See my ventures into OpenGL

[BSTRhino]

For one of my assignments this semester we got to experiment with the different features of OpenGL. I went all out and made this animated world that you can fly through with mouse control, while everyone else tried to do as little as possible lol

I thought you guys might be interested in seeing what I made, especially if you're skeptical whether I really am busy (*coughStarchitectscough*). Take a look at it here: http://www.starcraft.org/tmp/BSTOpenGLDemoSetup.exe

[Dezzick]

What is OpenGL? I can't try your thing now, sonce I am on a public computer. :(

[Dark_Soul74]

Do I detect the use of gmax/3DStudio Max?

Quite an interesting program... If you want me to set up some models for you to use in it, just give me the word.

[BSTRhino]

OpenGL stands for Open Graphics Library. It's a rendering library which sits behind many computer games and other applications which require 2D or 3D rendering. For example, those 3D text screensavers that come with windows are all made using OpenGL.

OpenGL's advantage is it's cross-platform, but Microsoft saw this and thought "We don't want that" so they created DirectX to compete with OpenGL. Mainly we're talking about the Direct3D part of DirectX here. Direct3D has a lot more features but only works on windows machines and I'm going to be comparing it to OpenGL later on for a project.

Dark_Soul74, what are you doing up at this time? Models are cool, but I'd have to write the whole program to load them in and display all their polygons and all of that... maybe when this semester's over I might do that as a learning experience, but I can't do it at present, I've got too much other work.

[Dark_Soul74]

Well, I saw the donuts and teapot and thought that you might have wanted something with a bit more detail to it. :P

I don't really know the difference, but OpenGL looks a whole lot better in games like Half-Life, when compared to D3D. Any reason to this?

[Mindslaver]

It's somewhat annoying that it's a setup file.

Did you use GL_FASTEST instead of GL_NICEST?

The edges are really choppy - take a look at antialiasing (http://www.opengl.org/resources/tutorials/advanced/advanced98/notes/node90.html#SECTION00090000000000000000).

Otherwise, good work!

[DragonPaladin]

Very good!

[hammocksleeper]

Wow cool, I like how the cone shows a little green reflected light from the ball as it moves towards it. Also, put your nose a little over halfway through the donut and you can see some cool shapes as it moves around.

[BSTRhino]

Dark_Soul, I think maybe in Half-life they have textures on every object, and they look a bit pixelated when you get too close.

So, thanks for looking at it. You know, I'm seriously considering becoming a game programmer all of a sudden.

[Mindslaver]

It's a good consideration, BST_Rhino.

But once you are familiar with OpenGL/Direct3D, I would recommend moving to an engine that encompasses both, like Ogre (http://www.ogre3d.org). This way, you can spend more time on the overall graphics, and not picky details like "omg where's the light!?!?".

Using a graphics engine is a very good decision. People who hard-code their own graphics routines using OpenGL and Direct3D will spend a lot more time on the boring (IMO) parts of game programming.

[Markpyro]

I got stuck in a corner :'(