Rotate direction with regard to X axis is reversed

Below is the code that rotates a cube, excerpted and modified from Edward Angel’s textbook. We can specify the axis about which to rotate by clicking different mouse key:


//
// Display a color cube
//
// Colors are assigned to each vertex and then the rasterizer interpolates
//   those colors across the triangles.  We us an orthographic projection
//   as the default projetion.

#include "Angel.h"

typedef Angel::vec4  color4;
typedef Angel::vec4  point4;

const int NumVertices = 36; //(6 faces)(2 triangles/face)(3 vertices/triangle)

point4 points[NumVertices];
color4 colors[NumVertices];

// Vertices of a unit cube centered at origin, sides aligned with axes
point4 vertices[8] = {
    point4( -0.5, -0.5,  0.5, 1.0 ),
    point4( -0.5,  0.5,  0.5, 1.0 ),
    point4(  0.5,  0.5,  0.5, 1.0 ),
    point4(  0.5, -0.5,  0.5, 1.0 ),
    point4( -0.5, -0.5, -0.5, 1.0 ),
    point4( -0.5,  0.5, -0.5, 1.0 ),
    point4(  0.5,  0.5, -0.5, 1.0 ),
    point4(  0.5, -0.5, -0.5, 1.0 )
};

// RGBA olors
color4 vertex_colors[8] = {
    color4( 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0 ),  // black
    color4( 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0 ),  // red
    color4( 1.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1.0 ),  // yellow
    color4( 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1.0 ),  // green
    color4( 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0 ),  // blue
    color4( 1.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0 ),  // magenta
    color4( 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 ),  // white
    color4( 0.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 )   // cyan
};

// Array of rotation angles (in degrees) for each coordinate axis
enum { Xaxis = 0, Yaxis = 1, Zaxis = 2, NumAxes = 3 };
int      Axis = Xaxis;
GLfloat  Theta[NumAxes] = { 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 };


//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

// quad generates two triangles for each face and assigns colors
//    to the vertices
int Index = 0;
void
quad( int a, int b, int c, int d )
{
    colors[Index] = vertex_colors[a]; points[Index] = vertices[a]; Index++;
    colors[Index] = vertex_colors[b]; points[Index] = vertices[b]; Index++;
    colors[Index] = vertex_colors[c]; points[Index] = vertices[c]; Index++;
    colors[Index] = vertex_colors[a]; points[Index] = vertices[a]; Index++;
    colors[Index] = vertex_colors[c]; points[Index] = vertices[c]; Index++;
    colors[Index] = vertex_colors[d]; points[Index] = vertices[d]; Index++;
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

// generate 12 triangles: 36 vertices and 36 colors
void
colorcube()
{
    quad( 1, 0, 3, 2 );
    quad( 2, 3, 7, 6 );
    quad( 3, 0, 4, 7 );
    quad( 6, 5, 1, 2 );
    quad( 4, 5, 6, 7 );
    quad( 5, 4, 0, 1 );
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

// OpenGL initialization
void
init()
{
    colorcube();

    // Create a vertex array object
    GLuint vao;
    glGenVertexArrays( 1, &vao );
    glBindVertexArray( vao );

    // Create and initialize a buffer object
    GLuint buffer;
    glGenBuffers( 1, &buffer );
    glBindBuffer( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, buffer );
    glBufferData( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(points) + sizeof(colors),
		  NULL, GL_STATIC_DRAW );
    glBufferSubData( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0, sizeof(points), points );
    glBufferSubData( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(points), sizeof(colors), colors );

    // Load shaders and use the resulting shader program
    GLuint program = InitShader( "vshader32.glsl", "fshader32.glsl" );
    glUseProgram( program );

    // set up vertex arrays
    GLuint vPosition = glGetAttribLocation( program, "vPosition" );
    glEnableVertexAttribArray( vPosition );
    glVertexAttribPointer( vPosition, 4, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0,
			   BUFFER_OFFSET(0) );

    GLuint vColor = glGetAttribLocation( program, "vColor" ); 
    glEnableVertexAttribArray( vColor );
    glVertexAttribPointer( vColor, 4, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0,
			   BUFFER_OFFSET(sizeof(points)) );

    glEnable( GL_DEPTH_TEST );
    glClearColor( 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 ); 
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

void
display( void )
{
    glClear( GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT );

    mat4  transform = ( RotateX( Theta[Xaxis] ) *
			RotateY( Theta[Yaxis] ) *
			RotateZ( Theta[Zaxis] ) );

    point4  transformed_points[NumVertices];

    for ( int i = 0; i < NumVertices; ++i ) {
	transformed_points[i] = transform * points[i];
    }

    glBufferSubData( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0, sizeof(transformed_points),
		     transformed_points );

    glDrawArrays( GL_TRIANGLES, 0, NumVertices );
    glutSwapBuffers();
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

void
keyboard( unsigned char key, int x, int y )
{
    switch( key ) {
	case 033: // Escape Key
	case 'q': case 'Q':
	    exit( EXIT_SUCCESS );
	    break;
    }
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

void
mouse( int button, int state, int x, int y )
{
    if ( state == GLUT_DOWN ) {
	switch( button ) {
	    case GLUT_LEFT_BUTTON:    Axis = Xaxis;  break;
	    case GLUT_MIDDLE_BUTTON:  Axis = Yaxis;  break;
	    case GLUT_RIGHT_BUTTON:   Axis = Zaxis;  break;
	}
    }
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

void
idle( void )
{
    Theta[Axis] += 0.5;

    if ( Theta[Axis] > 360.0 ) {
	Theta[Axis] -= 360.0;
    }
    
    glutPostRedisplay();
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

int
main( int argc, char **argv )
{
    glutInit( &argc, argv );
    glutInitDisplayMode( GLUT_RGBA | GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_DEPTH );
    glutInitWindowSize( 512, 512 );
    glutInitContextProfile( GLUT_CORE_PROFILE );
    glutCreateWindow( "Color Cube" );

    glewInit();

    init();

    glutDisplayFunc( display );
    glutKeyboardFunc( keyboard );
    glutMouseFunc( mouse );
    glutIdleFunc( idle );

    glutMainLoop();
    return 0;
}

Vertex shader


#version 440

in  vec4 vPosition;
in  vec4 vColor;
out vec4 color;

void main() 
{
  gl_Position = vPosition;
  color = vColor;
} 

Fragment shader


#version 440

in  vec4 color;
out vec4 fColor;

void main() 
{ 
    fColor = color;
} 

The problem is: according to my understanding, the positive direction is decided by the so-called “right-hand rule”, but the rotate direction with regard to X axis is reversed. Why? Note that if I specify eye and clip frame using LookAt and Ortho function, the cube rotates in the direction as expected. Thanks for any help.

To moderator: I’d like to move this thread to “OpenGL coding: beginners” board. Please help me delete it. Thanks.