Editorial Reviews

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The OpenGL graphics libraries offer programmers the ability to construct and render remarkably realistic 3-D scenes that can incorporate multiple lighting sources, various types of perspective, and various special effects. The OpenGL Programming Guide is a comprehensive and definitive resource on using the extensive capabilities offered by OpenGL. Beginning with coverage of basic OpenGL objects--points, lines, and polygons--it advances through functions for selecting colors, lighting, reflective properties, texture, atmospheric haze, and more. Basic concepts of 3-D graphics are made accessible with analogies to cameras, and advanced sidebars and appendices go into deep detail about OpenGL.

Book Description

OpenGL is a powerful software interface for graphics hardware that allows graphics programmers to produce high-quality color images of 3D objects. The functions in the OpenGL library enable programmers to build geometric models, view models interactively in 3D space, control color and lighting, manipulate pixels, and perform such tasks as alpha blending, antialiasing, creating atmospheric effects, and texture mapping.

The OpenGL Programming Guide, Second Edition, shows how to create graphics programs, many of which highlight features of the latest OpenGL release. Assuming users have a background in C programming, the book discusses the architecture and functions of OpenGL, Version 1.1.

The second edition contains the following additions and improvements: coverage of the new features of OpenGL, Version 1.1, including all texturing changes, vertex arrays, polygon offset, and RGBA logical operations the incorporation of the OpenGL Utility Toolkit, GLUT, in all programming examples, an overview of the OpenGL rendering pipeline and state machine, enhanced coverage of polygon tessellation, quadric surfaces, pixel operations, and error handling, more performance tips, a greatly expanded index.

The OpenGL Technical Library provides tutorial and reference books for OpenGL. The library enables programmers to gain a practical understanding of OpenGL and show them how to unlock its full potential.

The OpenGL Technical Library is developed under the auspices of the Architecture Review Board (ARB), an industry consortium responsible for guiding the evolution of OpenGL and related technologies. The OpenGL ARB is composed of industry leaders such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Evans & Sutherland, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Intergraph, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Silicon Graphics.