What does the glFrustum function do? - opengl

Question

According to MSDN, we are multiplying the current matrix with the perspective matrix. What matrix are we talking about here? Also from MSDN:
"The glFrustum function multiplies the current matrix by this matrix, with the result replacing the current matrix. That is, if M is the current matrix and F is the frustum perspective matrix, then glFrustum replaces M with M • F."
Now, from my current knowledge of grade 12 calculus (in which I am currently), M is a vector and M dot product F returns a scalar, so how can one replace a vector with a scalar?
I'm also not sure what "clipping" planes are and how they can be referenced via one float value.
Please phrase your answer in terms of the parameters, and also conceptually. I'd really appreciate that.
I'm trying to learn openGL via this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdGF7Bw6SUg. It is actually not really good because it explains nothing or else it assumes one knows openGL. I'd really appreciate a link to a tutorial otherwise, I really appreciate your time and responses! I'm sure I can struggle through and figure things out.

Answer 1

You misunderstand what it's saying. M is a matrix. M•F therefore is also a matrix. It constructs a perspective matrix. See this article for an explanation of how it is constructed and when you want to use glFrustum() vs. gluPerspective():
glFrustum() and gluPerspective() both produce perspective projection matrices that you can use to transform from eye coordinate space to clip coordinate space. The primary difference between the two is that glFrustum() is more general and allows off-axis projections, while gluPerspective() only produces symmetrical (on-axis) projections. Indeed, you can use glFrustum() to implement gluPerspective().
Clipping planes are planes that cut out sections of the world so they don't have to be rendered. The frustum describes where the planes are in space. Its sides define the view volume.

Answer 2

glFrustum generates a perspective projection matrix.
This matrix maps a portion of the space (the "frustum") to your screen. Many caveats apply (normalized device coordinates, perspective divide, etc), but that's the idea.
The part that puzzles you is a relic of the deprecated OpenGL API. You can safely ignore it, because usually you apply gluFrustum() on an identity projection matrix, so the multiplication mentioned in the doc has no effect.
A perhaps more comprehensible way to do things is the following :
// Projection matrix : 45° Field of View, 4:3 ratio, display range : 0.1 unit <-> 100 units
glm::mat4 Projection = glm::perspective(45.0f, 4.0f / 3.0f, 0.1f, 100.0f);
// Or, for an ortho camera :
//glm::mat4 Projection = glm::ortho(-10.0f,10.0f,-10.0f,10.0f,0.0f,100.0f); // In world coordinates
// Camera matrix
glm::mat4 View = glm::lookAt(
glm::vec3(4,3,3), // Camera is at (4,3,3), in World Space
glm::vec3(0,0,0), // and looks at the origin
glm::vec3(0,1,0) // Head is up (set to 0,-1,0 to look upside-down)
);
// Model matrix : an identity matrix (model will be at the origin)
glm::mat4 Model = glm::mat4(1.0f);
// Our ModelViewProjection : multiplication of our 3 matrices
glm::mat4 MVP = Projection * View * Model; // Remember, matrix multiplication is the other way around
Here, I used glm::perspective (the equivalent of old-style gluPerspective() ), but you can use gluFrustum too.
As for the arguments of the function, they are best explained by this part of the doc :
left bottom - nearVal and right top - nearVal specify the points on
the near clipping plane that are mapped to the lower left and upper
right corners of the window, assuming that the eye is located at (0,
0, 0)
If you're unfamiliar with transformation matrices, I wrote a tutorial here; the "Projection Matrix" section especially should help you.