Mouse Control in 3D

[jjcheng]

I have a 3D object displayed in a window, and I want to be able to click on it, and rotate it. I am not sure where to start.

Originally, I had a button system to rotate the object, but I would rather have it be more interactive. Could someone help me with this? Or point me in the right direction?

[t3jem]

You might want to try nehe's picking tutorial, I can't remember witch one it is so you'll have to look, but here's the address http://nehe.gamedev.net/

[Aeluned]

this isn't an OpenGL question:

when the user left clicks store the x,y mouse position;
on each mouse move message - find the difference of the last stored x,y position from the current one - map this to some rotation value (perhaps 2*delta x for rotations about the y axis as an example).

set the last stored x,y value to the current one;

if the left button is down, rotate the object (by whatever number of degrees or radians are obtained by your mapping).

I hope this simple overview is somewhat clear.

[t3jem]

Well, actually Aeluned (not to be rude or anything) if you use glut then to use the mouse you use glutMouseFunc(); which is an opengl function.

[Aeluned]

yes, but the entire problem boils down to how to get a value for degrees to a glRotate call using the mouse. The operations to achieve that include nothing more than Windows API calls: namely an WM_LBUTTON_DOWN, WM_MOUSE_MOVE and WM_LBUTTON_UP.

even using glutMouseFunc(), the problem boils down to the method I outlined before.

It's not a big deal that it's not an OpenGL question really, I was just making a statement.

[redarrow]

Originally posted by Terminatore3:

Well, actually Aeluned (not to be rude or anything) if you use glut then to use the mouse you use glutMouseFunc(); which is an opengl function. No it's not, glut is not opengl it's just a utility toolkit to make implementing it easier, opengl is a graphics library not a game development library.
The Mouse/keyboard/joystick etc. functions in glut have nothing to do with opengl.

Just my 2 cents...

[jjcheng]

Thanks for your help! I will see if I can make this work.