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Using OpenGL with Visual C++

The OpenGL is a graphics library which provides the

interface to your graphics hardware. It was first released
by SGI systems. SGI is producer of marvelous graphics
workstations. They have been the king in the graphics
field. They released a line of graphics workstations and
server in the market. These workstations were loaded with
IRIS/UNIX operating system. They designed the powerful
graphics library, OpenGL, to exploit the power of the
specialized proprietary graphics hardware.
The best thing about the OpenGL is that it is hardware
independent library. It does not require any special
hardware to perform its functions. If your computer is
equipped with special graphics accelerator hardware, it
will use it otherwise the required functionality is
emulated by software.
With the popularity and the power of the OpenGL, it becomes
mandatory to provide it on other operating systems
platform. Now the powerful OpenGL library is available on
Windows platform also. It comes free of cost with the
Microsoft Visual C++ pack. The MSDN supports the help files
related to OpenGL. The OpenGL can be found on your system
at the following location if the Microsoft Visual C++ is
installed on your system.

The include file path may be:

C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/VC98/Include/GL

This contains three files

GL.h
GLAUX.h
GLU.h

Yes, believe me, just three include files, not more than
that!!!

The library file path may be:

C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/VC98/lib

It contains three OpenGL related libraries

GLAUX.lib
GLU32.lib
OPENGL32.lib
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That’s it.

If you have such files on your system, you can start

programming in OpenGL. As I wrote earlier, OpenGL is a
library, so you must include the header file at appropriate
places in your program like other libraries and include
OpenGL library during linking otherwise you will get link
time error messages.

Features of OpenGL

The following functionalities are provided by the OpenGL.

Drawing Primitive Geometric Objects

All the primitive drawing objects like line, polygon,
triangle strip, quad strip, triangle fan etc. are
supported.

Viewing and Modeling Transformations

The orthographic , perspective projection, rotation,
scaling, translation etc. supported by the library.

Display Lists
To store a series of OpenGL Commands and execute at a later
time. It helps in building the animation, movies etc.

Color
Color and shading technique to describe the graphical
model.

Lighting
Light model for ambient light, specular light, diffuse
light supported by the library.

Blending, Antialiasing, Fog

These features let you create a realistic computer
generated scene.

Drawing Pixels, Bitmaps, Fonts, Images

Representation and display of 2D data as pixels, bitmaps or
images.

Texture mapping
Mapping technique to wrap 1D or 2D texture on the 3D
objects.
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Framebuffer
Description and control of all the buffers. It helps in
generation of industry standard animations.

Evaluators & NURBS

Advanced technique for 2D-3D curves and surfaces.

Selection and Feedback

It allows the selection of 3D object on 3D screen using the
mouse.

The OpenGL e-book can be searched on the Internet for free

download. If you could not find it please contact me for a
free copy at support@saturnsoftmills.com

So far, we have talked a lot about the OpenGL. Now it is

time to talk about its interface with the Visual C++. This
is simple but most important step before you start
programming in OpenGL. The one by one steps are given
below, follow them and enjoy.

1. Create a New MFC based application (the way you wish).

2. Go to Project->.Setting. Click on the “link” tab.
Specify the name of all the OpenGL library in
“Object/library Modules”. Press OK.
3. Open your project view class cpp file. Search for the
function named “OnInitialUpdate”. If it is not found,
go to view->ClassWizard and add it. Add the following
code inside the OnInitialUpdate function.

void CYourPrjView::OnInitialUpdate()
{
CView::OnInitialUpdate();

// TODO: Add your specialized code here and/or call the base class
RECT rect;
cdc = (CDC*)GetDC();

// Getting the client rect

GetClientRect(&rect);
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//setting pixel format for GL compatibility

PIXELFORMATDESCRIPTOR pfd = {
sizeof (PIXELFORMATDESCRIPTOR), // Size of this structure
1, // Version number
PFD_DRAW_TO_WINDOW | // Flags
PFD_SUPPORT_OPENGL |
PFD_DOUBLEBUFFER,
PFD_TYPE_RGBA, // RGBA pixel values
24, // 24-bit color
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, // Don't care about these
0, 0, // No alpha buffer
0, 0, 0, 0, 0, // No accumulation buffer
32, // 32-bit depth buffer
0, // No stencil buffer
0, // No auxiliary buffers
PFD_MAIN_PLANE, // Layer type
0, // Reserved (must be 0)
0, 0, 0 // No layer masks
};

int nPixelFormat = ChoosePixelFormat(cdc->m_hDC, &pfd);

SetPixelFormat(cdc->m_hDC, nPixelFormat, &pfd);

hrc = wglCreateContext(cdc->m_hDC); // define hrc in your .h file
wglMakeCurrent(cdc->m_hDC,hrc);

// Setting the gl drawing environment

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
gluPerspective(45.0,1.0,1.0,2000.0);
glViewport(rect.left,rect.top,rect.right,rect.bottom);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity();
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
glClearColor(0.0,0.0,0.0,1.0);
}
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4. Declare the HGLRC hrc variable in the YourPrjView.h

file.
5. Start programming in OpenGL, dude. Go and write some
code in OnDraw function, Compile, link and Run.

It is so simple to use OpenGL in Visual C++ environment. If

you are expert programmer and have good knowledge of
OpenGL, you can produce your own Jurassic Park. You can be
next successful Producer and Director in Hollywood.