EE222: OpenGL laboratory no. 2

The Aims of this Laboratory

There are three purposes to this Lab session:

1. For you to gain additional familiarity with OpenGL.
2. For you to learn how to texture-map using OpenGL.
3. For you to learn how to create simple game-like environments.

The Task

I've mentioned a few times that OpenGL is the rendering technology underlying a few games engines, including the Quake III one. In general, these engines keep their frame rates up by placing the player in environments that are fairly simple geometrically, often little more than a `box' made from six planes. Visual complexity is achieved by mapping textures onto the planes.

For this last Laboratory assignment, you are asked to:

• create an environment surrounding the player (the OpenGL camera) made up from six planes;
• texture-map different coloured textures onto the six planes;
• allow the viewpoint to be moved using the keyboard and mouse;
• implement a simple kind of `collision detection' to stop the player moving the camera outside the box.

You will find the last two example OpenGL programs in the lecture handouts (programs 12 and 13) give much of the code you will need, including all the texture-mapping code.