OpenGL is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. X Window System is a trademark of X Consortium, Inc. Spaceball is a registered trademark of Spatial Systems Inc.
The authors have taken care in preparation of this documentation but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising from the use of information or programs contained herein.
The OpenGL programming world owes a tremendous debt to Mr. Mark J. Kilgard for writing the OpenGL Utility Toolkit, or GLUT. The GLUT library of functions allows an application programmer to create, control, and manipulate windows independent of what operating system the program is running on. By hiding the dependency on the operating system from the application programmer, he allowed people to write truly portable OpenGL applications.
Mr. Kilgard copyrighted his library and gave it a rather unusual license. Under his license, people are allowed freely to copy and distribute the libraries and the source code, but they are not allowed to modify it. For a long time this did not matter because the GLUT library worked so well and because Mr. Kilgard was releasing updates on a regular basis. But with the passage of time, people started wanting some slightly different behaviours in their windowing system. When Mr. Kilgard stopped supporting the GLUT library in 1999, having moved on to bigger and better things, this started to become a problem.
In December 1999, Mr. Pawel Olzsta started work on an open-source clone of the GLUT library. This open-source clone, which does not use any of the GLUT source code, has evolved into the present freeglut library. This documentation specifies the application program interface to the freeglut library.
In developing the freeglut library, we have taken careful steps to ensure consistency in function operation across the board, in such a manner as to maintain compatibility with GLUT's behavior whenever possible. In this section some of the important conventions of FreeGLUT, and their compatibility with GLUT, are made explicit.
There is considerable confusion about the "right thing to do" concerning
window size and position. GLUT itself is not consistent between
Windows and UNIX/X11; since platform independence is a virtue for
freeglut, we decided to break with GLUT's behaviour.
Under UNIX/X11, it is apparently not possible to get the window border
sizes in order to subtract them off the window's initial position until
some time after the window has been created. Therefore we decided on
the following behavior, both under Windows and under UNIX/X11:
Since the freeglut library was developed in order to update GLUT, it is natural that there will be some differences between the two. Each function in the API notes any differences between the GLUT and the freeglut function behaviours. The important ones are summarized here.
One of the commonest complaints about the GLUT library was that once an application called glutMainLoop, it never got control back. There was no way for an application to loop in GLUT for a while, possibly as a subloop while a specific window was open, and then return to the calling function. A new function, glutMainLoopEvent, has been added to allow this functionality. Another function, glutLeaveMainLoop, has also been added to allow the application to tell freeglut to clean up and close down.
Another difficulty with GLUT, especially with multiple-window programs, is that if the user clicks on the "x" in the window header the application exits immediately. The application programmer can now set an option, GLUT_ACTION_ON_WINDOW_CLOSE, to specify whether execution should continue, whether GLUT should return control to the main program, or whether GLUT should simply exit (the default).
Function to leave fullscreen window mode, glutLeaveFullScreen, or to toggle between fullscreen and normal window mode, glutFullScreenToggle, have been added.
Several new callbacks have been added and several callbacks which were specific to Silicon Graphics hardware have not been implemented. Most or all of the new callbacks are listed in the GLUT Version 4 "glut.h" header file but did not make it into the documentation. The new callbacks consist of regular and special key release callbacks, a joystick callback, a menu state callback (with one argument, distinct from the menu status callback which has three arguments), and a window status callback (also with one argument). Unsupported callbacks are the three Spaceball callbacks, the ButtonBox callback, the Dials callback, and the two Tablet callbacks. If the user has a need for an unsupported callback he should contact the freeglut development team.
New functions have been added to render full character strings (including carriage returns) rather than rendering one character at a time. More functions return the widths of character strings and the font heights, in pixels for bitmapped fonts and in OpenGL units for the stroke fonts.
Two functions have been added to render a wireframe and a solid rhombic dodecahedron.
glutGetProcAddress is a wrapper for the glXGetProcAddressARB and wglGetProcAddress functions.
The glutInitWindowPosition and glutInitWindowSize functions specify a desired position and size for windows that freeglut will create in the future.
Usage
void glutInitWindowPosition ( int x, int y );
void glutInitWindowSize ( int width, int height );
Description
The glutInitWindowPosition and glutInitWindowSize functions specify a desired position and size for windows that freeglut will create in the future. The position is measured in pixels from the upper left hand corner of the screen, with "x" increasing to the right and "y" increasing towards the bottom of the screen. The size is measured in pixels. Freeglut does not promise to follow these specifications in creating its windows, but it certainly makes an attempt to.
The position and size of a window are a matter of some subtlety. Most
windows have a usable area surrounded by a border and with a title bar
on the top. The border and title bar are commonly called "decorations."
The position of the window unfortunately varies with the operating system.
On both Linux and Windows, you specify the coordinates of the upper
left-hand corner of the window's decorations. Also for both operating
systems, the size of the window is the size of the usable interior.
With glutGet information can be acquired about the current
window's size, position and decorations. Note however that according to
FreeGLUT's conventions, the information
returned about the window coordinates does not correspond to the
coordinates used when setting window position.
Windows has some additional quirks which the application programmer should know about. First, the minimum y-coordinate of a window decoration is zero. (This is a feature of freeglut and can be adjusted if so desired.) Second, there appears to be a minimum window width on Windows which is 104 pixels. The user may specify a smaller width, but the Windows system calls ignore it. It is also impossible to make a window narrower than this by dragging on its corner.
Changes From GLUT
For some reason, GLUT is not affected by the 104-pixel minimum window width. If the user clicks on the corner of a window which is narrower than this amount, the window will immediately snap out to this width, but the application can call glutReshapeWindow and make a window narrower again.
After an application has finished initializing its windows and menus, it enters an event loop. Within this loop, freeglut polls the data entry devices (keyboard, mouse, etc.) and calls the application's appropriate callbacks.
In GLUT, control never returned from the event loop (as invoked by the glutMainLoop function) to the calling function. This prevented an application from having re-entrant code, in which GLUT could be invoked from within a callback, and it prevented the application from doing any post-processing (such as freeing allocated memory) after GLUT had closed down. Freeglut allows the application programmer to specify more direct control over the event loop by means of two new functions. The first, glutMainLoopEvent, processes a single iteration of the event loop and allows the application to use a different event loop controller or to contain re-entrant code. The second, glutLeaveMainLoop, causes the event loop to exit nicely; this is preferable to the application's calling exit from within a GLUT callback.
The glutMainLoop function enters the event loop.
Usage
void glutMainLoop ( void );
Description
The glutMainLoop function causes the program to enter the window event loop. An application should call this function at most once. It will call any application callback functions as required to process mouse clicks, mouse motion, key presses, and so on.
Changes From GLUT
In GLUT, there was absolutely no way for the application programmer to have control return from the glutMainLoop function to the calling function. Freeglut allows the programmer to force this by setting the GLUT_ACTION_ON_WINDOW_CLOSE option and invoking the glutLeaveMainLoop function from one of the callbacks. Stopping the program this way is preferable to simply calling exit from within a callback because this allows freeglut to free allocated memory and otherwise clean up after itself. (I know I just said this, but I think it is important enough that it bears repeating.)
The glutMainLoopEvent function processes a single iteration in the freeglut event loop.
Usage
void glutMainLoopEvent ( void );
Description
The glutMainLoopEvent function causes freeglut to process one iteration's worth of events in its event loop. This allows the application to control its own event loop and still use the freeglut windowing system.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
The glutLeaveMainLoop function causes freeglut to stop its event loop.
Usage
void glutLeaveMainLoop ( void );
Description
The glutLeaveMainLoop function causes freeglut to stop the event loop. If the GLUT_ACTION_ON_WINDOW_CLOSE option has been set to GLUT_ACTION_CONTINUE_EXECUTION, control will return to the function which called glutMainLoop; otherwise the application will exit.
If the application has two nested calls to glutMainLoop and calls glutLeaveMainLoop, the behaviour of freeglut is undefined. It may leave only the inner nested loop or it may leave both loops. If the reader has a strong preference for one behaviour over the other he should contact the freeglut Programming Consortium and ask for the code to be fixed.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
The glutFullScreen, glutLeaveFullScreen and glutFullScreenToggle functions are used to transition the current window between fullscreen and normal mode.
Usage
void glutFullScreen ( void );
void glutLeaveFullScreen ( void );
void glutFullScreenToggle ( void );
Description
The glutFullScreen function causes the current window to enter
fullscreen mode, glutLeaveFullScreen to go back to the window
size and position as it was before entering fullscreen mode, and
glutFullScreenToggle toggles between fullscreen and normal
mode.
In multi-monitor setups on Windows 2000 and newer, the window will
become fullscreen on the monitor that it overlaps the most.
Calls to these functions are ignored for gamemode and child windows.
Use glutGet(GLUT_FULL_SCREEN) to query fullscreen state of
current window.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include the glutLeaveFullScreen and glutFullScreenToggle functions.
Freeglut does not allow overlays, although it does "answer the mail" with function stubs so that GLUT-based programs can compile and link against freeglut without modification.
If the reader needs overlays, he should contact the freeglut Programming Consortium and ask for them to be implemented. He should also be prepared to assist in the implementation.
The glutEstablishOverlay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Usage
void glutEstablishOverlay ( void );
Description
The glutEstablishOverlay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutRemoveOverlay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Usage
void glutRemoveOverlay ( void );
Description
The glutRemoveOverlay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutUseLayer function is not implemented in freeglut.
Usage
void glutUseLayer ( GLenum layer );
Description
The glutUseLayer function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutPostOverlayRedisplay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Usage
void glutPostOverlayRedisplay ( void );
Description
The glutPostOverlayRedisplay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutPostWindowOverlayRedisplay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Usage
void glutPostWindowOverlayRedisplay ( int window );
Description
The glutPostWindowOverlayRedisplay function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutShowOverlay and glutHideOverlay functions are not implemented in freeglut.
Usage
void glutShowOverlay( void );
void glutHideOverlay( void );
Description
The glutShowOverlay and glutHideOverlay functions are not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements these functions.
The glutIdleFunc function sets the global idle callback. Freeglut calls the idle callback when there are no inputs from the user.
Usage
void glutIdleFunc ( void (*func) ( void ) );
funcThe new global idle callback function
Description
The glutIdleFunc function
specifies the function that freeglut will call to perform background
processing tasks such as continuous animation when window system events are
not being received. If enabled, this function is called continuously
from freeglut while no events are received. The callback function
has no parameters and returns no value. Freeglut does not change
the current window or the current menu before invoking the idle
callback; programs with multiple windows or menus must explicitly set the
current window and current menu
and not rely on its current setting.
The amount of computation and rendering done in an idle
callback should be minimized to avoid affecting the program's interactive
response. In general, no more than a single frame of rendering should
be done in a single invocation of an idle callback.
Calling glutIdleFunc with a NULL argument
disables the call to an idle callback.
Changes From GLUT
Application programmers should note that if they have specified the "continue execution" action on window closure, freeglut will continue to call the idle callback after the user has closed a window by clicking on the "x" in the window header bar. If the idle callback renders a particular window (this is considered bad form but is frequently done anyway), the programmer should supply a window closure callback for that window which changes or disables the idle callback.
The glutSpecialFunc function sets the window's special key press callback. Freeglut calls the special key press callback when the user presses a special key.
Usage
void glutSpecialFunc ( void (*func) ( int key, int x, int y ) );
func The window's
new special key press callback function
key The
key whose press triggers the callback
x
The x-coordinate of the mouse relative
to the window at the time the key is pressed
y
The y-coordinate of the mouse relative
to the window at the time the key is pressed
Description
The glutSpecialFunc function specifies the function
that freeglut will call when the user
presses a special key on the keyboard. The callback function has one
argument: the name of the function to be invoked ("called back") at
the time at which the special key is pressed. The function returns no
value. Freeglut sets the current window to the window
which is active when the callback is invoked. "Special keys" are the
function keys, the arrow keys, the Page Up and Page Down keys, and the Insert
key. The Delete key is considered to be a regular key.
Calling glutSpecialUpFunc with a NULL argument
disables the call to the window's special key press callback.
The key argument may take one of the following defined constant values:
Changes From GLUT
None.
The glutKeyboardUpFunc function sets the window's key release callback. Freeglut calls the key release callback when the user releases a key.
Usage
void glutKeyboardUpFunc ( void (*func) ( unsigned char key, int x, int y ) );
func The window's
new key release callback function
key The
key whose release triggers the callback
x
The x-coordinate of the mouse relative
to the window at the time the key is released
y
The y-coordinate of the mouse relative
to the window at the time the key is released
Description
The glutKeyboardUpFunc
function specifies the function that freeglut will call when the
user releases a key from the keyboard. The callback function has one
argument: the name of the function to be invoked ("called back") at
the time at which the key is released. The function returns no value.
Freeglut sets the current window
to the window which is active when the callback is invoked.
While freeglut checks for upper or lower case
letters, it does not do so for non-alphabetical characters. Nor does
it account for the Caps-Lock key being on. The operating system may
send some unexpected characters to freeglut, such as "8" when the
user is pressing the Shift key. Freeglut also invokes the callback
when the user releases the Control, Alt, or Shift keys, among others.
Releasing the Delete key causes this function to be invoked with a value
of 127 for key.
Calling glutKeyboardUpFunc with a NULL argument
disables the call to the window's key release callback.
Changes From GLUT
This function is not implemented in GLUT versions before Version 4. It has been designed to be as close to GLUT as possible. Users who find differences should contact the freeglutProgramming Consortium to have them fixed.
The glutSpecialUpFunc function sets the window's special key release callback. Freeglut calls the special key release callback when the user releases a special key.
Usage
void glutSpecialUpFunc ( void (*func) ( int key, int x, int y ) );
func The window's
new special key release callback function
key The
key whose release triggers the callback
x
The x-coordinate of the mouse relative
to the window at the time the key is released
y
The y-coordinate of the mouse relative
to the window at the time the key is released
Description
The glutSpecialUpFuncfunction specifies the function that freeglut will call when the
user releases a special key from the keyboard. The callback function
has one argument: the name of the function to be invoked ("called back")
at the time at which the special key is released. The function returns
no value. Freeglut sets the current window to the window
which is active when the callback is invoked. "Special keys" are the
function keys, the arrow keys, the Page Up and Page Down keys, and the Insert
key. The Delete key is considered to be a regular key.
Calling glutSpecialUpFunc with a NULL argument
disables the call to the window's special key release callback.
The key argument may take one of the following defined constant values:
Changes From GLUT
This function is not implemented in GLUT versions before Version 4. It has been designed to be as close to GLUT as possible. Users who find differences should contact the freeglut Programming Consortium to have them fixed.
The glutSpaceballMotionFunc function is not implemented in freeglut, although the library does "answer the mail" to the extent that a call to the function will not produce an error..
Usage
void glutSpaceballMotionFunc ( void (* callback)( int x, int y, int z ) );
Description
The glutSpaceballMotionFunc function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutSpaceballRotateFunc function is not implemented in freeglut, although the library does "answer the mail" to the extent that a call to the function will not produce an error..
Usage
void glutSpaceballRotateFunc ( void (* callback)( int x, int y, int z ) );
Description
The glutSpaceballRotateFunc function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutSpaceballButtonFunc function is not implemented in freeglut, although the library does "answer the mail" to the extent that a call to the function will not produce an error..
Usage
void glutSpaceballButtonFunc ( void (* callback)( int button, int updown ) );
Description
The glutSpaceballButtonFunc function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutSpaceballButtonBoxFunc function is not implemented in freeglut, although the library does "answer the mail" to the extent that a call to the function will not produce an error..
Usage
void glutSpaceballButtonBoxFunc ( void (* callback)( int button, int updown ) );
Description
The glutSpaceballButtonBoxFunc function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutDialsFunc function is not implemented in freeglut, although the library does "answer the mail" to the extent that a call to the function will not produce an error..
Usage
void glutDialsFunc ( void (* callback)( int dial, int value ) );
Description
The glutDialsFunc function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutTabletMotionFunc function is not implemented in freeglut, although the library does "answer the mail" to the extent that a call to the function will not produce an error..
Usage
void glutTabletMotionFunc ( void (* callback)( int x, int y ) );
Description
The glutTabletMotionFunc function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The glutTabletButtonFunc function is not implemented in freeglut, although the library does "answer the mail" to the extent that a call to the function will not produce an error..
Usage
void glutTabletButtonFunc ( void (* callback)( int button, int updown, int x, int y ) );
Description
The glutTabletButtonFunc function is not implemented in freeglut.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT implements this function.
The following state variables may be queried with glutGet. The returned value is an integer.
example:
int windowLeft = glutGet(GLUT_WINDOW_X);
These queries are with respect to the current window:
These queries do not depend on the current window.
glutGetProcAddress returns a pointer to a named GL or freeglut function.
Usage
void *glutGetProcAddress ( const char *procName );
procName Name of an OpenGL or GLUT function.
Description
glutGetProcAddress is useful for dealing with OpenGL extensions. If an application calls OpenGL extension functions directly, that application will only link/run with an OpenGL library that supports the extension. By using a function pointer returned from glutGetProcAddress(), the application will avoid this hard dependency and be more portable and interoperate better with various implementations of OpenGL.
Both OpenGL functions and freeglut functions can be queried with this function.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
Freeglut supports two types of font rendering: bitmap fonts, which are rendered using the glBitmap function call, and stroke fonts, which are rendered as sequences of OpenGL line segments. Because they are rendered as bitmaps, the bitmap fonts tend to render more quickly than stroke fonts, but they are less flexible in terms of scaling and rendering. Bitmap font characters are positioned with calls to the glRasterPos* functions while stroke font characters use the OpenGL transformations to position characters.
It should be noted that freeglut fonts are similar but not identical to GLUT fonts. At the moment, freeglut fonts do not support the "`" (backquote) and "|" (vertical line) characters; in their place it renders asterisks.
Freeglut supports the following bitmap fonts:
Freeglut calls glRasterPos4v to advance the cursor by the width of a character and to render carriage returns when appropriate. It does not use any display lists in it rendering in bitmap fonts.
Freeglut supports the following stroke fonts:
Freeglut does not use any display lists in its rendering of stroke fonts. It calls glTranslatef to advance the cursor by the width of a character and to render carriage returns when appropriate.
The glutBitmapCharacter function renders a single bitmapped character in the current window using the specified font.
Usage
void glutBitmapCharacter ( void *font, int character );
font
The bitmapped font to use in rendering
the character
character The ASCII
code of the character to be rendered
Description
The glutBitmapCharacter function renders the given character in the specified bitmap font. Freeglut automatically sets the necessary pixel unpack storage modes and restores the existing modes when it has finished. Before the first call to glutBitMapCharacter the application program should call glRasterPos* to set the position of the character in the window. The glutBitmapCharacter function advances the cursor position as part of its call to glBitmap and so the application does not need to call glRasterPos* again for successive characters on the same line.
Changes From GLUT
Nonexistent characters are rendered as asterisks. The rendering position in freeglut is apparently off from GLUT's position by a few pixels vertically and one or two pixels horizontally.
The glutBitmapString function renders a string of bitmapped characters in the current window using the specified font.
Usage
void glutBitmapString ( void *font, char *string );
font
The bitmapped font to use in rendering
the character string
string String
of characters to be rendered
Description
The glutBitmapString function renders the given character string in the specified bitmap font. Freeglut automatically sets the necessary pixel unpack storage modes and restores the existing modes when it has finished. Before calling glutBitMapString the application program should call glRasterPos* to set the position of the string in the window. The glutBitmapString function handles carriage returns. Nonexistent characters are rendered as asterisks.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
The glutBitmapWidth function returns the width in pixels of a single bitmapped character in the specified font.
Usage
int glutBitmapWidth ( void *font, int character );
font
The bitmapped font to use in calculating
the character width
character The ASCII
code of the character
Description
The glutBitmapWidth function returns the width of the given character in the specified bitmap font. Because the font is bitmapped, the width is an exact integer.
Changes From GLUT
Nonexistent characters return the width of an asterisk.
The glutBitmapLength function returns the width in pixels of a string of bitmapped characters in the specified font.
Usage
int glutBitmapLength ( void *font, char *string );
font The bitmapped
font to use in calculating the character width
string String of characters
whose width is to be calculated
Description
The glutBitmapLength function returns the width in pixels of the given character string in the specified bitmap font. Because the font is bitmapped, the width is an exact integer: the return value is identical to the sum of the character widths returned by a series of calls to glutBitmapWidth. The width of nonexistent characters is counted to be the width of an asterisk.
If the string contains one or more carriage returns, freeglut calculates the widths in pixels of the lines separately and returns the largest width.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
The glutBitmapHeight function returns the height in pixels of the specified font.
Usage
int glutBitmapHeight ( void *font );
font The bitmapped font to use in calculating the character height
Description
The glutBitmapHeight function returns the height of a character in the specified bitmap font. Because the font is bitmapped, the height is an exact integer. The fonts are designed such that all characters have (nominally) the same height.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
The glutStrokeCharacter function renders a single stroke character in the current window using the specified font.
Usage
void glutStrokeCharacter ( void *font, int character );
fontThe stroke font to use in rendering the character
characterThe ASCII code of the character to be rendered
Description
The glutStrokeCharacter function renders the given character in the specified stroke font. Before the first call to glutStrokeCharacter the application program should call the OpenGL transformation (positioning and scaling) functions to set the position of the character in the window. The glutStrokeCharacter function advances the cursor position by a call to glTranslatef and so the application does not need to call the OpenGL positioning functions again for successive characters on the same line.
Changes From GLUT
Nonexistent characters are rendered as asterisks.
The glutStrokeString function renders a string of characters in the current window using the specified stroke font.
Usage
void glutStrokeString ( void *font, char *string );
font
The stroke font to use in rendering
the character string
string String
of characters to be rendered
Description
The glutStrokeString function renders the given character string in the specified stroke font. Before calling glutStrokeString the application program should call the OpenGL transformation (positioning and scaling) functions to set the position of the string in the window. The glutStrokeString function handles carriage returns. Nonexistent characters are rendered as asterisks.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
The glutStrokeWidth function returns the width in pixels of a single character in the specified stroke font.
Usage
int glutStrokeWidth ( void *font, int character );
font
The stroke font to use in calculating
the character width
character The ASCII
code of the character
Description
The glutStrokeWidth function returns the width of the given character in the specified stroke font. Because the font is a stroke font, the width is actually a floating-point number; the function rounds it to the nearest integer for the return value.
Changes From GLUT
Nonexistent characters return the width of an asterisk.
The glutStrokeLength function returns the width in pixels of a string of characters in the specified stroke font.
Usage
int glutStrokeLength ( void *font, char *string );
font The stroke
font to use in calculating the character width
string String of characters
whose width is to be calculated
Description
The glutStrokeLength function returns the width in pixels of the given character string in the specified stroke font. Because the font is a stroke font, the width of an individual character is a floating-point number. Freeglut adds the floating-point widths and rounds the funal result to return the integer value. Thus the return value may differ from the sum of the character widths returned by a series of calls to glutStrokeWidth. The width of nonexistent characters is counted to be the width of an asterisk.
If the string contains one or more carriage returns, freeglut calculates the widths in pixels of the lines separately and returns the largest width.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
The glutStrokeHeight function returns the height in pixels of the specified font.
Usage
GLfloat glutStrokeHeight ( void *font );
font The stroke font to use in calculating the character height
Description
The glutStrokeHeight function returns the height of a character in the specified stroke font. The application programmer should note that, unlike the other freeglut font functions, this one returns a floating-point number. The fonts are designed such that all characters have (nominally) the same height.
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include this function.
Freeglut includes eighteen routines for generating easily-recognizable 3-d geometric objects. These routines are effectively the same ones that are included in the GLUT library, and reflect the functionality available in the aux toolkit described in the OpenGL Programmer's Guide . They are included to allow programmers to create with a single line of code a three-dimensional object which can be used to test a variety of OpenGL functionality. None of the routines generates a display list for the object which it draws. The functions generate normals appropriate for lighting but, except for the teapon functions, do not generate texture coordinates.
The glutWireSphere and glutSolidSphere functions draw a wireframe and solid sphere respectively.
Definition
void glutWireSphere (GLdouble dRadius, GLint slices, GLint stacks);
void glutSolidSphere(GLdouble dRadius, GLint slices, GLint stacks);
Arguments
dRadius The desired radius of the sphere
slices The desired number of slices (divisions in the longitudinal direction) in the sphere
stacks The desired number of stacks (divisions in the latitudinal direction) in the sphere. The number of points in this direction, including the north and south poles, is stacks+1
Description
The glutWireSphere and glutSolidSphere functions render a sphere centered at the origin of the modeling coordinate system. The north and south poles of the sphere are on the positive and negative Z-axes respectively and the prime meridian crosses the positive X-axis.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireTorus and glutSolidTorus functions draw a wireframe and solid torus (donut shape) respectively.
Definition
void glutWireTorus (GLdouble dInnerRadius, GLdouble dOuterRadius, GLint
nSides, GLint nRings);
void glutSolidTorus(GLdouble dInnerRadius, GLdouble dOuterRadius, GLint
nSides, GLint nRings);
Arguments
dInnerRadius The desired inner radius of the torus, from the origin to the circle defining the centers of the outer circles
dOuterRadius The desired outer radius of the torus, from the center of the outer circle to the actual surface of the torus
nSides The desired number of segments in a single outer circle of the torus
nRings The desired number of outer circles around the origin of the torus
Description
The glutWireTorus and glutSolidTorus functions render a torus centered at the origin of the modeling coordinate system. The torus is circularly symmetric about the Z-axis and starts at the positive X-axis.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireCylinder and glutSolidCylinder functions draw a wireframe and solid cone respectively.
Definition
void glutWireCylinder (GLdouble base, GLdouble height, GLint slices, GLint
stacks);
void glutSolidCylinder(GLdouble base, GLdouble height, GLint slices, GLint
stacks);
Arguments
radius The desired radius of the cylinder
height The desired height of the cylinder
slices The desired number of slices around the cylinder
stacks The desired number of segments between the base and the top of the cylinder (the number of points, including the tip, is stacks + 1)
The glutWireCone and glutSolidCone functions draw a wireframe and solid cone respectively.
Definition
void glutWireCone (GLdouble base, GLdouble height, GLint slices, GLint
stacks);
void glutSolidCone(GLdouble base, GLdouble height, GLint slices, GLint
stacks);
Arguments
base The desired radius of the base of the cone
height The desired height of the cone
slices The desired number of slices around the base of the cone
stacks The desired number of segments between the base and the tip of the cone (the number of points, including the tip, is stacks + 1)
Description
The glutWireCone and glutSolidCone functions render a right circular cone with a base centered at the origin and in the X-Y plane and its tip on the positive Z-axis. The wire cone is rendered with triangular elements.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireCube and glutSolidCube functions draw a wireframe and solid cube respectively.
Definition
void glutWireCube (GLdouble dSize);
void glutSolidCube(GLdouble dSize);
Arguments
dSize The desired length of an edge of the cube
Description
The glutWireCube and glutSolidCube functions render a cube of the desired size, centered at the origin. Its faces are normal to the coordinate directions.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireTetrahedron and glutSolidTetrahedron functions draw a wireframe and solid tetrahedron (four-sided Platonic solid) respectively.
Definition
void glutWireTetrahedron (void);
void glutSolidTetrahedron(void);
Description
The glutWireTetrahedron and glutSolidTetrahedron functions render a tetrahedron whose corners are each a distance of one from the origin. The length of each side is 2/3 sqrt(6). One corner is on the positive X-axis and another is in the X-Y plane with a positive Y-coordinate.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireOctahedron and glutSolidOctahedron functions draw a wireframe and solid octahedron (eight-sided Platonic solid) respectively.
Definition
void glutWireOctahedron (void);
void glutSolidOctahedron(void);
Description
The glutWireOctahedron and glutSolidOctahedron functions render an octahedron whose corners are each a distance of one from the origin. The length of each side is sqrt(2). The corners are on the positive and negative coordinate axes.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireDodecahedron and glutSolidDodecahedron functions draw a wireframe and solid dodecahedron (twelve-sided Platonic solid) respectively.
Definition
void glutWireDodecahedron (void);
void glutSolidDodecahedron(void);
Description
The glutWireDodecahedron and glutSolidDodecahedron functions render a dodecahedron whose corners are each a distance of sqrt(3) from the origin. The length of each side is sqrt(5)-1. There are twenty corners; interestingly enough, eight of them coincide with the corners of a cube with sizes of length 2.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireIcosahedron and glutSolidIcosahedron functions draw a wireframe and solid icosahedron (twenty-sided Platonic solid) respectively.
Definition
void glutWireIcosahedron (void);
void glutSolidIcosahedron(void);
Description
The glutWireIcosahedron and glutSolidIcosahedron functions render an icosahedron whose corners are each a unit distance from the origin. The length of each side is slightly greater than one. Two of the corners lie on the positive and negative X-axes.
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
The glutWireRhombicDodecahedron and glutSolidRhombicDodecahedron functions draw a wireframe and solid rhombic dodecahedron (twelve-sided semi-regular solid) respectively.
Definition
void glutWireRhombicDodecahedron (void);
void glutSolidRhombicDodecahedron(void);
Description
The glutWireRhombicDodecahedron and glutSolidRhombicDodecahedron functions render a rhombic dodecahedron whose corners are at most a distance of one from the origin. The rhombic dodecahedron has faces which are identical rhombuses (rhombi?) but which have some vertices at which three faces meet and some vertices at which four faces meet. The length of each side is sqrt(3)/2. Vertices at which four faces meet are found at (0, 0, +/- 1) and (+/- sqrt(2)/2, +/- sqrt(2)/2, 0).
Changes From GLUT
GLUT does not include these functions.
The glutWireTeapot and glutSolidTeapot functions draw a wireframe and solid teapot respectively.
Definition
void glutWireTeapot (GLdouble dSize);
void glutSolidTeapot(GLdouble dSize);
Arguments
dSize The desired size of the teapot
Description
The glutWireTeapot and glutSolidTeapot functions render a teapot of the desired size, centered at the origin. This is the famous OpenGL teapot [add reference].
Bugs
OpenGL's default glFrontFace state assumes that front facing polygons (for the purpose of face culling) have vertices that wind counter clockwise when projected into window space. This teapot is rendered with its front facing polygon vertices winding clockwise. For OpenGL's default back face culling to work, you should use:
glFrontFace(GL_CW);
glutSolidTeapot(size);
glFrontFace(GL_CCW);
Both these bugs reflect issues in the original aux toolkit's teapot rendering routines (GLUT used the same teapot rendering routine).
Changes From GLUT
None that we know of.
Specify the display mode that should be entered when GameMode is entered. Default is the current display mode of the monitor on which the GameMode screen will be opened.
Usage
A string is passed to this function that specifies a combination of
resolution, pixel depth (ignored on Linux) and refresh rate. Valid
formats are:
Attempt to change to the requested display mode and open the GameMode window, or close the GameMode window and return to the original display mode. For multi-monitor display setups, freeglut can be told on which monitor the gamemode window should be opened by providing the -display command line option to glutInit.
The following state variables may be queried with glutGet. The returned value is an integer.
example:
int windowLeft = glutGet(GLUT_WINDOW_X);
These queries return information about the current display mode if in GameMode, or about the requested display mode before entering GameMode:
These functions are not implemented in freeglut.
The following environment variables are recognized by freeglut:
Application programmers who are porting their GLUT programs to freeglut may continue to include <GL/glut.h> in their programs. Programs which use the freeglut-specific extensions to GLUT should include <GL/freeglut.h>. One possible arrangement is as follows:
#ifdef FREEGLUT #include <GL/freeglut_ext.h> #else #include <GL/glut.h> #endif
Compile-time freeglut version testing can be done as follows:
#ifdef FREEGLUT_VERSION_2_0 code specific to freeglut 2.0 or later here #endif
In future releases, FREEGLUT_VERSION_2_1, FREEGLUT_VERSION_2_2, etc will be defined. This scheme mimics OpenGL conventions.
The freeglut version can be queried at runtime by calling glutGet(GLUT_VERSION). The result will be X*10000+Y*100+Z where X is the major version, Y is the minor version and Z is the patch level.
This may be used as follows:
if (glutGet(GLUT_VERSION) < 20001) {
printf("Sorry, you need freeglut version 2.0.1 or later to run this program.\n");
exit(1);
}