next up previous contents
Next: 3.2 Decomposition and Tessellation Up: 3. Modeling Previous: 3. Modeling

3.1 Modeling Considerations

OpenGL is a renderer not a modeler. There are utility libraries such as the OpenGL Utility Library (GLU) that can assist with modeling tasks, but for all practical purposes modeling is the application's responsibility. Attention to modeling considerations is important; the image quality is directly related to the quality of the modeling. For example, undertessellated geometry produces poor silhouette edges. Other artifacts result from a combination of the model and OpenGL's ordering scheme. For example, interpolation of colors determined as a result of evaluation of a lighting equation at the vertices can result in a less than pleasing specular highlight if the geometry is not sufficiently sampled. We include a short list of modeling considerations with which OpenGL programmers should be familiar:


next up previous contents
Next: 3.2 Decomposition and Tessellation Up: 3. Modeling Previous: 3. Modeling
David Blythe
1999-08-06