
}
else {
M(0,1) = -s;
M(1,0) = s;
}
}
}
else if (z == 0.0F) {
optimized = GL_TRUE;
/* rotate only around y-axis */
M(0,0) = c;
M(2,2) = c;
if (y < 0.0F) {
M(0,2) = -s;
M(2,0) = s;
}
else {
M(0,2) = s;
M(2,0) = -s;
}
}
}
else if (y == 0.0F) {
if (z == 0.0F) {
optimized = GL_TRUE;
/* rotate only around x-axis */
M(1,1) = c;
M(2,2) = c;
if (x < 0.0F) {
M(1,2) = s;
M(2,1) = -s;
}
else {
M(1,2) = -s;
M(2,1) = s;
}
}
}
if (!optimized) {
const GLfloat mag = SQRTF(x * x + y * y + z * z);
if (mag <= 1.0e-4) {
/* no rotation, leave mat as-is */
return;
}
x /= mag;
y /= mag;
z /= mag;
/*
* Arbitrary axis rotation matrix.
*
* This is composed of 5 matrices, Rz, Ry, T, Ry', Rz', multiplied
* like so: Rz * Ry * T * Ry' * Rz'. T is the final rotation
* (which is about the X-axis), and the two composite transforms
* Ry' * Rz' and Rz * Ry are (respectively) the rotations necessary
* from the arbitrary axis to the X-axis then back. They are
* all elementary rotations.
*
* Rz' is a rotation about the Z-axis, to bring the axis vector
* into the x-z plane. Then Ry' is applied, rotating about the
* Y-axis to bring the axis vector parallel with the X-axis. The
* rotation about the X-axis is then performed. Ry and Rz are
* simply the respective inverse transforms to bring the arbitrary
* axis back to its original orientation. The first transforms
* Rz' and Ry' are considered inverses, since the data from the
* arbitrary axis gives you info on how to get to it, not how
* to get away from it, and an inverse must be applied.
*
* The basic calculation used is to recognize that the arbitrary
* axis vector (x, y, z), since it is of unit length, actually
* represents the sines and cosines of the angles to rotate the
* X-axis to the same orientation, with theta being the angle about
* Z and phi the angle about Y (in the order described above)
* as follows:
*
* cos ( theta ) = x / sqrt ( 1 - z^2 )
* sin ( theta ) = y / sqrt ( 1 - z^2 )
*
* cos ( phi ) = sqrt ( 1 - z^2 )
* sin ( phi ) = z
*
* Note that cos ( phi ) can further be inserted to the above
* formulas:
*
* cos ( theta ) = x / cos ( phi )
* sin ( theta ) = y / sin ( phi )
*
* ...etc. Because of those relations and the standard trigonometric
* relations, it is pssible to reduce the transforms down to what
* is used below. It may be that any primary axis chosen will give the
* same results (modulo a sign convention) using thie method.
*
* Particularly nice is to notice that all divisions that might
* have caused trouble when parallel to certain planes or
* axis go away with care paid to reducing the expressions.
* After checking, it does perform correctly under all cases, since
* in all the cases of division where the denominator would have
* been zero, the numerator would have been zero as well, giving
* the expected result.
*/
xx = x * x;
yy = y * y;
zz = z * z;
xy = x * y;
yz = y * z;
zx = z * x;
xs = x * s;
ys = y * s;
zs = z * s;
one_c = 1.0F - c;
/* We already hold the identity-matrix so we can skip some statements */
M(0,0) = (one_c * xx) + c;
M(0,1) = (one_c * xy) - zs;
M(0,2) = (one_c * zx) + ys;
/* M(0,3) = 0.0F; */
M(1,0) = (one_c * xy) + zs;
M(1,1) = (one_c * yy) + c;
M(1,2) = (one_c * yz) - xs;
/* M(1,3) = 0.0F; */
M(2,0) = (one_c * zx) - ys;
M(2,1) = (one_c * yz) + xs;
M(2,2) = (one_c * zz) + c;
/* M(2,3) = 0.0F; */
/*
M(3,0) = 0.0F;
M(3,1) = 0.0F;
M(3,2) = 0.0F;
M(3,3) = 1.0F;
*/
}
#undef M
matrix_multf( mat, m, MAT_FLAG_ROTATION );
}