OpenGL3D_8

=OpenGL 3D Graphics in Liberty BASIC= 
==Lesson Eight: Transparent Surfaces and Fog== 
//by Robert McAllister//


==Transparent surfaces:==

You can use a transparent surface to simulate a window or maybe the surface of some water. Back in Lesson One the alpha value for glColor4fv was briefly mentioned. Here we will use it to control the transparency of a surface. The acceptable values are between 0 & 1, with 0 being completely transparent and 1 being solid. 

Before this will work a few OpenGL states need to be set. The first is to enable blending. This tells OpenGL that if there is a transparent surface in the scene that it needs to blend the colors wherever it interacts with another surface.

The second call needed is to glBlendFunc and it tells OpenGL which method to use when blending the colors.

The only thing to keep in mind is that the transparent surface needs to be created last in order to work.
[[code format="vbnet"]]
    'transparent triangle
    GL.BLEND = 3042
    GL.SRC.ALPHA = 770
    GL.ONE.MINUS.SRC.ALPHA = 771

    CALL glEnable GL.BLEND

    CALLDLL #gl , "glBlendFunc" ,_
      GL.SRC.ALPHA AS long ,_
      GL.ONE.MINUS.SRC.ALPHA AS long ,_
      ret AS long

    FOR a  = 1 TO 360
      CALL ClearView eyeX , eyeY , eyeZ , centerX , centerY , centerZ , upX , upY , upZ
      CALL glRotatef a  , 0 , 1 , 0

      'solid black line
      CALL glBegin GL.LINES
        CALL glColor4fv 0 , 0 , 0 , 1
        CALL glVertex -1 ,  0 , -.5
        CALL glVertex  1 ,  0 , -.5
      CALL glEnd

      'transparent triangle
      CALL glBegin GL.TRIANGLES
        CALL glColor4fv 0 , 0 , 1 , .3 ' make the surface 30 percent solid
        CALL glVertex -1 , -1 , 0
        CALL glVertex  0 ,  1 , 0
        CALL glVertex  1 , -1 , 0
      CALL glEnd

      CALL RefreshView
      CALL Pause 10
    NEXT a

    WAIT
[[code]]




==Fog:==

Fog is an easy to add special effect with OpenGL. It can be used to add depth perception to a scene. The first step is to make a call to glEnable with GL.FOG as the argument. As with all other enabled functions, it can be turned off with a call to glDisable.

Next is to set the color of the fog. Again, the values for the individual color should be between 0 & 1. The default values are 0,0,0,0.

Then we need to set the density of the fog. This value should also be between 0 & 1, with the default value being 1.
[[code format="vbnet"]]
    'fog
    GL.FOG = 2912
    GL.FOG.DENSITY = 2914
    GL.FOG.COLOR = 2918

    CALL glEnable GL.FOG

    STRUCT fogColor , red AS ulong , green AS ulong , blue AS ulong , alpha AS ulong
      fogColor.red.struct   = R4( .5 )
      fogColor.green.struct = R4( .5 )
      fogColor.blue.struct  = R4( .5 )
      fogColor.alpha.struct = R4(  1 )
    CALLDLL #gl , "glFogfv" ,_ ' set fog color to gray
      GL.FOG.COLOR AS long,_
      fogColor AS STRUCT ,_
      ret AS void

    density = R4( .25 )
    CALLDLL #gl , "glFogf" ,_ ' set the density of the fog
      GL.FOG.DENSITY AS long,_
      density AS ulong ,_
      ret AS void

    FOR a  = 1 TO 345
      CALL ClearView eyeX , eyeY , eyeZ , centerX , centerY , centerZ , upX , upY , upZ
      CALL glColor4fv 0 , 0 , 0 , 1
      CALL glBegin GL.QUADS
        CALL glVertex -2 , -1 , -2
        CALL glVertex -2 , -1 ,  2
        CALL glVertex  2 , -1 ,  2
        CALL glVertex  2 , -1 , -2
      CALL glEnd
      CALL glRotatef a  , 0 , 1 , 0
      CALL glColor4fv 0 , 0 , 1 , 1
      CALL glBegin GL.TRIANGLES
        CALL glVertex -1 , -1 , -2
        CALL glVertex  0 ,  1 , -2
        CALL glVertex  1 , -1 , -2
      CALL glEnd
      CALL glBegin GL.TRIANGLES
        CALL glVertex -1 , -1 , 0
        CALL glVertex  0 ,  1 , 0
        CALL glVertex  1 , -1 , 0
      CALL glEnd
      CALL glBegin GL.TRIANGLES
        CALL glVertex -1 , -1 , 2
        CALL glVertex  0 ,  1 , 2
        CALL glVertex  1 , -1 , 2
      CALL glEnd
      CALL RefreshView
      CALL Pause 15
    NEXT a

    WAIT
[[code]]



In the next lesson we will dig into "OpenGL calls and argument types"