Render text in foreground - c++

Question

I am trying to render some strings in the foreground in a OpenGL/GLUT application under MacOSX 10.7.2.
At the moment I am using this code to draw a few lines in the foreground and it works fine.
void drawForeground() {
int width = 10;
int height = 10;
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glPushMatrix();
glLoadIdentity();
glOrtho(-1, width, -1, height, -1, 1);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glPushMatrix();
glLoadIdentity();
glDepthMask(GL_FALSE);
glBegin(GL_LINES);
//Draw the lines
glEnd();
/*********************/
glPopMatrix();
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glPopMatrix();
glDepthMask(GL_TRUE);
}
Now I would like to draw also some text. In the previous function I added this piece of code in the line where I put the asterisks:
glRasterPos2d(2,2);
glutBitmapCharacter(GLUT_BITMAP_HELVETICA_10, 'c');
but it didn't work. If I use the same two lines outside the drawForeground method the 'c' appears.
I already called glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D) and nothing changed.
May someone help me understanding my error?
Solution:
It turned out the solution to be disabling lighting using glDisable(GL_LIGHTING), reenabling it after rendering the text.
I would like to underline that the text is rendered always at the same dimension, independently from the parameters of the glOrtho call.

Answer 1

Nothing certain, but a couple of things to try if you haven't already:
What is the color set to before you call glutBitmapCharacter()? If the drawing color is set to something that doesn't show up against the background, it could simply look like nothing is being drawn.
Have you tried calling glDisable(GL_TEXTURE) in addition to glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D)?
Are there other things like lighting that you enable anywhere else in your code, and then don't disable before rendering the text that might affect things? When I've run into bugs like this in the past, it seems like they are often related to something in the OpenGL state being in a state I didn't expect, often because I made some change to the state elsewhere and forgot to undo it. I would recommend that you try systematically commenting out various OpenGL calls in your code, even if they don't seem directly related, and see if the characters ever show up. If they do, then you'll know which state change you need to make/undo.