G-Truc Creation has been building a samples pack for OpenGL that covers versions from 2.1 up to 4.1 This latest release has reached the 100 samples mark. An invaluable source of code for the newest versions.
May 182011
Very Simple Font Library – Text rendering is very useful to display information on top of a 3D world. VSFL aims at providing users with the ability to render bitmapped text in an OpenGL application using the core profile.
With immediate mode gone in core OpenGL versions, so are the vast majority of font libs that worked with OpenGL. Immediate mode was terribly slow, and code wise very extensive. Vertex Buffers are clearly the way to go. This lib uses VAOs and vertex buffers to render text.
The Very Simple Matrix Library (VSML) header file has been updated to include comments suitable for Doxygen. Some bugs on the frustum and ortho functions were also cleared. I’ve also installed a plug-in for some nice syntax highlight which I hope it makes code reading easier. If you find any other bugs please let me know. Oh, one final thing, I’ve added a ZIP file with both the cpp and header files.
May 112011
One of the features that was not selected to be part of the core functionality was matrix handling. Previously we had OpenGL and GLU functions that provided the means for easily setting the camera, defining projections, and performing geometric transformations on graphical objects.
The Very Simple Matrix Library (VSML) aims at providing users with a functionality similar to the one available up to OpenGL 3.2. I’ve been using OpenGL for a long time and those matrix handling functions served most of my purposes when programming graphics, hence I grew fond of them. I missed them in the new OpenGL versions so I decided to write a simple lib to perform the same tasks in a very similar way.
Dynamics and Particle Effects is a two part article on creating particle systems on Maya. Smoke and rain are two of the effects that are taught in this tutorial by Audri Phillips from Intel.
From their very inception, 3D programs have been used to imitate natural phenomena, creating realistic, stylized, or artistic effects. A greater range of effects is now possible than in the past, before the advent of computer technology. The dynamics/particle effects component of 3D software combined with compositing programs-many of which also have particle capabilities-have primarily been used to create these effects, which have become a mainstay in film, commercial, and game production.
Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming is almost an online book on core OpenGL. It covers a lot of ground, from drawing a triangle to HDR. The index promises a continuation onto texturing, render targets, and advanced lighting.
May 062011
PhysX, NVIDIAs physics engine, has suffered a major revision and apparently a major rewrite. Details can be found at physxinfo.com, Geeks3D, and of course NVIDIA PhysX site.
May 052011
Paul Firth has three physics tutorials (two of them for dummies 
) that look very interesting: Physics engines for dummies, Collision detection for dummies, and Speculative Contacts – a continuous collision engine approach.
The code for several demos in the GLUT tutorial was plagued with a int to void * conversion. While this seems to work perfectly in Windows, at least in this case, Linux users found out that it did not even compile.
The code has been updated and hopefully the problem is gone. Please do report any problems you find. I’m sure there must be some bugs still on the loose…
