source: trunk/doc/src/qtopengl.qdoc@ 9

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/*!
    \module QtOpenGL
    \title QtOpenGL Module
    \contentspage Qt's Modules
    \previouspage QtNetwork
    \nextpage QtSql
    \ingroup modules

    \brief The QtOpenGL module offers classes that make it easy to
    use OpenGL in Qt applications.

    OpenGL is a standard API for rendering 3D graphics. OpenGL only
    deals with 3D rendering and provides little or no support for GUI
    programming issues. The user interface for an OpenGL application
    must be created with another toolkit, such as Motif on the X
    platform, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) under Windows, or Qt
    on both platforms.

    \bold{Note:} OpenGL is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. in
    the United States and other countries.

    The Qt OpenGL module makes it easy to use OpenGL in Qt applications.
    It provides an OpenGL widget class that can be used just like any
    other Qt widget, except that it opens an OpenGL display buffer where
    you can use the OpenGL API to render the contents.

    To include the definitions of the module's classes, use the
    following directive:

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qtopengl.qdoc 0

    To link against the module, add this line to your \l qmake \c
    .pro file:

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qtopengl.qdoc 1

    The Qt OpenGL module is implemented as a platform-independent Qt/C++
    wrapper around the platform-dependent GLX (version 1.3 or later),
    WGL, or AGL C APIs. Although the basic functionality provided is very
    similar to Mark Kilgard's GLUT library, applications using the Qt
    OpenGL module can take advantage of the whole Qt API for
    non-OpenGL-specific GUI functionality.

    \warning The QtOpenGL module is part of the \l{Qt Full Framework Edition}
    and the \l{Open Source Versions of Qt}. It is available on Windows,
    X11, and Mac OS X. \l{Qt for Embedded Linux} supports OpenGL ES (OpenGL for
    Embedded Systems). To be able to use the OpenGL API in \l{Qt for Embedded Linux},
    it must be integrated with the Q Window System (QWS). See the
    \l{Qt for Embedded Linux and OpenGL} documentation for details.

    \section1 Installation

    When you install Qt for X11, the configure script will autodetect if
    OpenGL headers and libraries are installed on your system, and if so,
    it will include the QtOpenGL module in the Qt library. (If your
    OpenGL headers or libraries are placed in a non-standard directory,
    you may need to change the \c QMAKE_INCDIR_OPENGL and/or
    \c QMAKE_LIBDIR_OPENGL in the config file for your system).

    When you install Qt for Windows and Mac OS X, the QtOpenGL
    module is always included. X11 users might like to read the notes
    on overlays below.

    The QGL documentation assumes that you are familiar with OpenGL
    programming. If you're new to the subject a good starting point is
    \l{http://www.opengl.org/}.

    \section1 How to Use X11 Overlays with Qt

    X11 overlays are a powerful mechanism for drawing
    annotations etc., on top of an image without destroying it, thus saving
    a great deal of image rendering time. For more information, see the highly
    recommended book \e{OpenGL Programming for the X Window System} (Mark
    Kilgard, Addison Wesley Developers Press 1996).

    \warning The Qt OpenGL Extension includes direct support for the
    use of OpenGL overlays. For many uses of overlays, this makes the
    technique described below redundant. The following is a discussion
    on how to use non-QGL widgets in overlay planes.

    In the typical case, X11 overlays can easily be used together with the
    current version of Qt and the Qt OpenGL Extension. The following
    requirements apply:

    \list 1
    \i Your X server and graphics card/hardware must support overlays.
       For many X servers, overlay support can be turned on with
       a configuration option; consult your X server installation
       documentation.

    \i Your X server must (be configured to) use an overlay visual as the
       default visual. Most modern X servers do this, since this has the
       added advantage that pop-up menus, overlapping windows etc., will
       \e not affect underlying images in the main plane, thereby
       avoiding expensive redraws.

    \i The best (deepest) visual for OpenGL rendering is in the main
       plane. This is the normal case. Typically, X servers that support
       overlays provide a 24-bit \c TrueColor visual in the main plane,
       and an 8-bit \c PseudoColor (default) visual in the overlay plane.
    \endlist

    Assuming that the requirements mentioned above are met, a
    QGLWidget will default to using the main plane visual, while all
    other widgets will use the overlay visual. Thus, we can place a
    normal widget on top of the QGLWidget, and do drawing on it,
    without affecting the image in the OpenGL window. In other words,
    we can use all the drawing capabilities of QPainter to draw
    annotations, rubberbands, etc. For the typical use of overlays,
    this is much easier than using OpenGL for rendering annotations.

    An overlay plane has a specific color called the transparent
    color. Pixels drawn in this color will not be visible; instead
    the underlying OpenGL image will show through.

    To use this technique, you must not use the
    QApplication::ManyColor or QApplication::TrueColor color
    specification for QApplication, because this will force the
    normal Qt widgets to use a \c TrueColor visual, which will
    typically be in the main plane, not in the overlay plane as
    desired.
*/