Lighting effects are achieved by making use of vectors. A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude (size) and direction.

Each polygon has a normal vector, which is the direction perpendicular to the surface of the polygon (the direction that the polygon is facing). For example, if you look towards a cube, the direction of the two normals of the front polygons will be pointing towards you.


The red arrows in the image above indicate the normal vectors of the polygons.

To make use of OpenGL's lighting features, you need to add light sources to your scene. An OpenGL light source has a position and ambient, diffuse and specular properties.

Ambient light, is the light that is present everywhere, and is distributed equally to all polygons. The direction of your polygon normal does not affect ambient light. The brighter the ambient light, the brighter all polygons will appear to be in your scene.


Diffuse light originates from a specific point in space (e.g. the sun). It determines how bright your polygon will be, based on the direction of your polygon's normal vector. If your polygon is facing towards a diffuse light source it will be brighter than when it is facing away from the light source.


Specular light also originates from a specific point in space, but reflects differently then diffuse light. Specular light uses the properties of a material to determine brightness. For example, a smooth surface such as a metal will reflect specular light better than a dull surface such as plaster on a brick wall.


Light and color, when applied correctly, can give your scenes exceptional beauty. As a habit, learn to experiment a lot with light and colors.

1. Open Xojo.
2. In the Project Chooser select Desktop.
3. Enter "Tutorial009" as the Application Name, and click OK.
4. Save your project.
5. Configure the following controls:

Control	Name	DoubleBuffer	Left	Top	Maximize Button
Window	SurfaceWindow	-	-	-	ON
OpenGLSurface	Surface	ON	0	0	-

6. Position and size Surface to fill the whole window, and set its locking to left, top, bottom and right.


7. Add the following code to the SurfaceWindow.Open event handler:

Self.MouseCursor = System.Cursors.StandardPointer

8. Add the following code to the SurfaceWindow.Paint event handler:

Surface.Render

9. Import the X3Core module, created in the previous tutorial.
10. Add the following code to the Surface.Resized event handler:

X3_SetPerspective Surface

11. Add the following property to X3Color:

Name	Type
Alpha	Double

12. Add the following method to X3Color:

Function GetMemoryBlock() As MemoryBlock   Dim mblock As new MemoryBlock(16)   mblock.SingleValue(0) = Red   mblock.SingleValue(4) = Green   mblock.SingleValue(8) = Blue   mblock.SingleValue(12) = Alpha   return mblock End Function

13. Remove the existing Contructor method of X3Color.
14. Add the following Constructor to X3Color.

Sub Constructor(initRed As Double, initGreen As Double, initBlue As Double, initAlpha As Double = 1)   Red = initRed   Green = initGreen   Blue = initBlue   Alpha = initAlpha End Sub

15. Add the following property to X3Polygon:

Name	Type
Normal	X3Vector

16. Add the following Constructor to X3Polygon.

Sub Constructor()   Normal = new X3Vector(0, 0, 0) End Sub

17. Add the following second Constructor to X3Polygon.

Sub Constructor(normalX As Double, normalY As Double, normalZ As Double)   Normal = new X3Vector(normalX, normalY, normalZ) End Sub

18. Add a new class named "X3Light" to module X3Core.
19. Add the following properties to X3Light:

Name	Type
Ambient	X3Color
Diffuse	X3Color
Position	X3Vector
Specular	X3Color

20. Add the following method to X3Light.

Sub Constructor(xPos As Double, yPos As Double, zPos As Double)   Position = new X3Vector(xPos, yPos, zPos)   Ambient = new X3Color(0, 0, 0, 1)   Diffuse = new X3Color(1, 1, 1, 1)   Specular = new X3Color(1, 1, 1, 1) End Sub

21. Add the following method to X3Vector:

Function GetMemoryBlock() As MemoryBlock   Dim mblock As new MemoryBlock(16)   mblock.SingleValue(0) = X   mblock.SingleValue(4) = Y   mblock.SingleValue(8) = Z   mblock.SingleValue(12) = 0   return mblock End Function

22. Replace the code in the X3Core.X3_Initialize method with the following:

OpenGL.glEnable OpenGL.GL_DEPTH_TEST OpenGL.glDepthMask OpenGL.GL_TRUE OpenGL.glCullFace OpenGL.GL_BACK OpenGL.glEnable OpenGL.GL_CULL_FACE OpenGL.glEnable OpenGL.GL_LIGHTING OpenGL.glEnable OpenGL.GL_COLOR_MATERIAL

23. Add the following method to module X3Core:

Sub X3_EnableLight(lightIndex As Integer, light As X3Core.X3Light)   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_POSITION, light.Position.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_AMBIENT, light.Ambient.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_DIFFUSE, light.Diffuse.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_SPECULAR, light.Specular.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glEnable lightIndex End Sub

24. Replace the code in the X3Core.X3_RenderModel method with the following:

Dim i, j As Integer Dim poly As X3Core.X3Polygon OpenGL.glBegin OpenGL.GL_TRIANGLES for i = 0 to model.Polygon.Ubound   poly = model.Polygon(i)   if poly.FillColor <> nil then     OpenGL.glColor3d(poly.FillColor.Red, poly.FillColor.Green, poly.FillColor.Blue)   else     OpenGL.glColor3d(1, 1, 1)   end if   OpenGL.glNormal3d poly.Normal.X, poly.Normal.Y, poly.Normal.Z   for j = 0 to poly.Vertex.Ubound     OpenGL.glVertex3d poly.Vertex(j).X, poly.Vertex(j).Y, poly.Vertex(j).Z   next j next i OpenGL.glEnd

25. Import the X3Test module into your project.
26. Add the following code to the Surface.Open event handler:

X3_Initialize X3_EnableLight OpenGL.GL_LIGHT0, new X3Core.X3Light(0, 0, 1)

27. Add the following code to the Surface.Render event handler:

OpenGL.glPushMatrix OpenGL.glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1) OpenGL.glClear(OpenGL.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT + OpenGL.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT) OpenGL.glTranslatef 0, 0, -5.0 OpenGL.glRotated(30, 1, 0, 0) OpenGL.glRotated(30, 0, 1, 0) X3_RenderModel X3Test_Cube2 OpenGL.glPopMatrix

28. Save and run your project.

The GetMemoryBlock methods added to X3Color and X3Vector return MemoryBlock objects that contain color and position information respectively. These MemoryBlock objects are in a format that is compatible with OpenGL, and is used when passing color and position information to OpenGL function calls.

X3Color.Constructor:

Sub Constructor(initRed As Double, initGreen As Double, initBlue As Double, initAlpha As Double = 1)   Red = initRed   Green = initGreen   Blue = initBlue   Alpha = initAlpha End Sub

The new constructor of X3Color now has an optional initAlpha parameter with a default value of 1. This parameter is used to instantiate the new Alpha property added to X3Color. The alpha value determines the transparency of a color, with 1 being completely opaque (not see through) and 0 being completely transparent (see through).

Two new constructors were added to X3Polygon:

Sub Constructor()   Normal = new X3Vector(0, 0, 0) End Sub

The first constructor simply initializes the normal of the polygon to a NULL vector if default values aren't provided for the normal.

Sub Constructor(normalX As Double, normalY As Double, normalZ As Double)   Normal = new X3Vector(normalX, normalY, normalZ) End Sub

The second constructor initializes the normal of the polygon using the values provided by the parameters of the constructor.

X3Light.Constructor:

Sub Constructor(xPos As Double, yPos As Double, zPos As Double)   Position = new X3Vector(xPos, yPos, zPos)   Ambient = new X3Color(0, 0, 0, 1)   Diffuse = new X3Color(1, 1, 1, 1)   Specular = new X3Color(1, 1, 1, 1) End Sub

An OpenGL light source has many adjustable properties. Our constructor simply sets up the position of the light source, and default values for the ambient, diffuse and specular properties that should be sufficient for most purposes.

X3Core.X3_Initialize:

OpenGL.glEnable OpenGL.GL_LIGHTING OpenGL.glEnable OpenGL.GL_COLOR_MATERIAL

Two new instructions were added to our X3_Initialize method. The first instruction enables OpenGL's lighting. Without this instruction light sources will be ignored during rendering. Enabling OpenGL lighting disables the glColor command. By enabling GL_COLOR_MATERIAL with our second instruction, the glColor instruction works again when lighting is enabled.

X3Core.X3_EnableLight:

Sub X3_EnableLight(lightIndex As Integer, light As X3Core.X3Light)   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_POSITION, light.Position.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_AMBIENT, light.Ambient.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_DIFFUSE, light.Diffuse.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glLightfv lightIndex, OpenGL.GL_SPECULAR, light.Specular.GetMemoryBlock   OpenGL.glEnable lightIndex End Sub

The X3_EnableLight method is simply a helper method that makes it easier for us to configure OpenGL with our X3Light objects. The OpenGL environment can be configured with up to GL_MAX_LIGHTS light sources. The first parameter, lightIndex, is the identifier of the light source of to be configured. This value can be anything between 0 and GL_MAX_LIGHTS). The second X3Light parameter is the light source to configure.

X3Core.X3_RenderModel:

Dim i, j As Integer Dim poly As X3Core.X3Polygon OpenGL.glBegin OpenGL.GL_TRIANGLES for i = 0 to model.Polygon.Ubound   poly = model.Polygon(i)   if poly.FillColor <> nil then     OpenGL.glColor3d(poly.FillColor.Red, poly.FillColor.Green, poly.FillColor.Blue)   else     OpenGL.glColor3d(1, 1, 1)   end if   OpenGL.glNormal3d poly.Normal.X, poly.Normal.Y, poly.Normal.Z   for j = 0 to poly.Vertex.Ubound     OpenGL.glVertex3d poly.Vertex(j).X, poly.Vertex(j).Y, poly.Vertex(j).Z   next j next i OpenGL.glEnd

X3Core.X3_RenderModel has one new instruction added to it... glNormal3d. This instruction simply sets up the normal of the next polygon to be drawn, to ensure that OpenGL can apply the correct lighting effects to the polygon, based on the direction that the polygon is facing.