OpenGL Near Clip Plane - opengl

I'm working on interactive scenes for a computer graphics course. I've set up a program which will generate color cubes, and let me rotate them with the keyboard. However they're getting cut open by the near clip plane of my camera:
I've tried to use gluPerspective, but the OpenGL documentation doesn't give any examples of its use. I found it being used in an example program online, and semi-replicated their code:
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
gluPerspective( 65, 1, 0.01, 100 );
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
Any thoughts?
UPDATE:
As suggested in the comments below, I tried using glFrustum instead, with the following code:
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
glFrustum( -0.5, 0.5, -0.5, 0.5, 0.1, 100 );
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
Again, there was no difference. Am I not pushing the resulting matrices correctly or something?

Perhaps you need to move your objects a little farther from the Camera. Right now it seems that they are closer than 0.0.
Considering your update "I moved the cubes one whole unit away from the camera, and now as they rotate they get clipped by both the near and the far clip planes" your cubes may be too large for your clipping depth (100 - 0.1). Move cubes away from the camera by 50 and set your clipping planes to 0.1 .. 1000 to make sure everything fits.
If the problem remains we might need to look at your matrices code.

Related

Why is this object drawn different if I use glFrustum?

I'm doing this OpenGL project for my Computer Graphics class, where I display an object and I rotate it and stuff, the thing is that at the beginning of the project we used glOrtho() and it looked really great.
But now the teacher said that we have to use glFrustum() for perspective and if I use that function, the object is drawn like this and I really don't know why does this happens:
This is my code from the init() function where everything changes:
void init (void)
{
/* select clearing (background) color */
glClearColor (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
glEnable(GL_CULL_FACE);
glCullFace(GL_BACK);
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
glOrtho(-100.0, 100.0, -60.0, 160.0, -100.0, 100.0);
//glFrustum(-100, 100 ,-100 ,100 ,1 , 40);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity();
glRotatef(90,0,1,0);
}
I'd appreciate your help.
EDIT: If I use glFrustum(-100, 100, -100, 100, 20, 200) it looks like this, like I'm getting closer but what about the left, right, top and bottom parameters? Are they okay with that values?
It's hard to be certain without more information. Perhaps the model could give some insight. But I suspect it may have to do with your clipping planes (nearVal and farVal as described here) arguments passed to glFrustum (1, 40). Perhaps try setting them to a broader range like your glOrtho call: 1, 150 (Note: neither nearVal or farVal can be negative when passed to glFrustum).
This all depends on the scale of the model and how it is positioned relative to the camera. If part of the model falls outside of the clipping planes, then it will be, well... clipped.

OpenGL 3D Rotation doesn't look as expected

I need to get a slightly 3D representation of a two-dimensional layer of plant cells in OpenGL 2.1 (actually Compatibility profile). It's looking pretty good so far with no transformations:
What you see in the center is a small 3D cube I drew for comparison purposes. It uses the same transformation matrix as all other models. Every cell consists of an extruded plateau (lighter parts) and sloped walls (the shadowy bits). There's a diffuse white light source pointed at the cell from somewhere about the eye.
Now comes the part where I'm stuck. Scaling and translations work just fine, but I can't get 3D rotations of the cell to work. The cube, defined around (0, 0, 0) rotates exactly as expected but the cells show a strange behaviour I haven't managed to explain.
Here's the same model slightly rotated.
First of all, the shadows are different (as expected I'd say). The light source doesn't move. I've tried moving it but it didn't really change much, so that's another problem altogether. What's especially peculiar to me is the way the cells get cut off. The lower left corner has missing pieces. One could say we're looking under that part of the cell, but then the other part of that cell doesn't look quite like expected. Or is the lighting just bad?
I'm looking for a rotation of this only slightly 3D model that would look more pleasing to the user. Would I go about changing the lighting? Mind you there is no way I can use Glu so there's no gluLookAt to instead view my camera around. Would there be another way around though? Creative answers are encouraged. In short, I need a way for a user to navigate around this slightly 3D model, knowing it's mostly 2D, that feels intuitive.
Some more images for context. The application supports rotation by dragging around the screen with the mouse so playing around is easy.
Rotated 90 degrees about the y axis (OK)
Ever so slightly rotated
Transformations:
glLoadIdentity();
glScalef(m_preferences->m_mesh_magnification, m_preferences->m_mesh_magnification, 1.0);
glRotatef(m_totalRotation.x() / 5., 0, 1, 0); // user rotation
glRotatef(m_totalRotation.y() / 5., -1, 0, 0); // user rotation
Body of resizeGL(w, h), responsible for the projection view:
glViewport(0, 0, (GLsizei) w, (GLsizei) h);
glMatrixMode (GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
glOrtho(-((GLdouble) w) / 2, ((GLdouble) w) / 2, ((GLdouble) h) / 2, -((GLdouble) h) / 2, -1.0, 1.0);
//glFrustum(...) if we want a realistic projection
glMatrixMode (GL_MODELVIEW);
Basically I make y point down and have (0, 0) in the middle. The y direction I believe mimicks Qt's default, while the origin's location was a project decision.
EDIT: final result after rotating
glOrtho(-((GLdouble) w) / 2, ((GLdouble) w) / 2, ((GLdouble) h) / 2, -((GLdouble) h) / 2, -1.0, 1.0);
The -1.0, 1.0 are your near and far clipping planes. Anything in front of the near plane or behind the far plane will not be drawn. You'll need to increase those values -- but not much more than you need to, because you'll lose Z-buffer precision.

GL_MODELVIEW and GL_PROJECTION

My code Currently looks like this :
glViewport (0, 0, this->w(), this->h());
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
glFrustum(-1.0, 1.0, -1.0, 1.0, 1.5, 20.0);
//glTranslated (m_fXmovement, 0.0, m_fZmovement - 5);
//glRotated (m_fYangleView, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
//glRotated (m_fXangleView, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
///// Model View \\\\\
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glTranslated (m_fXmovement, 0.0, m_fZmovement - 5 );
glRotated (m_fYangleView, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
glRotated (m_fXangleView, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
DrawWaveFrontObject (m_pDataObjectMedia);
glPushMatrix();
glTranslated (0.0, -3.0, 0.0);
DrawArea();
glPopMatrix();
DrawClickAnimation();
glLoadIdentity();
First I had the movement part in GL_PROJECTION and all was running fine until I was working with fog.... It felt like the Camera isn't moving, it felt more like an additional camera pointing to that camera....
Then I accidentally copied the movement parts to the GL_MODELVIEW and the fog was acting as I wanted it to act..... all was fine accepting the click animation wasn't in relation to the area anymore, now the animation moved with my ego perspective.... and I don't really get it what kind of drawing I have to put in which of these two VIEW's. Could anyone give me examples or explanations according to my code or a hint what I could improve in my styl?
Quote from opengl.org forum:
The projection matrix is used to create your viewing volume. Imagine a
scene in the real world. You don't really see everything around you,
only what your eyes allow you to see. If you're a fish for example you
see things a bit broader. So when we say that we set up the projection
matrix we mean that we set up what we want to see from the scene that
we create. I mean you can draw objects anywhere in your world. If they
are not inside the view volume you won't see anything. When you create
the view volume imagine that you create 6 clipping planes that define
your field of view.
As for the modelview matrix, it is used to make various
transformations to the models (objects) in your world. Like this you
only have to define your object once and then translate it or rotate
it or scale it.
You would use the projection matrix before drawing the objects in your
scene to set the view volume. Then you draw your object and change the
modelview matrix accordingly. Of course you can change your matrix
midway of drawing your models if for example you want to draw a scene
and then draw some text (which with some methods you can work easier
in orthographic projection) then change back to modelview matrix.
As for the name modelview it has to do with the duality of modeling
and viewing transformations. If you draw the camera 5 units back, or
move the object 5 units forwards it is essentially the same.
First of all, I suggest that you try to abandon the fixed-function pipeline (glTranslate etc) since it's been deprecated for like 10 years now. Look here for a more modern tutorial if you're interested.
As for your problem, you can imagine the meaning of the two matrices like this: The projection matrix essentially captures properties intrinsic to the camera itself, like how its field of view is shaped.
On the other hand, the modelview matrix is composed of two parts, the model matrix and the view matrix. The model part is for transforming from object space (relative to an object itself) to world space. Then, the view part translates from there to the eye space, in which the camera sits at the origin and points down the (negative?) z axis. Together, the modelview matrix essentially states how objects are to be positioned relative to the camera.
For further information, this resource gives a detailed description of graphics transformations in the context of OpenGL.
[Jan, 2017] Edit: Pages from the first link seem to be unable to access these days, so there is another link to the same content from their archive.

glOrtho in a 3D scene isn't working

I made a 3D scene and I used glOrtho and gluOrtho2D to get things to stay on my screen when I move the camera to look around in my 3D scene. But when I start to look around the characters disappear.
How do you get the characters to stay on your screen.
The projection matrix kind of defines your lens. But no matter what lens you use, if you turn the scene or move the camera, the view will change.
How do you get the characters to stay on your screen.
Well, by keeping the "camera" in place.
OpenGL actually doesn't have a camera. It doesn't even have a scene. The only thing it sees are points, lines and triangles it draws one after another to the screen. What OpenGL has are transformation matrices. And in your case, all you have to do is set a projection and modelview, that will draw the characters at the desired place on the screen. And since OpenGL does not maintain a scene, you can change the transformation matrices anytime you want.
You probably forgot a "glLoadIdentity();" somewhere...
After your calls to glOrtho...
glOrtho(0.0, windowWidth, 0.0, windowHeight, -10.0, 10.0);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity();
Hope this helps.
-kropcke

Why is my glutWireCube not placed in origin?

I have the following OpenGL code in the display function:
glLoadIdentity();
gluLookAt(eyex, eyey, eyez, atx, aty, atz, upx, upy, upz);
// called as: gluLookAt(20, 5, 5, -20, 5, 5, 0, 1, 0);
axis();
glutWireCube (1.);
glFlush ();
axis() draws lines from (0,0,0) to (10,0,0), (0,10,0) and (0,10,0), plus a line from (1,0,0) to (1,3,0).
My reshape function contains the following:
glViewport (0, 0, (GLsizei) w, (GLsizei) h);
glMatrixMode (GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity ();
gluPerspective(45.0, (GLsizei) w / (GLsizei) h, 1.0, 100.0);
glMatrixMode (GL_MODELVIEW);
This image shows the result of running the program with 1. as the argument to glutWireCube:
As you can see, the cube isn't centered around (0,0,0) as the documentation says it should be:
The cube is centered at the modeling
coordinates origin (...) (source)
If I run the program with 5. as the argument, the cube is displaced even further:
Why is that, and how do I place the cubes around (0,0,0)?
FURTHER INFORMATION
It doesn't matter if I switch the order of axis() and glutWireCube. Surrounding axis() with glPushMatrix() and glPopMatrix() doesn't fix it either.
SOLUTION
I modified gluPerspective to start looking further away from the camera, and now the Z-buffering works properly, so it is clear that the cubes are placed around the origin.
Are you sure axis does not mess with the view matrix ?
What happens if you call it after the drawing of the cube ?
Edit to add:
Actually... Looking at the picture closer, it looks like it might be centered at the origin.
The center of the cube seems to align exactly with the intersection of the 3 axes. The only thing that looks suspicious is that the red line does not write over the white edge. do you have Z-buffering properly set up ?
It might be right, I think it's hard to determine due to the perspective ... But I guess it isn't from staring a bit more at it.
To quickly rule out that axis() isn't modifying the model view matrix, surround the call with matrix push/pops:
glPushMatrix();
axis();
glPopMatrix();
Things to investigate/check:
Is this the entire window? It seems odd that the view is down in one corner.
Does it help if you add an increasing rotation before the rendering? That can make it easier to determine the perspective, by giving more clues.
You can also try moving the "camera" around, by changing the arguments to gluLookAt() dynamically.