Hi
I am fully new to openGL, but I’m not afraid
I have read the Reference Manual, the Programming Guide, some
tutorials, some forums posts and some samples. I’ve also done
some tests. Not surprisingly, I have lots of doubts.
By now, I use winXP, but thanks to openGL and wxWidgets,
it’s ease to port my app to other OS’s.
I’m developing a terrain modeling app. It has to cope with
thousands/millions of points/triangles. Data may be flawed,
so user must be able to edit points and triangles. This
includes showing, zooming, selecting, changing coords, etc.
Even these jobs are done id a 2D-window, I hope openGL to
be faster than using GDI. A 3D-perspective window should
also be provided. I don’t plan to use full-screen.
My first question:
- How do I know if graphics driver is using hardware memory and
GPU, and not software simulation and CPU?
For each point (and there are many), many Unicode-strings may
be displayed, with different colors.
To achieve this, I’m thinking of drawing the string in GDI memory
(so I can use several fonts), make an image of it, apply some
alpha (so blank pixels become transparent) and then copy it
directly to GL-framebuffer (zoom doesn’t affect strings size).
The same goes for point representation (a pixel or circle or …)
Many doubts here:
- What is the limit for storing so many images?
- Where are they stored, card-memory or mainboard one?
- Which is better for this, bitmaps or textures?
- Can I add them to a DisplayList?
- Where is this DisplayList stored?
- Is this really a good/fast method?
I want to use my own mouse-cursor images. If I use GDI functions
for it I know I get into troubles, specially with MS-Vista. So
I think it’s better to draw them to GL-framebuffer.
Questions:
- Which buffer do I use?
- Do I use XOR any time the mouse is moved?
- Do I redraw all scene instead?
I’ve read about using some buffer to store information on each
object, so selecting under mouse-cursor is fast.
- How do I use it without being part of the window user sees?
My main doubt is if my approach is good and fast. I would like
an experimented developer to point me in the right direction.
Thanks in advance
Manolo