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Drawing to a Window or View

The OpenGL programming interface provides hundreds of drawing commands that drive graphics hardware. It doesn't provide any commands that interface with the windowing system of an operating system. Without a windowing system, the 3D graphics of an OpenGL program are trapped inside the GPU. Figure 2-1 shows a cube drawn to a Cocoa view and a trefoil drawn to a Carbon window. (You can just as easily draw the trefoil to the Cocoa view and the cube to the Carbon window.)

This chapter shows how to display OpenGL drawing onscreen using the APIs provided by Mac OS X. You'll see how to draw to Cocoa views and Carbon windows. (This chapter does not show how to use GLUT.) The first section describes the overall approach to drawing onscreen and provides an overview to the functions and methods used by each API. You'll want to read this regardless of the application framework that you use. The remaining sections in the chapter provide information that's specific to Cocoa or Carbon. After you consult the appropriate section, take a look at “What's Next” for pointers to optimization strategies and other information that will help your OpenGL application to perform at its best.

Contents:

General Approach
Drawing to a Cocoa View
Drawing to a Carbon Window
What's Next
See Also

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