object drawing order in OpenGL - opengl

Question

I created a sphere floating above a ground. The sphere is centered around (0,0,0). I have set up a camera with a twist, elevation, azimuth as well as moving in closer and farther from the sphere. The problem I have is that the sphere is always drawn on top of the ground. For example, if I move the camera below the ground I should see the ground be drawn on top of the sphere but that's not the case. Here are my ground and draw functions.
void init_ground()
{
GLfloat x = -static_cast<GLfloat>(NUM_GROUND_LINES/2);
GLfloat z = -static_cast<GLfloat>(NUM_GROUND_LINES/2);
for(int i=0; i<NUM_GROUND_LINES*2; i += 2)
{
GLfloat x = NUM_GROUND_LINES/2;
glm::vec3 vertex1 = glm::vec3(-x, -4.0, z);
glm::vec3 vertex2 = glm::vec3(x, -4.0, z);
ground[i] = vertex1;
ground[i+1] = vertex2;
z += 1.0;
}
for(int i=NUM_GROUND_LINES*2; i<NUM_GROUND_LINES*4; i += 2)
{
GLfloat z = NUM_GROUND_LINES/2;
glm::vec3 vertex1 = glm::vec3(x, -4.0, -z);
glm::vec3 vertex2 = glm::vec3(x, -4.0, z);
ground[i] = vertex1;
ground[i+1] = vertex2;
x += 1.0;
}
}
glm::vec3 cameraPos = glm::vec3(0.0, 0.0, 3.0);
glm::vec3 cameraFront = glm::vec3(0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f);
glm::vec3 cameraUp = glm::vec3(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);
void draw()
{
glm::mat4 view;
glm::mat4 projection;
glm::mat4 model;
view = glm::lookAt(cameraPos, cameraPos + cameraFront, cameraUp);
view = glm::rotate(view, glm::radians(GLfloat(twist)), glm::vec3(0.0, 0.0, 1.0));
view = glm::rotate(view, glm::radians(GLfloat(elevation)), glm::vec3(1.0, 0.0, 0.0));
view = glm::rotate(view, glm::radians(GLfloat(azimuth)), glm::vec3(0.0, 0.0, 1.0));
projection = glm::perspective(45.0f, (GLfloat)WIDTH/(GLfloat)HEIGHT, 0.1f, 100.0f);
glUseProgram(program_ground);
GLint ground_proj_loc = glGetUniformLocation(program_ground, "projection");
GLint ground_view_loc = glGetUniformLocation(program_ground, "view");
GLint ground_model_loc = glGetUniformLocation(program_ground, "model");
glUniformMatrix4fv(ground_proj_loc, 1, GL_FALSE, glm::value_ptr(projection));
glUniformMatrix4fv(ground_view_loc, 1, GL_FALSE, glm::value_ptr(view));
glUniformMatrix4fv(ground_model_loc, 1, GL_FALSE, glm::value_ptr(model));
glBindVertexArray(vao_ground);
glDrawArrays(GL_LINES, 0, NUM_GROUND_LINES*2*4);
glBindVertexArray(0);
glUseProgram(program_sphere);
GLint sphere_model_loc = glGetUniformLocation(program_sphere, "model");
GLint sphere_view_loc = glGetUniformLocation(program_sphere, "view");
GLint sphere_proj_loc = glGetUniformLocation(program_sphere, "projection");
glUniformMatrix4fv(sphere_view_loc, 1, GL_FALSE, glm::value_ptr(view));
glUniformMatrix4fv(sphere_proj_loc, 1, GL_FALSE, glm::value_ptr(projection));
glUniformMatrix4fv(sphere_model_loc, 1, GL_FALSE, glm::value_ptr(model));
glBindVertexArray(vao_sphere);
glDrawArrays(GL_LINE_LOOP, 0, 342);
glBindVertexArray(0);
glfwSwapBuffers(window);
}

Answer 1

To be able to remove hidden superficies, you need to enable the Depth Test.
To do that, first you must ask, at the context creation time, a buffer to store the relative z positional value of a vertex, in relation to the camera. If you are using GLFW library, this creation is done automatically.
The second step is to enable the depth test itself. To do that, you need to call:
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
somewhere before you call your draw functions.
And, at last, at every frame draw, you must clear you depth buffer, calling:
glClear(GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
but usually it is called as:
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
to clear the color buffer as well.