What do "Non-Power-Of-Two Textures" mean? - c++

Question

What do "Non-Power-Of-Two Textures" mean? I read this tutorial and I meet some binaries operations("<<", ">>", "^", "~"), but I don't understand what they are doing.
For example following code:
GLuint LTexture::powerOfTwo(GLuint num)
{
if (num != 0)
{
num--;
num |= (num >> 1); //Or first 2 bits
num |= (num >> 2); //Or next 2 bits
num |= (num >> 4); //Or next 4 bits
num |= (num >> 8); //Or next 8 bits
num |= (num >> 16); //Or next 16 bits
num++;
}
return num;
}
I very want to understand this operations. As well, I read this. Very short article. I want to see examples of using, but I not found. I did the test:
int a = 5;
a <<= 1; //a = 10
a = 5;
a <<= 2; //a = 20
a = 5;
a <<= 3; //a = 40
Okay, this like multiply on two, but
int a = 5;
a >>= 1; // a = 2 Whaat??

Answer 1

In C++, the <<= is the "left binary shift" assignment operator; the operand on the left is treated as a binary number, the bits are moved to the left, and zero bits are inserted on the right.
The >>= is the right binary shift; bits are moved to the right and "fall off" the right end, so it's like a division by 2 (for each bit) but with truncation. For negative signed integers, by the way, additional 1 bits are shifted in at the left end ("arithmetic right shift"), which may be surprising; for positive signed integers, or unsigned integers, 0 bits are shifted in at the left ("logical right shift").
"Powers of two" are the numbers created by successive doublings of 1: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32… Most graphics hardware prefers to work with texture maps which are powers of two in size.

Answer 2

As said in http://lazyfoo.net/tutorials/OpenGL/08_non_power_of_2_textures/index.php
powerOfTwo will take the argument and find nearest number that is power of two.
GLuint powerOfTwo( GLuint num );
/*
Pre Condition:
-None
Post Condition:
-Returns nearest power of two integer that is greater
Side Effects:
-None
*/
Let's test:
num=60 (decimal) and its binary is 111100
num--; .. 59 111011
num |= (num >> 1); //Or first 2 bits 011101 | 111011 = 111111
num |= (num >> 2); //Or next 2 bits 001111 | 111111 = 111111
num |= (num >> 4); //Or next 4 bits 000011 | 111111 = 111111
num |= (num >> 8); //Or next 8 bits 000000 | 111111 = 111111
num |= (num >> 16); //Or next 16 bits 000000 | 111111 = 111111
num++; ..63+1 = 64
output 64.
For num=5: num-1 =4 (binary 0100), after all num |= (num >> N) it will be 0111 or 7 decimal). Then num+1 is equal to 8.

Answer 3

As you should know the data in our computers is represented in the binary system, in which digits are either a 1 or a 0.
So for example number 10 decimal = 1010 binary. (1*2^3 + 0*2^2 + 1*2^1 + 0*2^0).
Let's go to the operations now.
Binary | OR means that wherever you have at least one 1 the output will be 1.
1010
| 0100
------
1110
~ NOT means negation i.e. all 0s become 1s and all 1s become 0s.
~ 1010
------
0101
^ XOR means you turn a pair of 1 and 0 into a 1. All other combinations leave a 0 as output.
1010
^ 0110
------
1100
Bit shift.
N >> x means we "slide" our number N, x bits to the right.
1010 >> 1 = 0101(0) // zero in the brackets is dropped,
since it goes out of the representation = 0101
1001 >> 1 = 0100(1) // (1) is dropped = 0100
<< behaves the same way, just the opposite direction.
1000 << 1 = 0001
Since in binary system numbers are represented as powers of 2, shifting a bit one or the other direction will result in multiplying or dividing by 2.

Answer 4

Let num = 36. First subtract 1, giving 35. In binary, this is 100011.
Right shift by 1 position gives 10001 (the rightmost digit disappears). Bitwise Or'ed with num gives:
100011
10001
-------
110011
Note that this ensures two 1's on the left.
Now right shift by 2 positions, giving 1100. Bitwise Or:
110011
1100
-------
111111
This ensures four 1's on the left.
And so on, until the value is completely filled with 1's from the leftmost.
Add 1 and you get 1000000, a power of 2.
This procedure always generates a power of two, and you can check that it is just above the initial value of num.