CSci 480 Lecture Notes

(Fall) Week One, Wednesday: Graphics Libraries

Handout: "A 3D Model Viewer for OpenGL" from Dr. Dobb's Journal, July, 1998.

First project: pop up a window (or show an applet frame) and draw the following:

A horizontal line.
A vertical line.
A diagonal line.
A solid colored triangle with a border in another color.
A solid rectangle.
A solid rectangle rotated left 30 degrees.
A solid colored round disk with a circular border in a different color.
Some text saying "Oh what a pretty picture."

See the fall projects or summer projects page for additional details on report requirements. Run your program and get a screen capture image of the window to paste into your report. Your report will describe the program, show the resulting image, and include the source code that you wrote. Comments in code are good. Do not include automatically generated code or graphics libraries.

SRGP/SPHIGS

SGRP and SPHIGS are the 2D and 3D libraries included with the text book. You will need to install the libraries in your SCF account in order to use them.

Advantages	Disadvantages
The text book gives examples in SRGP and SPHIGS	The user must install the libraries
All course projects can be completed using SRGP and SPHIGS	Not used in industry
	Not supported by UCS
	Not not available for the PC (Wintel)

Table 1: Advantages and Disadvantages of SRGP and SPHIGS

X-Motif

X-Motif is the industry standard middle-level GUI library that includes many 2D graphics primitives.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Supported by UCS	Does not include 3D modeling or rendering support
All course projects can be completed using X-Motif
Includes many 2D primitives
Industry standard GUI for Unix programming

Table 2: Advantages and Disadvantages of X-Motif

Java

Java is a new high level language that resembles C++ but is much easier to learn and has a cross-platform GUI. The built-in graphics class has several 2D primitives that can be used to complete the projects in this course.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Supported by UCS
All course projects can be completed using X-Motif
Includes many 2D primitives
New Java3D library
Cross-platform GUI for Web programming

Table 3: Advantages and Disadvantages of Java

OpenGL

OpenGL is the "open" standard graphics library that evolved from Silicon Graphics' IRIS GL for the Irix (flavor of Unix) platform. Designed from the beginning for 3D graphics, this library has become an industry standard for high powered scientific applications and is now becoming popular for PC game programming.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Built in to Microsoft Visual C++ with tutorials and examples	Not supported by UCS
All course projects can be completed using OpenGL	Must be user-installed if using UCS-SCF Unix machines;
Includes 2D and 3D functions
Industry standard for 3D graphics

Table 4: Advantages and Disadvantages of OpenGL

Example: "HelloLine" Applet with the Java AWT

The HeloLine Applet.

Source code for this applet is available publicly.

Homework One

This page established September 6, 1998; last updated September 12, 1999.