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A multi-platform library for OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan, window and input
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%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% GLFW Users Guide
% API Version: 2.7
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Document class
\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,oneside]{report}
% Document title and API version
\newcommand{\glfwdoctype}[1][0]{Users Guide}
\newcommand{\glfwapiver}[1][0]{2.7}
% Common document settings and macros
\input{glfwdoc.sty}
% PDF specific document settings
\hypersetup{pdftitle={GLFW Users Guide}}
\hypersetup{pdfauthor={Marcus Geelnard}}
\hypersetup{pdfkeywords={GLFW,OpenGL,guide,manual}}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Document body
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\begin{document}
\pagestyle{plain}
% Title page
\glfwmaketitle
% Summary, trademarks and table of contents
\pagenumbering{roman}
\setcounter{page}{1}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Summary and Trademarks
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter*{Summary}
This document is a users guide for the \GLFW\ API that gives a practical
introduction to using \GLFW . For a more detailed description of the
\GLFW\ API you should refer to the \textit{GLFW Reference Manual}.
\vspace{10cm}
\large
Trademarks
\small
OpenGL and IRIX are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc.\linebreak
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.\linebreak
Mac OS is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.\linebreak
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.\linebreak
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc.\linebreak
Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.\linebreak
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.\linebreak
X Window System is a trademark of The Open Group.\linebreak
POSIX is a trademark of IEEE.\linebreak
Truevision, TARGA and TGA are registered trademarks of Truevision, Inc.\linebreak
IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation.\linebreak
All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.
\normalsize
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Table of contents
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\tableofcontents
\pagebreak
% Document chapters starts here...
\pagenumbering{arabic}
\setcounter{page}{1}
\pagestyle{fancy}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Introduction
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter{Introduction}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
\GLFW\ is a portable API (Application Program Interface) that handles
operating system specific tasks related to \OpenGL\ programming. While
\OpenGL\ in general is portable, easy to use and often results in tidy and
compact code, the operating system specific mechanisms that are required
to set up and manage an \OpenGL\ window are quite the opposite. \GLFW\ tries
to remedy this by providing the following functionality:
\begin{itemize}
\item Opening and managing an \OpenGL\ window.
\item Keyboard, mouse and joystick input.
\item A high precision timer.
\item Support for querying and using \OpenGL\ extensions.
\end{itemize}
\vspace{18pt}
All this functionality is implemented as a set of easy-to-use functions,
which makes it possible to write an \OpenGL\ application framework in just a
few lines of code. The \GLFW\ API is completely operating system and
platform independent, which makes it very simple to port \GLFW\ based \OpenGL\
applications to a variety of platforms.
Currently supported platforms are:
\begin{itemize}
\item Microsoft Windows\textsuperscript{\textregistered} 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/.NET Server.
\item Unix\textsuperscript{\textregistered} or Unix<EFBFBD>-like systems running the
X Window System\texttrademark, e.g. Linux\textsuperscript{\textregistered},
IRIX\textsuperscript{\textregistered}, FreeBSD\textsuperscript{\textregistered},
Solaris\texttrademark, QNX\textsuperscript{\textregistered} and
Mac OS\textsuperscript{\textregistered} X.
\item Mac OS\textsuperscript{\textregistered} X (Carbon)\footnote{Support for joysticks missing at the time of writing.}
\end{itemize}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Getting Started
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter{Getting Started}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
In this chapter you will learn how to write a simple \OpenGL\ application
using \GLFW . We start by initializing \GLFW , then we open a window and
read some user keyboard input.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Initializing GLFW}
Before using any of the \GLFW\ functions, it is necessary to call
\textbf{glfwInit}. It initializes internal working variables that are used
by other \GLFW\ functions. The C syntax is:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwInit( void )
\end{lstlisting}
\textbf{glfwInit} returns GL\_TRUE if initialization succeeded, or
GL\_FALSE if it failed.
When your application is done using \GLFW , typically at the very end of
the program, you should call \textbf{glfwTerminate}, which makes a clean
up and places \GLFW\ in a non-initialized state (i.e. it is necessary to
call \textbf{glfwInit} again before using any \GLFW\ functions). The C
syntax is:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwTerminate( void )
\end{lstlisting}
Among other things, \textbf{glfwTerminate} closes the \OpenGL\ window
unless it was closed manually.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Opening An OpenGL Window}
Opening an \OpenGL\ window is done with the function
\textbf{glfwOpenWindow}. The function takes nine arguments, which are used
to describe the following properties of the window to open:
\begin{itemize}
\item Window dimensions (width and height) in pixels.
\item Color and alpha buffer depth.
\item Depth buffer (Z-buffer) depth.
\item Stencil buffer depth.
\item Fullscreen or windowed mode.
\end{itemize}
The C language syntax for \textbf{glfwOpenWindow} is:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwOpenWindow( int width, int height,
int redbits, int greenbits, int bluebits,
int alphabits, int depthbits, int stencilbits,
int mode )
\end{lstlisting}
\textbf{glfwOpenWindow} returns GL\_TRUE if the window was opened
correctly, or GL\_FALSE if \GLFW\ failed to open the window.
\GLFW\ tries to open a window that best matches the requested parameters.
Some parameters may be omitted by setting them to zero, which will result
in \GLFW\ either using a default value, or the related functionality to be
disabled. For instance, if \textit{width} and \textit{height} are both
zero, \GLFW\ will use a window resolution of 640x480. If
\textit{depthbits} is zero, the opened window may not have a depth buffer.
The \textit{mode} argument is used to specify if the window is to be a
s.c. fullscreen window, or a regular window.
If \textit{mode} is GLFW\_FULLSCREEN, the window will cover the entire
screen and no window borders will be visible. If possible, the video mode
will be changed to the mode that closest matches the \textit{width},
\textit{height}, \textit{redbits}, \textit{greenbits}, \textit{bluebits}
and \textit{alphabits} arguments. Furthermore, the mouse pointer will be
hidden, and screensavers are prohibited. This is usually the best mode for
games and demos.
If \textit{mode} is GLFW\_WINDOW, the window will be opened as a normal
window on the desktop. The mouse pointer will not be hidden, and
screensavers are allowed to be activated.
To close the window, you can either use \textbf{glfwTerminate}, as
described earlier, or you can use the more explicit approach by calling
\textbf{glfwCloseWindow}, which has the C syntax:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwCloseWindow( void )
\end{lstlisting}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Using Keyboard Input}
\GLFW\ provides several means for receiving user input, which will be
discussed in more detail in chapter \ref{par:inputhandling}. One of the
simplest ways of checking for keyboard input is to use the function
\textbf{glfwGetKey}:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetKey( int key )
\end{lstlisting}
It queries the current status of individual keyboard keys. The argument
\textit{key} specifies which key to check, and it can be either an
uppercase printable ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1) character (e.g. `A', `3' or `.'),
or a special key identifier (see the \textit{GLFW Reference Manual} for a
list of special key identifiers). \textbf{glfwGetKey} returns GLFW\_PRESS
(or 1) if the key is currently held down, or GLFW\_RELEASE (or 0) if the
key is not being held down. For example:
\begin{lstlisting}
A_pressed = glfwGetKey( 'A' );
esc_pressed = glfwGetKey( GLFW_KEY_ESC );
\end{lstlisting}
In order for \textbf{glfwGetKey} to have any effect, you need to poll for
input events on a regular basis. This can be done in one of two ways:
\begin{enumerate}
\item Implicitly by calling \textbf{glfwSwapBuffers} often.
\item Explicitly by calling \textbf{glfwPollEvents} often.
\end{enumerate}
In general you do not have to care about this, since you will normally
call \textbf{glfwSwapBuffers} to swap front and back rendering buffers
every animation frame anyway. If, however, this is not the case, you
should call \textbf{glfwPollEvents} in the order of 10-100 times per
second in order for \GLFW\ to maintain an up to date input state.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Putting It Together: A Minimal GLFW Application}
Now that you know how to initialize \GLFW , open a window and poll for
keyboard input, let us exemplify this with a simple \OpenGL\ program. In
the following example some error-checking has been omitted for the sake of
brevity:
\begin{lstlisting}
#include <GL/glfw.h>
int main( void )
{
int running = GL_TRUE;
// Initialize GLFW
glfwInit();
// Open an OpenGL window
if( !glfwOpenWindow( 300,300, 0,0,0,0,0,0, GLFW_WINDOW ) )
{
glfwTerminate();
return 0;
}
// Main loop
while( running )
{
// OpenGL rendering goes here...
glClear( GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT );
// Swap front and back rendering buffers
glfwSwapBuffers();
// Check if ESC key was pressed or window was closed
running = !glfwGetKey( GLFW_KEY_ESC ) &&
glfwGetWindowParam( GLFW_OPENED );
}
// Close window and terminate GLFW
glfwTerminate();
// Exit program
return 0;
}
\end{lstlisting}
The program opens a 300x300 window and runs in a loop until the escape key
is pressed, or the window was closed. All the \OpenGL\ ``rendering'' that
is done in this example is to clear the window.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Window Operations
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter{Window Operations}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
In this chapter, you will learn more about window related \GLFW\
functionality, including: setting and getting window properties, buffer
swap control and video mode querying.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Setting Window Properties}
In the previous chapter the \textbf{glfwOpenWindow} function was
described, which specifies the sizes of the color, alpha, depth and
stencil buffers. It is also possible to request an accumulator buffer,
auxiliary buffers and stereo rendering by using the
\textbf{glfwOpenWindowHint} function:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwOpenWindowHint( int target, int hint )
\end{lstlisting}
The \textit{target} argument can be one of the constants listed in table~
\ref{tab:winhints}, and \textit{hint} is the value to assign to the
specified target.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\begin{table}[p]
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|p{7.0cm}|} \hline \raggedright
\textbf{Name} & \textbf{Default} & \textbf{Description} \\ \hline
GLFW\_REFRESH\_RATE & 0 & Vertical monitor refresh rate in Hz (only used for fullscreen windows). Zero means system default.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_RED\_BITS & 0 & Number of bits for the red channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_GREEN\_BITS & 0 & Number of bits for the green channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_BLUE\_BITS & 0 & Number of bits for the blue channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_ALPHA\_BITS & 0 & Number of bits for the alpha channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_AUX\_BUFFERS & 0 & Number of auxiliary buffers.\\ \hline
GLFW\_STEREO & GL\_FALSE & Specify if stereo rendering should be supported (can be GL\_TRUE or GL\_FALSE).\\ \hline
GLFW\_WINDOW\_NO\_RESIZE & GL\_FALSE & Specify whether the window can be resized (not used for fullscreen windows).\\ \hline
GLFW\_FSAA\_SAMPLES & 0 & Number of samples to use for the multisampling buffer. Zero disables multisampling.\\ \hline
GLFW\_OPENGL\_VERSION\_MAJOR & 0 & Major number of the desired OpenGL version.
The default requests the highest OpenGL version equal to or lower than 2.1.\\ \hline
GLFW\_OPENGL\_VERSION\_MINOR & 0 & Minor number of the desired OpenGL version.
The default requests the highest OpenGL version equal to or lower than 2.1.\\ \hline
GLFW\_OPENGL\_FORWARD\_COMPAT & GL\_FALSE & Specify whether the OpenGL context should be forward compatible (i.e. disallow legacy functionality).
This hint is ignored for OpenGL version 2.1 and below.\\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\caption{Targets for \textbf{glfwOpenWindowHint}}
\label{tab:winhints}
\end{table}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a hint to have any effect, the \textbf{glfwOpenWindowHint} function
must be called before opening the window with the \textbf{glfwOpenWindow}
function.
To request an accumulator buffer, set the GLFW\_ACCUM\_x\_BITS targets to
values greater than zero (usually eight or sixteen bits per component).
To request auxiliary buffers, set the GLFW\_AUX\_BUFFERS target to a value
greater than zero. To request a stereo rendering capable window, set the
GLFW\_STEREO target to GL\_TRUE.
If you want to enable fullscreen antialiasing, set the GLFW\_FSAA\_SAMPLES
target to a value greater than zero. If the windowing system is unable to
fulfil the request, \GLFW\ will degrade gracefully and disable FSAA if necessary.
The GLFW\_REFRESH\_RATE target should be used with caution, since it may
result in suboptimal operation, or even a blank or damaged screen.
If you want to create a context with OpenGL version 3.0 or above you have to
set the GLFW\_OPENGL\_VERSION\_MAJOR and GLFW\_OPENGL\_VERSION\_MINOR hints
accordingly. If you don't do this, the highest OpenGL version available for a
context is 2.1 or lower.
Besides the parameters that are given with the \textbf{glfwOpenWindow} and
\textbf{glfwOpenWindowHint} functions, a few more properties of a window
can be changed after the window has been opened, namely the window title,
window size, and window position.
To change the window title of an open window, use the
\textbf{glfwSetWindowTitle} function:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetWindowTitle( const char *title )
\end{lstlisting}
\textit{title} is a null terminated ISO~8859-1 (8-bit Latin~1) string that
will be used as the window title. It will also be used as the application
name (for instance in the application list when using \texttt{ALT+TAB}
under Windows, or as the icon name when the window is iconified under
the X Window System). The default window name is ``GLFW Window'', which
will be used unless \textbf{glfwSetWindowTitle} is called after the window
has been opened.
To change the size of a window, call \textbf{glfwSetWindowSize}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetWindowSize( int width, int height )
\end{lstlisting}
Where \textit{width} and \textit{height} are the new dimensions of the
window.
To change the position of a window, call \textbf{glfwSetWindowPos}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetWindowPos( int x, int y )
\end{lstlisting}
Where \textit{x} and \textit{y} are the new desktop coordinates of the
window. This function does not have any effect when in fullscreen mode.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Getting Window Properties}
When opening a window, the opened window will not necessarily have the
requested properties, so you should always check the parameters that your
application relies on (e.g. number of stencil bits) using
\textbf{glfwGetWindowParam}, which has the C syntax:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetWindowParam( int param )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{param} can be one of the tokens listed in table
\ref{tab:winparams}, and the return value is an integer holding the
requested value.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\begin{table}[p]
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|l|p{9.5cm}|} \hline \raggedright
\textbf{Name} & \textbf{Description} \\ \hline
GLFW\_OPENED & GL\_TRUE if window is opened, else GL\_FALSE.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACTIVE & GL\_TRUE if window has focus, else GL\_FALSE.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ICONIFIED & GL\_TRUE if window is iconified, else GL\_FALSE.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCELERATED & GL\_TRUE if window is hardware accelerated, else GL\_FALSE.\\ \hline
GLFW\_RED\_BITS & Number of bits for the red color component.\\ \hline
GLFW\_GREEN\_BITS & Number of bits for the green color component.\\ \hline
GLFW\_BLUE\_BITS & Number of bits for the blue color component.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ALPHA\_BITS & Number of bits for the alpha buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_DEPTH\_BITS & Number of bits for the depth buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_STENCIL\_BITS & Number of bits for the stencil buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_REFRESH\_RATE & Vertical monitor refresh rate in Hz. Zero indicates an unknown or a default refresh rate.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_RED\_BITS & Number of bits for the red channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_GREEN\_BITS & Number of bits for the green channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_BLUE\_BITS & Number of bits for the blue channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_ACCUM\_ALPHA\_BITS & Number of bits for the alpha channel of the accumulator buffer.\\ \hline
GLFW\_AUX\_BUFFERS & Number of auxiliary buffers.\\ \hline
GLFW\_STEREO & GL\_TRUE if stereo rendering is supported, else GL\_FALSE.\\ \hline
GLFW\_WINDOW\_NO\_RESIZE & GL\_TRUE if the window cannot be resized, else GL\_FALSE.\\ \hline
GLFW\_FSAA\_SAMPLES & Number of multisampling buffer samples. Zero indicated multisampling is disabled.\\ \hline
GLFW\_OPENGL\_VERSION\_MAJOR & Major number of the desired OpenGL version.\\ \hline
GLFW\_OPENGL\_VERSION\_MINOR & Minor number of the desired OpenGL version.\\ \hline
GLFW\_OPENGL\_FORWARD\_COMPAT & GL\_TRUE if the OpenGL context is forward compatible (i.e. disallows legacy functionality), else GL\_FALSE.
This is always GL\_FALSE for OpenGL version 2.1 and below.\\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\caption{Window parameters for \textbf{glfwGetWindowParam}}
\label{tab:winparams}
\end{table}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another useful function is \textbf{glfwSetWindowSizeCallback}, which
specifies a user function that will be called every time the window size
has changed. The C syntax is:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetWindowSizeCallback( GLFWwindowsizefun cbfun )
\end{lstlisting}
The user function \textit{fun} should be of the type:
\begin{lstlisting}
void GLFWCALL fun( int width, int height )
\end{lstlisting}
The first argument passed to the user function is the width of the window,
and the second argument is the height of the window. Here is an example
of how to use a window size callback function:
\begin{lstlisting}
int WinWidth, WinHeight;
void GLFWCALL WindowResize( int width, int height )
{
WinWidth = width;
WinHeight = height;
}
int main( void )
{
...
glfwSetWindowSizeCallback( WindowResize );
...
}
\end{lstlisting}
Using a callback function for getting the window size is mostly useful for
windowed applications, since the window size may be changed at any time by
the user. It can also be used to determine the actual fullscreen
resolution.
An alternative to using a callback function for getting the window size,
is to use the function \textbf{glfwGetWindowSize}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwGetWindowSize( int *width, int *height )
\end{lstlisting}
The \textit{width} and \textit{height} arguments are filled out with the
current window dimensions.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Buffer Swapping}
\GLFW\ windows are always double buffered. That means that you have two
rendering buffers; a front buffer and a back buffer. The front buffer is
the buffer that is being displayed, and the back buffer is not displayed.
\OpenGL\ lets you select which of these two buffers you want to render to
(with the \textbf{glDrawBuffer} command), but the default (and preferred)
rendering buffer is the back buffer. This way you will avoid flickering
and artifacts caused by graphics being only partly drawn at the same time
as the video raster beam is displaying the graphics on the monitor.
When an entire frame has been rendered to the back buffer, it is time to
swap the back and the front buffers in order to display the rendered
frame, and begin rendering a new frame. This is done with the command
\textbf{glfwSwapBuffers}. The C syntax is:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSwapBuffers( void )
\end{lstlisting}
Besides swapping the front and back rendering buffers,
\textbf{glfwSwapBuffers} also calls \textbf{glfwPollEvents}\footnote{This
behavior can be disabled by calling \textbf{glfwDisable} with the argument
GLFW\_AUTO\_POLL\_EVENTS.}. This is to ensure frequent polling of events,
such as keyboard and mouse input, and window reshaping events.
Sometimes it can be useful to select when the buffer swap will occur. With
the function \textbf{glfwSwapInterval} it is possible to select the
minimum number of vertical retraces the video raster line should do before
swapping the buffers:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSwapInterval( int interval )
\end{lstlisting}
If \textit{interval} is zero, the swap will take place immediately when
\textbf{glfwSwapBuffers} is called, without waiting for a vertical retrace
(also known as ``vsync off''). Otherwise at least \textit{interval}
retraces will pass between each buffer swap (also known as ``vsync on'').
Using a swap interval of zero can be useful for benchmarking purposes,
when it is not desirable to measure the time it takes to wait for the
vertical retrace. However, a swap interval of 1 generally gives better
visual quality.
It should be noted that not all \OpenGL\ implementations and hardware
support this function, in which case \textbf{glfwSwapInterval} will have
no effect. Sometimes it is only possible to affect the swap interval
through driver settings (e.g. the display settings under Windows, or as an
environment variable setting under Unix).
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Querying Video Modes}
Although \GLFW\ generally does a good job at selecting a suitable video
mode for you when you open a fullscreen window, it is sometimes useful to
know exactly which modes are available on a certain system. For example,
you may want to present the user with a list of video modes to select
from. To get a list of available video modes, you can use the function
\textbf{glfwGetVideoModes}:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetVideoModes( GLFWvidmode *list, int maxcount )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{list} is a vector of GLFWvidmode structures, and
\textit{maxcount} is the maximum number of video modes that your vector
can hold. \textbf{glfwGetVideoModes} will return the actual number of
video modes detected on the system.
The GLFWvidmode structure looks like this:
\begin{lstlisting}
typedef struct {
int Width, Height; // Video resolution
int RedBits; // Red bits per pixel
int GreenBits; // Green bits per pixel
int BlueBits; // Blue bits per pixel
} GLFWvidmode;
\end{lstlisting}
Here is an example of retrieving all available video modes:
\begin{lstlisting}
int nummodes;
GLFWvidmode list[ 200 ];
nummodes = glfwGetVideoModes( list, 200 );
\end{lstlisting}
The returned list is sorted, first by color depth ($RedBits + GreenBits +
BlueBits$), and then by resolution ($Width\times Height$), with the
lowest resolution, fewest bits per pixel mode first.
To get the desktop video mode, use the function
\textbf{glfwGetDesktopMode}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwGetDesktopMode( GLFWvidmode *mode )
\end{lstlisting}
The function returns the resolution and color depth of the user desktop in
the mode structure. Note that the user desktop mode is independent of the
current video mode if a \GLFW\ fullscreen window has been opened.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Input Handling
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter{Input Handling}
\label{par:inputhandling}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
In this chapter you will learn how to use keyboard, mouse and joystick
input, using either polling or callback functions.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Event Polling}
The first thing to know about input handling in \GLFW\ is that all
keyboard and mouse input is collected by checking for input events. This
has do be done manually by calling either \textbf{glfwPollEvents} or
\textbf{glfwSwapBuffers} (which implicitly calls \textbf{glfwPollEvents}
for you). Normally this does not have to be a concern, since
\textbf{glfwSwapBuffers} is called every frame, which should be often
enough (about 10-100 times per second for a normal \OpenGL\ application).
One exception is when rendering is paused, and then the program waits for
input to begin animation again. In this case \textbf{glfwPollEvents} has
to be called repeatedly until any new input events arrive.
If it is not desirable that \textbf{glfwPollEvents is} called implicitly
from \textbf{glfwSwapBuffers}, call \textbf{glfwDisable} with the argument
GLFW\_AUTO\_POLL\_EVENTS.
Note that event polling is not needed for joystick input, since all
relevant joystick state is gathered every time a joystick function is
called.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Keyboard Input}
\GLFW\ gives three options for getting keyboard input:
\begin{itemize}
\item Manually polling the state of individual keys.
\item Automatically receive new key state for any key, using a callback
function.
\item Automatically receive characters, using a callback function.
\end{itemize}
Depending on what the keyboard input will be used for, either of the
methods may be more suitable. The main difference between the two last
options is that while characters are affected by modifier keys (such as
shift), key state is independent of any modifier keys. Also, special keys
(such as function keys, cursor keys and modifier keys) are not reported to
the character callback function.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Key state}
To check if a key is held down or not at any given moment, use the
function \textbf{glfwGetKey}:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetKey( int key )
\end{lstlisting}
It queries the current status of individual keyboard keys. The argument
\textit{key} specifies which key to check, and it can be either an
uppercase ISO~8859-1 character, or a special key identifier.
\textbf{glfwGetKey} returns GLFW\_PRESS (or 1) if the key is currently
held down, or GLFW\_RELEASE (or 0) if the key is not being held down.
In most situations, it may be useful to know if a key has been pressed and
released between two calls to \textbf{glfwGetKey} (especially if the
animation is fairly slow, which may allow the user to press and release a
key between two calls to \textbf{glfwGetKey}). This can be accomplished by
enabling sticky keys, which is done by calling \textbf{glfwEnable} with
the argument GLFW\_STICKY\_KEYS, as in the following example:
\begin{lstlisting}
glfwEnable( GLFW_STICKY_KEYS );
\end{lstlisting}
When sticky keys are enabled, a key will not be released until it is
checked with \textbf{glfwGetKey}. To disable sticky keys, call
\textbf{glfwDisable} witht the argument GLFW\_STICKY\_KEYS. Then all keys
that are not currently held down will be released, and future key releases
will take place immediately when the user releases the key, without
waiting for \textbf{glfwGetKey} to check the key. By default sticky keys
are disabled.
Sticky keys are often very useful and should be used in most cases where
\textbf{glfwGetKey} is used. There is however a danger involved with
enabling sticky keys, and that is that keys that are pressed by the user
but are not checked with \textbf{glfwGetKey}, may remain ``pressed'' for a
very long time. A typical situation where this may be dangerous is in a
program that consists of two or more sections (e.g. a menu section and a
game section). If the first section enables sticky keys but does not check
for keys which the second section checks for, there is a potential of
recording many key presses in the first section that will be detected in
the second section. To avoid this problem, always disable sticky keys
before leaving a section of a program.
An alternative to using \textbf{glfwGetKey} is to register a keyboard
input callback function with \textbf{glfwSetKeyCallback}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetKeyCallback( GLFWkeyfun cbfun )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{fun} is a pointer to a callback function. The
callback function shall take two integer arguments. The first is the key
identifier, and the second is the new key state, which can be GLFW\_PRESS
or GLFW\_RELEASE. To unregister a callback function, call
\textbf{glfwSetKeyCallback} with \textit{fun} = NULL.
A callback function can be useful in some situations. For instance it can
replace multiple \textbf{glfwGetKey} calls with a switch/case statement.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Character input}
If the keyboard is to be used as a text input device (e.g. in a user
dialog) rather than as a set of independent buttons, a character callback
function is more suitable. To register a character callback function, use
\textbf{glfwSetCharCallback}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetCharCallback( GLFWcharfun cbfun )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{fun} is a pointer to a callback function. The
callback function shall take two integer arguments. The first is a Unicode
character code, and the second is GLFW\_PRESS if the key that generated
the character was pressed, or GLFW\_RELEASE if it was released. To
unregister a callback function, call \textbf{glfwSetCharCallback} with
\textit{fun} = NULL.
The Unicode character set is an international standard for encoding
characters. It is much more comprehensive than seven or eight bit
character sets (e.g. US-ASCII and Latin~1), and includes characters for
most written languages in the world. It should be noted that Unicode
character codes 0 to 255 are the same as for ISO~8859-1 (Latin~1), so as
long as a proper range check is performed on the Unicode character code,
it can be used just as an eight bit Latin~1 character code (which can be
useful if full Unicode support is not possible).
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Key repeat}
By default, \GLFW\ does not report key repeats when a key is held down.
To activate key repeat, call \textbf{glfwEnable} with the argument
GLFW\_KEY\_REPEAT:
\begin{lstlisting}
glfwEnable( GLFW_KEY_REPEAT );
\end{lstlisting}
This will let a registered key or character callback function receive key
repeat events when a key is held down.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Special system keys}
On most systems there are some special system keys that are normally not
intercepted by an application. For instance, under Windows it is possible
to switch programs by pressing \texttt{ALT+TAB}, which brings up a list of
running programs to select from. In certain situations it can be desirable
to prevent such special system keys from interfering with the program.
With \GLFW\ it is possible to do by calling \textbf{glfwDisable} with the
argument GLFW\_SYSTEM\_KEYS:
\begin{lstlisting}
glfwDisable( GLFW_SYSTEM_KEYS );
\end{lstlisting}
By doing so, most system keys will have no effect and will not interfere
with your program. System keys can be re-enabled by calling
\textbf{glfwEnable} with the argument GLFW\_SYSTEM\_KEYS. By default,
system keys are enabled.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Mouse Input}
Just like for keyboard input, mouse input can be realized with either
polling or callback functions.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Mouse position}
To read the mouse position, you can use the function
\textbf{glfwGetMousePos}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwGetMousePos( int *x, int *y )
\end{lstlisting}
The arguments \textit{x} and \textit{y} point to integer variables that
will be updated with the current absolute mouse position. An alternative
is to use a callback function instead, which can be set with
\textbf{glfwSetMousePosCallback}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetMousePosCallback( GLFWmouseposfun cbfun )
\end{lstlisting}
The function that \textit{fun} points to will be called every time the
mouse position changes. The first argument to the callback function is
the mouse x position, and the second argument is the mouse y position.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Mouse buttons}
To query the state of a mouse button, call \textbf{glfwGetMouseButton}:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetMouseButton( int button )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{button} can be one of the following mouse button
identifiers: GLFW\_MOUSE\_BUTTON\_LEFT, GLFW\_MOUSE\_BUTTON\_RIGHT or
GLFW\_MOUSE\_BUTTON\_MIDDLE. \textbf{glfwGetMouseButton} will return
GLFW\_PRESS (which is a non-zero value) if the corresponding mouse
button is held down, otherwise it will return GLFW\_RELEASE (which is
equal to zero).
Just as it is possible to make keys ``sticky'', it is also possible to
make mouse buttons appear as held down until the button is checked for
with \textbf{glfwGetMouseButton}. To enable sticky mouse buttons, call
\textbf{glfwEnable} with the argument GLFW\_STICKY\_MOUSE\_BUTTONS.
When sticky mouse buttons are enabled, a mouse button will not be released
until it is checked with \textbf{glfwGetMouseButton}. To disable sticky
mouse buttons, call \textbf{glfwDisable} with the argument
GLFW\_STICKY\_MOUSE\_BUTTONS. Then all mouse buttons that are not
currently held down will be released, and future mouse button releases
will take place immediately when the user releases the mouse button,
without waiting for \textbf{glfwGetMouseButton} to check for the mouse
button. By default sticky mouse buttons are disabled.
There is also a callback function for mouse button activities, which can
be set with \textbf{glfwSetMouseButtonCallback}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetMouseButtonCallback( GLFWmousebuttonfun fun )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{fun} specifies a function that will be called
whenever a mouse button is pressed or released, or NULL to unregister a
callback function. The first argument to the callback function is a mouse
button identifier, and the second is either GLFW\_PRESS or GLFW\_RELEASE,
depending on the new state of the corresponding mouse button.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Mouse wheel}
Some mice have a mouse wheel, which can be thought of as a third mouse
axis. To get the position of the mouse wheel, call
\textbf{glfwGetMouseWheel}:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetMouseWheel( void )
\end{lstlisting}
The function returns an integer that represents the position of the mouse
wheel. When the user turns the wheel, the wheel position will increase or
decrease.
It is also possible to register a callback function for mouse wheel events
with the \textbf{glfwSetMouseWheelCallback} function:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetMouseWheelCallback( GLFWmousewheelfun fun )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{fun} specifies a function that will be called
whenever the mouse wheel is moved, or NULL to unregister a callback
function. The argument to the callback function is the position of the
mouse wheel.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Hiding the mouse cursor}
It is possible to hide the mouse cursor with the function call:
\begin{lstlisting}
glfwDisable( GLFW_MOUSE_CURSOR );
\end{lstlisting}
Hiding the mouse cursor has three effects:
\begin{enumerate}
\item The cursor becomes invisible.
\item The cursor is guaranteed to be confined to the window.
\item Mouse coordinates are not limited to the window size.
\end{enumerate}
To show the mouse cursor again, call \textbf{glfwEnable} with the
argument GLFW\_MOUSE\_CURSOR:
\begin{lstlisting}
glfwEnable( GLFW_MOUSE_CURSOR );
\end{lstlisting}
By default the mouse cursor is hidden if a window is opened in fullscreen
mode, otherwise it is not hidden.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Joystick Input}
\GLFW\ has support for up to sixteen joysticks, and an infinite\footnote{%
There are of course actual limitations posed by the underlying hardware,
drivers and operation system.} number of axes and buttons per joystick.
Unlike keyboard and mouse input, joystick input does not need an opened
window, and \textbf{glfwPollEvents} or \textbf{glfwSwapBuffers} does not
have to be called in order for joystick state to be updated.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Joystick capabilities}
First, it is often necessary to determine if a joystick is connected, and
what its capabilities are. To get this information the function
\textbf{glfwGetJoystickParam} can be used:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetJoystickParam( int joy, int param )
\end{lstlisting}
The \textit{joy} argument specifies which joystick to retrieve the
parameter from, and it should be GLFW\_JOYSTICK\_\textit{n}, where
\textit{n} is in the range 1 to 16. The \textit{param} argument specifies
which parameter to retrieve. To determine if a joystick is connected,
\textit{param} should be GLFW\_PRESENT, which will cause the function to
return GL\_TRUE if the joystick is connected, or GL\_FALSE if it is not.
To determine the number of axes or buttons that are supported by the
joystick, \textit{param} should be GLFW\_AXES or GLFW\_BUTTONS,
respectively.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Joystick position}
To get the current axis positions of the joystick, the
\textbf{glfwGetJoystickPos} is used:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetJoystickPos( int joy, float *pos, int numaxes )
\end{lstlisting}
As with \textbf{glfwGetJoystickParam}, the \textit{joy} argument
specifies which joystick to retrieve information from. The
\textit{numaxes} argument specifies how many axes to return, and the
\textit{pos} argument specifies an array in which all the axis positions
are stored. The function returns the actual number of axes that were
returned, which could be less than \textit{numaxes} if the joystick does
not support all the requested axes, or if the joystick is not connected.
For instance, to get the position of the first two axes (the X and Y axes)
of joystick 1, the following code can be used:
\begin{lstlisting}
float position[ 2 ];
glfwGetJoystickPos( GLFW_JOYSTICK_1, position, 2 );
\end{lstlisting}
After this call, the first element of the \textit{position} array will
hold the X axis position of the joystick, and the second element will hold
the Y axis position. In this example we do not use the information about
how many axes were really returned.
The position of an axis can be in the range -1.0 to 1.0, where positive
values represent right, forward or up directions, while negative values
represent left, back or down directions. If a requested axis is not
supported by the joystick, the corresponding array element will be set
to zero. The same goes for the situation when the joystick is not
connected (all axes are treated as unsupported).
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Joystick buttons}
A function similar to the \textbf{glfwGetJoystickPos} function is
available for querying the state of joystick buttons, namely the
\textbf{glfwGetJoystickButtons} function:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwGetJoystickButtons( int joy, unsigned char *buttons,
int numbuttons )
\end{lstlisting}
The function works just like the \textbf{glfwGetJoystickAxis} function,
except that it returns the state of joystick buttons instead of axis
positions. Each button in the array specified by the \textit{buttons}
argument can be either GLFW\_PRESS or GLFW\_RELEASE, telling if the
corresponding button is currently held down or not. Unsupported buttons
will have the value GLFW\_RELEASE.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Timing
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter{Timing}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{High Resolution Timer}
In most applications, it is useful to know exactly how much time has
passed between point $A$ and point $B$ in a program. A typical situation
is in a game, where you need to know how much time has passed between two
rendered frames in order to calculate the correct movement and physics
etc. Another example is when you want to benchmark a certain piece of
code.
\GLFW\ provides a high-resolution timer, which reports a double precision
floating point value representing the number of seconds that have passed
since \textbf{glfwInit} was called. The timer is accessed with the
function \textbf{glfwGetTime}:
\begin{lstlisting}
double glfwGetTime( void )
\end{lstlisting}
The precision of the timer depends on which computer and operating
system you are running, but it is almost guaranteed to be better than
$10~ms$, and in most cases it is much better than $1~ms$ (on a modern PC
you can get resolutions in the order of $1~ns$).
It is possible to set the value of the high precision timer using the
\textbf{glfwSetTime} function:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glfwSetTime( double time )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{time} is the time, in seconds, that the timer should
be set to.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% OpenGL Extension Support
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\chapter{OpenGL Extension Support}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
One of the benefits of \OpenGL\ is that it is extensible. Independent
hardware vendors (IHVs) may include functionality in their \OpenGL\
implementations that exceed that of the \OpenGL\ standard.
An extension is defined by:
\begin{enumerate}
\item An extension name (e.g. GL\_ARB\_multitexture).
\item New OpenGL tokens (e.g. GL\_TEXTURE1\_ARB).
\item New OpenGL functions (e.g. \textbf{glActiveTextureARB}).
\end{enumerate}
A list of official extensions, together with their definitions, can be
found at the \textit{OpenGL Extension Registry}
(\url{http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/registry/}).
To use a certain extension, the following steps must be performed:
\begin{enumerate}
\item A compile time check for the support of the extension.
\item A run time check for the support of the extension.
\item Fetch function pointers for the extended \OpenGL\ functions (done at
run time).
\end{enumerate}
How this is done using \GLFW\ is described in the following sections.
Please note that this chapter covers some advanced topics, and is quite
specific to the C programming language.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Compile Time Check}
The compile time check is necessary to perform in order to know if the
compiler include files have defined the necessary tokens. It is very easy
to do. The include file \texttt{GL/gl.h} will define a constant with the
same name as the extension, if all the extension tokens are defined. Here
is an example of how to check for the extension GL\_ARB\_multitexture:
\begin{lstlisting}
#ifdef GL_ARB_multitexture
// Extension is supported by the include files
#else
// Extension is not supported by the include files
// Update your <GL/gl.h> file!
#endif
\end{lstlisting}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Runtime Check}
Even if the compiler include files have defined all the necessary tokens,
the target system may not support the extension (perhaps it has a
different graphic card with a different \OpenGL\ implementation, or it has
an older driver). That is why it is necessary to do a run time check for
the extension support as well. This is done with the \GLFW\ function
\textbf{glfwExtensionSupported}, which has the C syntax:
\begin{lstlisting}
int glfwExtensionSupported( const char *extension )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{extension} is a null terminated ISO~8859-1 string
with the extension name. \textbf{glfwExtensionSupported} returns GL\_TRUE
if the extension is supported, otherwise it returns GL\_FALSE.
Let us extend the previous example of checking for support of the
extension GL\_ARB\_multitexture. This time we add a run time check, and a
variable which we set to GL\_TRUE if the extension is supported, or
GL\_FALSE if it is not supported.
\begin{lstlisting}
int multitexture_supported;
#ifdef GL_ARB_multitexture
// Check if extension is supported at run time
multitexture_supported =
glfwExtensionSupported( "GL_ARB_multitexture" );
#else
// Extension is not supported by the include files
// Update your <GL/gl.h> file!
multitexture_supported = GL_FALSE;
#endif
\end{lstlisting}
Now it is easy to check for the extension within the program, simply do:
\begin{lstlisting}
if( multitexture_supported )
{
// Use multi texturing
}
else
{
// Use some other solution (or fail)
}
\end{lstlisting}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{Fetching Function Pointers}
Some extensions (not all) require the use of new \OpenGL\ functions, which
are not necessarily defined by your link libraries. Thus it is necessary
to get the function pointers dynamically at run time. This is done with
the \GLFW\ function \textbf{glfwGetProcAddress}:
\begin{lstlisting}
void * glfwGetProcAddress( const char *procname )
\end{lstlisting}
The argument \textit{procname} is a null terminated ISO~8859-1 string
holding the name of the \OpenGL\ function. \textbf{glfwGetProcAddress}
returns the address to the function if the function is available,
otherwise NULL is returned.
Obviously, fetching the function pointer is trivial. For instance, if we
want to obtain the pointer to \textbf{glActiveTextureARB}, we simply call:
\begin{lstlisting}
glActiveTextureARB = glfwGetProcAddress( "glActiveTextureARB" );
\end{lstlisting}
However, there are many possible naming and type definition conflicts
involved with such an operation, which may result in compiler warnings or
errors. My proposed solution is the following:
\begin{itemize}
\item Do not use the function name for the variable name. Use something
similar (perhaps with a prefix or suffix), and then use
\texttt{\#define} to map the function name to your variable.
\item The standard type definition naming convention for function pointers
is \texttt{PFN\textit{xxxx}PROC}, where \texttt{\textit{xxxx}} is
the uppercase version of the function name (e.g.
\texttt{PFNGLACTIVETEXTUREARBPROC}). Either make sure that a
compatible \texttt{gl.h} and/or \texttt{glext.h} file is used by
your compiler and rely on it to do the type definitions for you, or
use a custom type definition naming convention (e.g.
\texttt{\textit{xxxx}\_T} or something) and do the type definitions
yourself.
\end{itemize}
Here is an example of how to do it (here we use our own function pointer
type defintion):
\begin{lstlisting}
// Type definition of the function pointer
typedef void (APIENTRY * GLACTIVETEXTUREARB_T) (GLenum texture);
// Function pointer
GLACTIVETEXTUREARB_T _ActiveTextureARB;
#define glActiveTextureARB _ActiveTextureARB
// Extension availability flag
int multitexture_supported;
#ifdef GL_ARB_multitexture
// Check if extension is supported at run time
if( glfwExtensionSupported( "GL_ARB_multitexture" ) )
{
// Get the function pointer
glActiveTextureARB = (GLACTIVETEXTUREARB_T)
glfwGetProcAddress( "glActiveTextureARB" );
multitexture_supported = GL_TRUE;
}
else
{
multitexture_supported = GL_FALSE;
}
#else
// Extension is not supported by the include files
multitexture_supported = GL_FALSE;
#endif
\end{lstlisting}
Please note that the code example is not 100\% complete. First of all,
the GL\_ARB\_multitexture extension defines many more functions than the
single function that the code example defines. Secondly, checking if an
extension is supported using \textbf{glfwExtensionSupported} is not enough
to ensure that the corresponding functions will be valid. You also need to
check if the function pointers returned by \textbf{glfwGetProcAddress} are
non-NULL values.
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\subsection{Function pointer type definitions}
To make a function pointer type definition, you need to know the function
prototype. This can often be found in the extension definitions (e.g. at
the \textit{OpenGL Extension Registry}). All the functions that are
defined for an extension are listed with their C prototype definitions
under the section \textit{New Procedures and Functions} in the extension
definition.
For instance, if we look at the definition of the
GL\_ARB\_texture\_compression extension, we find a list of new functions.
One of the functions looks like this:
\begin{lstlisting}
void GetCompressedTexImageARB(enum target, int lod, void *img);
\end{lstlisting}
Like in most official \OpenGL\ documentation, all the \texttt{GL} and
\texttt{gl} prefixes have been left out. In other words, the real function
prototype would look like this:
\begin{lstlisting}
void glGetCompressedTexImageARB(GLenum target, GLint lod, void *img);
\end{lstlisting}
All we have to do to turn this prototype definition into a function
pointer type definition, is to replace the function name with
\texttt{(APIENTRY * \textit{xxxx}\_T)}, where \textit{xxxx} is the
uppercase version of the name (according to the proposed naming
convention). The keyword \texttt{APIENTRY} is needed to be compatible
between different platforms. The \GLFW\ include file \texttt{GL/glfw.h}
always makes sure that \texttt{APIENTRY} is properly defined, regardless
of which platform the program is compiled on.
In other words, for the function \textbf{glGetCompressedTexImageARB} we
get:
\begin{lstlisting}
typedef void (APIENTRY * GLGETCOMPRESSEDTEXIMAGEARB_T)
(GLenum target, GLint level, void *img);
\end{lstlisting}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Index
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
% ...
\end{document}