Simple Drawings

[Drakonius]

i feel dumb for asking this but my course on C++ does not cover simple drawing functions....is the way how C++ drawings work very much different from java? if not can somebody post some of those functions for me.... like draw dots, draw lines, and draw rectangles....i tried reading through the topic headings but i couldn't find it, might be just me tho...

[rizzix]

there;s no standard way. you'd need some sort of library.

[The_$hit]

What is an appropriate library? Where can you get it? and what are some functions?
If any one could answer these questions it would help alot thank you.

[Martin]

Well, probably the best thing that you could do is learn about DirectX or OpenGL. Both are equally powerful, are used (Half-Life 2 was created in DirectX, Doom 3 was created in OpenGL), and fairly straightforward. Also, the SDK's for both are available for 6 easy payments of $0.00.

Now, these aren't as simple as Turing's built in drawing functions, but once you get comfortable with using one of them, you will find that they are much more powerful. Both have extensive documentation to be found online, and a lack of tutorials won't ever be a problem to you. I found that the DirectX SDK documentation included was much better than OpenGL's, but OpenGL has a lot more resources online. If you want to buy books, all of the good ones are simply about concepts, and don't focus on one of the two libraries.

So what to use? Well, which code segment looks nicer to you? Both draw a triangle.
OpenGL

code:

glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES);         glVertex3f( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);         glVertex3f(-1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f);         glVertex3f( 1.0f,-1.0f, 0.0f); glEnd();

Below, with a predefined vertex buffer structure CUSTOMVERTEX. Okay, not quite the equivalent to above...but still. I'm not sure how to use a vertex buffer in OpenGL, and I have no idea how to do it without one in DirectX.
DirectX

code:

g_pd3dDevice->SetStreamSource( 0, g_pVB, 0, sizeof(CUSTOMVERTEX) ); g_pd3dDevice->SetFVF( D3DFVF_CUSTOMVERTEX ); g_pd3dDevice->DrawPrimitive( D3DPT_TRIANGLELIST, 0, 1 );

In the end, it's a matter of preference. If you really get into it, you'll almost invetiably end up learning both.

[wtd]

Or, for fun.

code:

import Graphics.UI.GLUT import Graphics.Rendering.OpenGL main = do    (progName,_) <- getArgsAndInitialize    createAWindow progName    mainLoop createAWindow windowName = do    createWindow windowName    displayCallback $= displayPoints displayPoints = do   clear [ColorBuffer]   renderPrimitive Polygon     $ mapM_ (\(x, y, z) -> vertex $ Vertex3 x y z) myPoints myPoints :: [(GLfloat,GLfloat,GLfloat)] myPoints =   [(0.0, 1.0, 0.0)   ,(-1.0, -1.0, 0.0)   ,(1.0, -1.0, 0.0)]

[Martin]

Does Ruby have support for non-glut openGL?

[wtd]

Yes. Hit Google to look for documentation.

It's available on Ubuntu via apt, and at http://raa.ruby-lang.org/. Probably also as a Ruby gem.

[OMouse]

The Fast Light ToolKit (FLTK) has support for OpenGL graphics in a GUI. So you can have a window with buttons controlling the OpenGL engine.

I would recommend OpenGL because of its cross-platform capabilities.

-OMouse

[rizzix]

yes i recommed FLTK for beginners.