CS 4731, C Term 2011 Homework 0: Practice with OpenGL (Not to be submitted)

The aim of this practice exercise is to get your feet wet in OpenGL. You will learn how to install and set up your OpenGL system and perform a few simple, fun tasks. You will mostly go through some readings from the book and type in an accompanying sample program or cut and paste examples. Follow the instructions and type in code carefully. Note that due to the large number of operating systems and compilers out there, I cannot provide help on all platforms. I will provide assistance on how to compile your code on ccc.wpi.edu. You can develop on any platform with C/C++ and OpenGL, but it'll be your responsibility to get it working and port your code when you are done. I have created a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file that contains information that you may also find useful. The FAQ was compiled from actual questions from students in CS 4731 over the years. The CS 4731 students worked using OpenGL and compiled on ccc.wpi.edu so the discussion of platform-dependent issues is useful for this exercise and also for some issues that may arise in later projects so please bookmark this page. You can find the FAQ HERE . So, here goes:

1. Get and install OpenGL and GLUT: First, get and install OpenGL and GLUT on your favorite platform. Click [ Here ] for instructions on how to get and install OpenGL and glut on your favorite platform and get it ready for the programs below. Note: that you can use any systems for your projects, but I will provide help and guidance primarily for the WPI CCC Unix machines. OpenGL libraries come with most recent versions of Microsoft Windows and Visual C++. So, if you are running a recent version of Windows and Visual C++, you may already have the OpenGL libraries you need. Here's a a sample Makefile that works on ccc.wpi.edu. The makefile assumes that your OpenGL source program is in a file called cs4731_hw1.cpp. Change the names accordingly for your program. Here's a sample output from using the Makefile
   
   

   > ls
   cs4731_hw1.cpp  Makefile
   [emmanuel@CCCWORK2 sierp]$ make clean
   /bin/rm -f proj0 cs4731_hw1.o
   [emmanuel@CCCWORK2 sierp]$ make all
   g++ -Wno-deprecated  -I. -c cs4731_hw1.cpp
   g++ cs4731_hw1.o -lglut -lGL -lGLU -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lX11 -lXmu -lm -o proj0
   

2. Draw three dots: Read section 2.2 (page 47) of Hill book. Use the sample code in figure 2.11 (page 51) of Hill book to write a program for drawing three dots to the screen. Name the file appropriately and save it (E.g. HW1_ThreeDots.cpp). Compile and run the program!!
   
   
3. Sierpinski Gasket: Read example 2.2.2 (page 52) of Hill book. Use the following shell of the Sierpinski gasket to write a program which draws the Sierpinski gasket. The bodies of the GLIntPoint class, the random function, the drawDot function (figure 2.7, page 48) and the Sierpinski function (figure 2.15) have all been omitted. Type them in from example 2.2.2 and the appropriate figures in the text. Compile and run the program!!!
   
   To make your Sierpinski gasket prettier, in the for loop in the Sierpinski( ) function, change the number of iterations from 1000 to 50000. Drawing point size should be set to 1
   
   
4. Reading and drawing polyline files: Read section 2.3, especially example 2.3.2 on page 61 of Hill book to draw polyline files. Using the following shell write a program to read in a polyline file and draw it on the screen. The body of the drawPolyLineFile function has been omitted. Type it in from figure 2.24 on page 62. Save and use the polyLine file dino.dat for your work.

   The basic structure of a GRS file is:

   • A number of comment lines, followed by a line starting with at least one asterisk: '*'.
   • The "extent" of the figure: (left, top, right, bottom).
   • The number of polylines in the figure.
   • The list of polylines: each starts with the number of points in the polyline, followed by the (x, y) pairs for each point.
   • Note that a lot of the GRS files start with comments. You should read them in and ignore them in your program.
   • The format for dino.dat is a little different in that it doesn't have the window dimensions (or comments) right at the top. Therefore, off the bat, a program which reads other GRS files without problems will have new problems with your old dino.dat file. You can either throw in a dummy extents window at the top of dino.dat or come up with a solution that works.

     Hint: A value of ( 0, 640, 0, 480 ) should work!!

   Compile and run the program!!

Note: Make sure you read and understand the examples in the book before typing in the examples.