•OpenGL, stand for "Open Graphics Library,”
•OpenGL is a software interface that allows the programmer to create 2D and 3D
graphics images.
•It is Language independent
•It is Platform independent
•OpenGL is a software interface to graphics hardware.
•This interface consists of about 150 distinct commands that you use to specify the
objects and operations needed to produce interactive three-dimensional
applications.
●OpenGL is designed as a streamlined, hardware-independent interface to be
implemented on many different hardware platforms.
●To achieve these qualities, no commands for performing windowing tasks or
obtaining user input are included in OpenGL; instead, you must work through
whatever windowing system controls the particular hardware you’re using.

OpenGL architecture : The OpenGL architecture is structured as pipeline..
Commands enter in the pipeline from the left.

1) Display list :
● Commands may either be accumulated in display lists, or processed
immediately through the pipeline.
● Display lists allow for greater optimization and command reuse, but not
all commands can be put in display lists.
1) Evaluator : The first stage in the pipeline is the evaluator. This stage
effectively takes any polynomial evaluator commands and evaluates them
into their corresponding vertex and attribute commands.
2) per-vertex operations : The second stage is the per-vertex operations,
including transformations, lighting, clipping , and viewport mapping.

4) Rasterization :
● It is converting a vector image (a mathematically defined image of points
and curves) to a raster image (a picture composed of discrete pixels).
● Rasterization is commonly used in real-time 3D graphics processing to
convert images quickly for display on a computer monitor.

5) Per-fragment operations :
The fourth stage is the per-fragment operations. Before fragments go to the
framebuffer, they may be subjected to a series of conditional tests and
modifications, such as blending or z-buffering.
6) Frame buffer :
A frame buffer is a large, contiguous piece of computer memory. Picture
related information stored in a frame buffer. At a minimum there is one
memory bit for each pixel.
Parts of the framebuffer may be fed back into the pipeline as pixel rectangles.
7) Texture memory is a type of digital storage that makes texture data readily
available.Texture memory may be used in the rasterization process

Clipping
The primary use of clipping in computer graphics is to remove objects, lines, or
line segments that are outside the viewing pane.

Window to Viewport Transformation
It is the process of transforming a 2D world-coordinate objects to device coordinates.

Color Blending : Color blending is a way to mix two colors together to
produce to third color.

Z-buffer : Z-buffer, which is also known as the Depth-buffer method is
one of the commonly used method for hidden surface detection.

Construct shapes from geometric primitives, thereby creating
mathematical descriptions of objects.
(OpenGL considers points, lines, polygons, images, and bitmaps to be
primitives.)
Arrange the objects in three-dimensional space and select the desired
vantage point for viewing the composed scene.
Calculate the color of all the objects. The color might be explicitly
assigned by the application, determined from specified lighting
conditions, obtained by pasting a texture on to the objects, or some
combination of these three actions.
Convert the mathematical description of objects and their associated
color information to pixels on the screen. This process is called
rasterization.
Operations Carried out by OpenGL:

Geometric Primitives
Points
Coordinate
s
Size
Lines
Vertices
Width
Stippling
Polygons
Vertices
Outline/solid
Normals

OpenGL Primitives :
● In OpenGL, an object is made up of geometric primitives such as triangle,
quad, line segment and point.
● A primitive is made up of one or more vertices. OpenGL supports the
following primitives
1) GL_POINTS
● Treats each vertex as a single point.
● Vertex n defines a point n.
● N points are drawn.

2) GL_LINES
● Treats each pair of vertices as an independent line segment.

3) GL_LINE_STRIP
● Draws a connected group of line segments from the first vertex to the
last.

4) GL_LINE_LOOP
● Draws a connected group of line segments from the first vertex to the
last, then back to the first.

5) GL_TRIANGLES
● Treats each triplet of vertices as an independent triangle.

6) GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP
● Draws a connected group of triangles.

7) GL_TRIANGLE_FAN
● Draws a connected group of triangles that fan around a central point.

8) GL_QUADS
● Treats each group of four vertices as an independent quadrilateral.

9) GL_QUAD_STRIP
● Draws a connected group of quadrilaterals.

9) GL_Polygon
● Draw a polygon

Sample code
glBegin(GL_POLYGON);
glVertex3fv(p1);
glVertex3fv(p2);
glVertex3fv(p3);
glVertex3fv(p4);
glEnd();

Attributes
•An attribute is any property that determines how a geometric
primitives is to be rendered
•Each time, OpenGL processes a vertex, it uses data stored in its internal
attribute tables to determine how the vertex should be transformed,
rendered or any of OpenGL’s other modes
glPointSize(3.0);
glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH);
glBegin(GL_LINE);
glColor4f(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0);
glVertex2f(5.0, 5.0);
glColor3f(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
glVertex2f(25.0, 5.0);
glEnd();

OpenGL Functions
Primitive functions : Defines low level objects such as points, line segments, polygons etc.
Attribute functions : Attributes determine the appearance of objects
 Color (points, lines, polygons)
 Size and width (points, lines)
 Polygon mode :
• Display as filled
• Display edges
• Display vertices
Viewing functions: Allows us to specify various views by describing the camera’s position and
orientation.
Transformation functions :Provides user to carry out transformation of objects like rotation,
scaling etc.
Input functions: Allows us to deal with a diverse to finput devices like keyboard, mouse etc
Control functions: Enables us to initialize our programs, helps in dealing with any errors
during execution of the program.
Query functions: Helps querying formation about the properties of the particular
implementation.

OpenGL Functions
Control Functions (interaction with windows)
Window–A rectangular area of our display.
Modern systems allow many windows to be displayed on the screen (multi
window environment).
The position of the window is with reference to the origin. The origin(0,0) is the
top left corner of the screen.
glutInit allows application to get command line arguments and initializes system
gluInitDisplayMode requests properties for the window (the rendering context)
• RGBcolor
• Singlebuffering
• Properties logically OR edtogether
glutWindowSize in pixels
glutWindowPosition from top-left corner of display
glutCreateWindow create window with a particular title

Libraries to Include
● GL, for which the commands begin with GL;
● GLUT, the GL Utility Toolkit, opens windows, develops menus,
and manages events.
● GLU, the GL Utility Library, which provides high level routines
to handle complex mathematical and drawing operations.
● GLUI, the User Interface Library, which is completely integrated
with the GLUT library.
○ The GLUT functions must be available for GLUI to operate
properly.
○ GLUI provides sophisticated controls and menus to
OpenGL applications.