Hi,
Its very simple. There are two types of projecttion - Perspective Projection and othograpics projection.
Perspective Projection gives you a view like in the real world - further you go smaller it will look while Orthographics projection keeps the size in tact. However far in the world it goes - the size is the same.
Now to do perspective projection you need to use gluPerspective in Opengl.
Consider this diagram of the two types of viewing frustum. The cuboid/rectangular type is the Orthographics projection frustum while the other one is the perspective viewing frsutum.
http://www.microsoft.com/msj/archive/opengl8.gif
Now lets get to the specific of gluPerspective -
gluPerspective( GLdouble fovy,
GLdouble aspect,
GLdouble zNear,
GLdouble zFar )
fovy is field of view for the y direction. This is the amount that you would want to see. So it goes like this in terms of a diagram
.
. |
. |
. |y direction
eye. ) angle |
. |
. |
. |
The aspect ratio determines the angle or how much is visible to eye on the x direction. However in an application it needs to use something to determine thus so it uses the width/height as the factor to calculate this. Thus your aspect ratio becomes the application width divided by the application height.
| |
| |
near clipping | | far clipping plane
plane | |
zNear | | zFar
| |
zFar - Think of this as the horizon after which you cannot see anything. Anything outside of this value will be clipped meaning not rendered.
zNear - This is the nearest point to the view/eye before which nothing will be visible.
So what you would do is do the following in opengl for gluPerspective for what you want
gluPerspective(45.0f, width/height, 0.1f, 100.0f);
And also set yourself at (should be done after you call glClear(..) and before rendering anything.)
gluLookAt(0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0);
Basically saying set the eye point at 0, 0, 5 pixels behind origin with center being 0, 0, 0 and Up vector being 0, 1, 0.
Hope this helps
: Hello!
: i'm a very-very beginning OpenGl programmer.
: And for making up first serious ( even somehow) programmes, i'd like
: to understand the basics.
:
: I competely do NOT understand how function
GluPerspective
: works. I mean, i know its usage in theory but i still can't use it
: the way it works as i need to.
:
: For instance, i have a cobe centered in (0,0,0), its heigth is 0.6.
: (so it crosses all the axes in points 0.3,-0.3).
:
: How should I call
GluPerspective to see the edges of the cube
: ( some of them in fron of the viewer)???
:
: And i do NOT understand the location of the viewer, i mean, the
: place i stand to see the scene ???
:
: Can anybody explane me , please?
:
: it's really urgent
:
: HUGE thanks
:
