8 Light Sources

OpenGL OpenGL: Basic Coding
1

I am a newbie. I am researching OpenGL as a possible technology to use for a new product for the company I work for. The limit of 8 light sources that I have been made aware of seems to be contradicted by the demo program found at http://www.softplusplus.com/. Does anyone have an explaination?

Thanks,

Rick

2

Hi !

I do not belive that the “lightsources” are OpenGL light sources, this is something they do in their software to emulate lightsources.

By the way, the limitation of 8 light sources is just a minimum value, your OpenGL may support more, it depends on your hardware.

Mikael

3

Interesting. How would you simulate a light source? The light sources in the demo program cast shadows, took on color, react realisticly with virtual fog, etc.

I would need our product to work with generic pc’s. Is OpenGl a good choice?

Thanks

4

Hi !

It’s also possible that they do it in multiple passes to allow for more lights.

So is OpenGL what you want ?, it depends a little on what you want to do, but I would guess so, if you are only targetting the Windows platform you could also go for Direct3D, it’s pretty much the same thing, OpenGL can be ported to other platform if that is important to you. have a look in old posts on this list and you will find lot’s of information on good and bad things whith both, as usual, the best thing is to try them out both and see for yourself.

The downside with OpenGL at the moment is that Microsoft is doing what they can to make sure people do not use OpenGL, but this is a minor thing.

Mikael