+- iDevGames Forums (http://www.idevgames.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Development Zone (/forum-3.html)
+--- Forum: Graphics & Audio Programming (/forum-9.html)
+--- Thread: OpenGL gluUnProject() pixelDepth question (/thread-8544.html)
OpenGL gluUnProject() pixelDepth question - WhatMeWorry - Jan 14, 2011 01:05 PM
I've read lots of documentation regarding gluUnproject(). I've got a perspective projection with the following call to gluUnProject().
Code:
result = gluUnProject( windowX, // window coordinates (Input values)
windowY,
pixelDepth, // 1.0 = far clipping plane, 0.0 = near clipping plane
modelView,
projection,
viewPort,
&worldX, // world coordinates (output values)
&worldY,
&worldZ ); // Red Book p. 152and when I use values of 0.0 and 1.0 for the 3rd parameter, I get world coordinates that lie on the near and far plane. I then tried values between 0.0 and 1.0, and got values world values that lied between worldZ (near) and worldz (far). So far so good.
Because I could get no information on how gluUnProject() handles pixelDepth < 0.0 and pixelDepth > 0.0, I went ahead and tried some of these values. I was expecting garbage or undefined values, but instead I got values that fell into the range of [0.0, 1.0].
Was this just lucky happenstance or do values (>1.0 or <0.0) have some esoteric uses?
RE: OpenGL gluUnProject() pixelDepth question - OneSadCookie - Jan 14, 2011 11:22 PM
The input to gluUnProject is a depth buffer value. As you've found, 0.0 is near, 1.0 is far, values outside that range are meaningless, and it's potentially useful (though slow!) to glReadPixels() a single depth value to pass in.
The usual way to use gluUnProject is to call it twice, once with 0.0; once with 1.0. That gives you back the endpoints of a line segment in your world space, which you can analytically intersect with your geometry to determine what was clicked.
RE: OpenGL gluUnProject() pixelDepth question - WhatMeWorry - Jan 15, 2011 10:18 AM
Does your comment:
Quote:and it's potentially useful (though slow!) to glReadPixels() a single depth value to pass in.
refer to:
glReadPixels(winX, winY, 1, 1, GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT, GL_FLOAT, &windowZ);
If so, why is this potentially slow. Aren't we just asking the Depth Buffer to return a value of one if its elements?
RE: OpenGL gluUnProject() pixelDepth question - Oddity007 - Jan 15, 2011 10:54 AM
It's not really the amount that you are sending, it's the fact that you have to synchronize the cpu and gpu (a pretty big stall) in order to transfer.