I've played around with GLUT, but I've also read about SDL and one or two other graphics libraries. All I want to do at this point is 2D work. For what I'm doing right now, pixel by pixel plotting is all I need (say, plot(x,y,color) or something of the sort), but in the future I would appreciate the use of sprites. I've given point plotting a go with GLUT but it's rather non-intuitive coming from a B.A.S.I.C. background.
I work on both Ubuntu and Windows, so solutions for both systems are welcome.
SDL is probably a good choice; another option to look at would be Qt (just subclass a QWidget and override its paintEvent() method and do your pixel plotting inside that). Qt can also provide windowing/infrastructure support for OpenGL graphics if that's your preference.
Related
I have made mostly generic UI framework that uses SDL2. All my core code is largely complete and I'm at point of adding different controls.
I'm trying to find some nice drawing library for C++ that will allow me to draw controls on screen little bit nicer, I have option that images can be used for controls also but that is not resolution independent and I can draw them also using SDLs simple rectangles and lines right now.
Abstraction of controls rendering allows for implementation of drawing library that can be used just for visual representation.
I would like to skip the part of making my own drawing library general requirements would be:
Multi platform (win, linux, osx is a must)
Not dependant on 100s of other libraries. (As low as possible if
possible)
Ability to draw shapes (rectangle, rounded rect, ellipse...)
Drawing outlines of shapes would be nice
Shadows extremely nice (but I'm sure i would have to do this, just wishful)
Different types of gradients to fill shapes
TTF support would be nice but not mandatory I use SDLs
It should be compatible with SDL at least in a way that I can get
back anything convertible to SDL_Surface or SDL_Texture
Open Source and free
Those are the wishes now I'm turning to you to ask do you know what lib can match most of this points.
Thanks.
Could do a lot worse than AGG. May require some configuration of course, for your specific needs. Not sure about shadows (you can do those yourself quite easily anyway).
Essentially I want a border-less, black window which I can set the location and size of./
I then want to draw a filled white polygon given four points.
I say efficient, as I am currently using OpenCV to draw which I believe is every inefficient. I want to be able to change the points and have it redraw with new points at least 30fps.
My target platform is Windows with C++.
Does anyone know the quickest way to achieve this, maybe with a small library?
I would recommend you use openGl eg via the GLUT library.
The easiest way to do this will be to use DirectX. You can create, resize, and reposition the window with the Windows API and render into it with DirectX. DX has a much more accessible API than OpenGL, because OGL is full of implicit globals and weak typing, and the support libraries like GLUT are terrible C hackery as well, whereas DX is easy to whip up RAII with a couple of custom deleters and is object-orientated.
You can also use, if on Vista or later, Direct2D, which is more designed for simple 2D rendering.
I know GLUT's quadrics, I used it in a few programs when I was in school. Now I'm working on a real world application and I find myself in need of drawing some geometric primitives (cubes, spheres, cylinders), but now I also know that GLUT is a no longer supported and it's last update was in like 2005. So I'm wondering if there's anything other than GLUT's quadrics to draw such geometric shapes. I'm asking if there's anything made before I go ahead and start making my own from vertices arrays.
Yes, you can! You can use the native API of the OS to create a window with OpenGL capabilities.
The advantage of GLUT is that is makes this task easier and is a cross-platform solution.
There are other cross-platform libraries that are more complex to work with but provide the same functionality, like Qt.
NeHe has a huge amount of examples that use several different technologies to accomplish what you are looking for. Check the bottom of the page.
Here is a demo for Windows that creates a window and draws a simple OpenGL triangle inside it. This demo removes all the window frame to give the impression that a triangle is floating on the screen. And here is a similar demo for Linux.
GLUT is just some conveniece framework that came to life way after OpenGL. The problem is not, that GLUT is unmaintained. The problem is, that GLUT was not and never will be meant for serious applications.
Then there's also GLU providing some primitives, but just as GLUT it's merely a companion library. You don't need either.
The way OpenGL works is, that you deliver it arrays of vertex attributes (position, color, normal, texture coordinates, etc.) and tell to draw a set of primitives (points, lines, triangles) from those attributes from a second array of indices referencing into the vertex attribute arrays.
There used to be the immediate mode in versions prior to OpenGL-3 core, but that got depreceated – good riddance. It's only use was for populating display lists which used to have a slight performance advantage if one was using indirect GLX. With VBOs (server (=GPU) side vertex attribute storage) that's no longer an issue.
While GLUT has not been maintained, FreeGLUT has. There are still several alternatives though.
GLFW is a cross-platform windowing system which is easy to get up and running, and also provides the programmer with control of the main application loop.
SFML has support for many languages and also integration capabilities with other windowing schemes, in addition to being cross-platform.
Finally, Qt is another, popular, cross-platform windowing framework.
Now I'm working on a real world application and I find myself in need of drawing some geometric primitives (cubes, spheres, cylinders),
Actually, I don't remember anything except glut that would provide generic primitives. This might have something to do with the fact that those generic primitives are very easy to implement from scratch.
You can use other libraries (libsdl, for example, or Qt) to initialize OpenGL, though.
Most likely if you find generic library for loading meshes (or anything that provides "Mesh" object), then it will have primtives.
is a no longer supported and it's last update was in like 2005
Contrary to popular belief, code doesn't rot and it doesn't get worse with time. No matter how many years ago it was written, if it still works, you can use it.
Also there is FreeGLUT project. Last update: 2012.
I'm trying to develop a custom set of libraries for creating GUIs in Linux, with, you know, widgets, buttons, etc. So I'm now learning to creating user interfaces using X11 and its Xlib. I get to the point of having a nice window of a size specified, at a position specified, of a specified background color, and the possibility of drawing points, rectangles, arcs. However as I drew my first circle I got really disappointed by the fact that the circle is not antialiased. I can see every single pixel as a square.
Now the question is easy. Is there any way to tell X: please antialias anything before drawing? Or do I have to avoid using XDrawArc and use a custom function which calls XDrawPoint for each point of the circle? Or there is a third solution?
Thanks in advance.
The short answer is "no". Xlib doesn't do anti-aliasing.
The longer answer is "you can use a higher level API such as Cairo Graphics". It's not necessary to roll your own.
What you encountered are the limitations of the X11 core protocol; technically it would be perfectly possible to add antialiasing to it, but that didn't happen.
Instead there's the XRender extension, that provides nice antialiased primitives. You'll also want to look into Xft to render antialiased text using vector fonts.
You can roll your own antialiasing algorithm. You have the only 2 primitives you need: 1) a function to draw TrueColor points (namely, xcb_poly_point(), if you're using XCB), and 2) for loops.
I would like to program some graphic figures such as line, circle,etc. I have used turboc++ 3.0 for
dos graphics. I would like to do the same with the compilers dev c++ or code blocks or vc++.
I would like to implement dda and bresenhems line and circle drawing algorithm.
how should I go about implementing these programs through these compilers (not the command line tools).
I have a really vague picture of graphics programming.please help..
please note : I have a nvidia graphics card 1gb.. so I cannot use dos graphics (I think the card is the reason).
If you're wanting to play around with graphics code to draw objects and do things with them may I suggest that you skip the whole Windows/GDI/DirectX/ thing completely and take a look at Processing?
It's basically Java, so you won't have to jump too far for the language, but more specifically it's designed for playing around and experimenting with graphics, so may suit you perfectly.
You really have a vast variety of options. Starting from GDI (not hardware accelerated), finishing with a heavy stuff like DirectX, OpenGl. There is also a nice library, called SDL. It does not really matter what technology you will use to solve your problems. If the speed is not a matter, i think GDI is the right and most simple choice.
You may want to start off with these tutorials:
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/C-and-Cpp/Graphics/1
From the sound of things, you're trying to produce a program that runs on Windows. In that case, you don't need to implement basics like Bresenham's algorithm to be able to draw lines and circles. Windows provides MoveTo and LineTo to do basic line drawing, and Ellipse to draw ellipses -- and if the axes are equal, the ellipse it draws will be a circle.
Edit: It also sounds like you haven't written any code for Windows. This is quite different from writing code for DOS, so you'll probably need a good book. Charles Petzold's Programming Windows is a classic (though for C++ you'll want a somewhat older version -- I believe the current ones concentrate on the .NET languages).
I am using the powerful cross platform project: http://cimg.sourceforge.net/ .
you have there all primitives and more.
I you wish to use your GPU power you can use glut library for OpenGL.
cheers Arman.