Introduction to the software libraries

This course makes use of several popular libraries to help build sophisticated portable graphics applications with minimal effort.
The following diagram gives an overview of the packages and how they interact. For the purposes of this course, one can think of the GLU and glut libraries as being part of the OpenGL library or the OpenGL API (application programmer's interface), eventhough this is not really the case. The Tcl/Tk library will only be used for some assignments and in these cases is used to provide a reasonable command-line interface and graphical interface to the graphics code.

OpenGL provides most of the graphics functionality

GLU provides support for some additional operations and primitive types, and is implemented using OpenGL function calls

glut designed specifically to be used with OpenGL and it takes care of things like opening windows, redraw events, and keyboard and mouse input. It effectively hides all the windowing system dependencies for OpenGL

Tcl/Tk provides easy-to-use scripting functionality and a graphical user interface toolkit

OpenGL: Open Graphics Library

standardized 3D graphics library (API)
available on many platforms, often with hardware support
derivative of the Silicon Graphics' GL library
all function calls have the gl prefix, e.g.: glScale3fv()
Online OpenGL tutorial, with Manual pages
Other OpenGL resources on the Internet**

installing OpenGL for Windows

bundled with Win98, Win95 OSR2, WinNT or download** it
look for dynamically-linked libraries (dlls):

C:\Winnt\system32\Opengl32.dll

C:\Windows\system32\Opengl32.dll

look for header files, e.g., for Visual C++:

C:\Program Files\DevStudio\VC\include\gl\*.h

hardware-accelerated versions ship with your video card. It will be one of two types of driver:

ICD -- installable client driver

complete customized OpenGL pipeline (a new dll?)
all parts of pipeline can potentially be accelerated

MCD -- mini client driver (more recent, NT only)

rasterization hardware acceleration
transformations, clipping, and lighting done in software
existing dll provides hooks to hand-off work to hardware (?)

don't forget to install glut in order to use assignment code

installing OpenGL for Linux

free, software-only implementation available for most platforms: Mesa
Mesa home page**
distributed as a self-installing RPM module
recommend latest version of RedHat Linux, v5 or later
install either using either RPMs, or else using tarred, gzip'ed versions
glut is included with the Mesa distribution
RPMs available on CD-ROM in tools/Mesa/

Mesa-2_6-1_i386.rpm	libraries?
Mesa-2_6-1_src.rpm	source code and header files
Mesa-demos-2_6-1_i386.rpm	a large collection of demo programs
Mesa-devel-2_6-1_i386.rpm	?
Mesa-glut-2_6-1_i386.rpm	glut for Mesa
Mesa-glut-devel-2_6-1_i386.rpm	glut development (?) for Mesa

rpm -ivh Mesa-2_6-1_i386.rpm

rpm -ivh Mesa-2_6-1_src.rpm

rpm -ivh Mesa-demos-2_6-1_i386.rpm

rpm -ivh Mesa-devel-2_6-1_i386.rpm

tar, gzip version available on CD-ROM in tools/Mesa/

MesaLib-2_6_tar.gz

MesaDemos-2_6_tar.gz

gzcat

MesaLib-2_6_tar.gz | tar xf -

gzcat

MesaLib-2_6_tar.gz | tar xf -

The top-level makefile will execute the makefiles in a number of sub-
directories. When finished, the Mesa libraries will be in the Mesa-2.6/lib/
directory. A few GLUT demos in the demos/ directory should be ready to run.

If you also downloaded and unpacked the demos there should be executables
in the "xdemos/", "samples/", and "book/" directories for you to try out.
If you only want to compile the contents of one subdirectory you can 'cd'
to that directory and type 'make <config>' there.

GLU: OpenGL Utility Library

support for NURBS surfaces, quadric surfaces, surface trimming, ...
all function calls have the glu prefix, e.g.: gluOrtho2D()
comes with all OpenGL implementations, including Windows and Mesa, no separate installation required
typically involves no hardware acceleration
glu32.dll on Win95/Win98/WinNT, look in same directory as Opengl32.dll

glut: OpenGL Utility Toolkit

hides windowing system dependencies

open, refresh, resize window
swap front/back drawing buffers for animation
trap keyboard, mouse events

implements pull-down menus
all function calls have the glut prefix, e.g.: glutMainLoop()
versions for X-windows, MacOS, Win95/98, WinNT
glut resources on the Internet**

installing glut for Windows

glut32.dll on Win95/Win98/WinNT
available on CD-ROM in tools/glut

glut37.zip	source code
glut37data.zip	additional data files for some of the demos
glutdlls37beta.zip	pre-compiled dll libraries

look at the README.win (with the source code) for how to install using the source code distribution

installing glut for Linux

comes with the Mesa distribution on the CDROM

Tcl/Tk: Tool Command Language / GUI Toolkit

command-line interpreter, or equivalently, a scripting language
general programming facilities: variables, loops, procedures
applications add their own commands, bound to C/C++ procedures

commands for easy construction of graphical user interface (GUI)
extension to Tcl

Tcl/Tk on the internet**
installing Tcl/Tk for Windows

pre-compiled libraries available on CD-ROM in tools/TclTk/tcl81a2.exe
The file is a self-extracting executable. It will install the Tcl and Tk libraries, the wish and tclsh programs, and documentation. I believe it also comes with the necessary header files for Tcl and Tk.

installing Tcl/Tk for Linux

available on CD-ROM in tools/TclTk

tcl8_1a2_tar.gz

tk8_1a2_tar.gz

gzcat tcl8_1a2_tar.gz | tar xf -

gzcat tk8_1a2_tar.gz | tar xf -

OpenGL	provides most of the graphics functionality
GLU	provides support for some additional operations and primitive types, and is implemented using OpenGL function calls
glut	designed specifically to be used with OpenGL and it takes care of things like opening windows, redraw events, and keyboard and mouse input. It effectively hides all the windowing system dependencies for OpenGL
Tcl/Tk	provides easy-to-use scripting functionality and a graphical user interface toolkit