Chapter 1, "An Introduction to OpenGL," presents OpenGL architecture and concepts in broad terms. It also introduces the GLUT and GLU support libraries, discusses setting up an OpenGL development environment, and presents a simple OpenGL example. This chapter concludes with an extensive history of the OpenGL API.
Chapter 2, "Drawing Primitives," covers how to use OpenGL to render geometric data. It describes the OpenGL drawing primitive types and how to render them by using the vertex array and buffer object features. This chapter also presents other drawing details, such as clearing the framebuffer, order dependence, and the depth test.
Chapter 3, "Transformation and Viewing," describes the OpenGL transformation pipeline. This chapter covers how to position and orient views, set perspective and orthographic projections, and control the Viewport. It also covers interactive view manipulation using the mouse.
Chapter 4, "Lighting," explains how to set lighting parameters, which control light position, direction, and color, as well as material reflectance.
Chapter 5, "Pixel Rectangles," introduces the OpenGL paradigm for drawing, reading, and copying blocks of pixel data.
Chapter 6, "Texture Mapping," tells you how to create texture objects and apply them to rendered geometry. Texture mapping is a powerful tool for increasing the realism of rendered images. This chapter describes techniques for improving specular highlights, environment mapping, and creating shadows.
Chapter 7, "Extensions and Versions," describes how to write version-safe, platform-independent code that uses implementation-specific graphics hardware functionality.
Chapter 8, "Platform-Specific Interfaces," describes OpenGL interfaces specific to Apple Mac OS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. This chapter describes how to create and use multiple OpenGL rendering contexts and share objects between them.
appendix A, "Other Features," briefly covers several OpenGL features outside the scope of this book, such as the OpenGL Shading Language, clip planes, fog, multisampling, and stencil.
appendix B, "Best Practices," enumerates generally accepted good OpenGL programming practices that help ensure a robust and portable OpenGL application.
appendix C, "Performance," describes how to take accurate timing measurements and how to identify and eliminate performance bottlenecks.
appendix D, "Troubleshooting and Debugging," assists in resolving commonly encountered issues.
Each chapter opens with a quick summary of what the reader will learn, as well as topics that aren't covered. Each chapter concludes with pointers to further reading related to the chapter subject.
