I want to make a class for storing of my objects. so far I have made a little class that has a vertex array and a triangle index.
the rendering function is built in in this class so I only make a call like this:
Cube.Render();
the render function is rendering with singel triangles (GL_TRIANGLES), before the loop I rotate, move and set the material. this information is stored in my object class.
but in the OpenGL book I have (superbibel 2nd ed.) they set the material when they setup the lights, and then they use glColor to set the color of the object.
is there any difference when I set material like this ? why do they set the material when they set the lights ? isn´t the material for the object ?
and then I wan´t to know if there is any difference in speed using single triangles then triangle strips or quads ?
what do I need to have in my object class to draw the object I like ?
>>but in the OpenGL book I have (superbibel 2nd ed.) they set the material when they setup the lights, and then they use glColor to set the color of the object.<<
This needs COLOR_MATERIAL to be enabled.
>>is there any difference when I set material like this ?<<
Frequent material changes (e.g. per vertex) is faster via color material instead of independent glMaterial calls.
>>why do they set the material when they set the lights ?<<
The lighting in OpenGL works on materials not on colors.
>>isn´t the material for the object ?<<
Well, not really, glMaterial is one of the few calls you can do in between glBegin-glEnd.
>>and then I wan´t to know if there is any difference in speed using single triangles then triangle strips or quads ?<<
There is a huge difference in geometry performance if the strips contain more than one triangle
Example: 102 (or n) vertices result 100 triangles (or n-2) in a single strip, but only in 34 independent triangles. That means the geometry requirements for independent triangles are three times higher for large numbers of vertices.