A question on the transformation pipeline in OpenGL superbible 5th

[shapeare]

The author used the following data structure for the convenience of representing a frame of reference (on Page 168 of the book)


class GLFrame{
protected：
float vLocation[3];
float vUp[3];
float vForward[3];


public:
...
}


Then he provided a function that calculates a matrix which is unclear to me (on Page 168 of the book):


void GetMatrix(M3DMatrix44f matrix, bool bRotationOnly = false)
{
// Calculate the right side (x) vector, drop it right into the matrix
M3DVector3f vXAxis;
m3dCrossProduct3(vXAxis, vUp, vForward);


// Set matrix column does not fill in the fourth value...
m3dSetMatrixColumn44(matrix, vXAxis, 0);
matrix[3] = 0.0f;

// Y Column
m3dSetMatrixColumn44(matrix, vUp, 1);
matrix[7] = 0.0f;

// Z Column
m3dSetMatrixColumn44(matrix, vForward, 2);
matrix[11] = 0.0f;


// Translation (already done)
if(bRotationOnly == true)
{
matrix[12] = 0.0f;
matrix[13] = 0.0f;
matrix[14] = 0.0f;
}
else
m3dSetMatrixColumn44(matrix, vOrigin, 3);


matrix[15] = 1.0f;
}


He used the matrix on Page 174 through


modelViewMatrix.MultMatrix(spheres[i]); //it equals to multiply the matrix got from spheres[i].GetMatrix()

Here, spheres[i] is an object of the GLFrame class.
I think the author actually wanted to multiply the object's model transform matrix, but he misused the GetMatrix() function.
Could anyone help me verify my assumption?

Sorry for my rough description.

[carsten neumann]

I assume modelViewMatrix is of type M3DMatrix44f? My guess is there is an overload of MultMatrix that takes a GLFrame, like so:



void M3DMatrix44f::MultMatrix(const GLFrame& frame)
{
M3DMatrix44f frameMatrix;
frame.GetMatrix(frameMatrix);

this->MultMatrix(frameMatrix);
}


This assumes that the signature of GetMatrix is actually:



void GLFrame::GetMatrix(M3DMatrix44f& matrix, bool bRotationOnly = false) const


Note the "&" to allow modifying the argument.

[shapeare]

But the call of
GLFrame::GetMatrix() does not return an identity matrix by default. In fact, it is


{-1, 0, 0, 0,
0, 1, 0, 0,
0, 0,-1, 0,
0, 0, 0, 1
}//in column major

I expect it to be an identity matrix.

Because when GLFrame was first initialized,
vUp is {0, 1, 0},
vForward is {0, 0, -1},
vLocation is {0, 0, 0}
In the function GetMatrix(), the author first computed vRight which is the cross product of vUp and vForward, and then drop the three vectors into the resulting matrix:


{vRight_x, vRight_y, vRight_z, 0
vUp_x, vUp_y, vUp_z, 0
vForward_x, vForward_y, vForward_z, 0
vLocation_x, vLocation_y, vLocation_z, 1
}//in column major

but it should return an identity matrix.