Real-time 3D Character Animation with Visual C++

4	OpenGL lighting and textures

So far we have looked at the mathematics behind the basic geometry of computer graphics, the way this geometry can be displayed on a computer screen and using the standard graphics library, OpenGL, to put some simple geometry on the screen. This chapter is where things start to look so much more convincing. Animation that uses some kind of lighting model has a realism that unshaded models can never match. While realism may not be your goal in terms of the geometry that you are displaying, your characters may be extreme caricatures, or have a cute cartoon feel; the overall display will still benefit from the use of a lighting model. OpenGL allows the developer a huge amount of flexibility in the way that your ...