fix note about OpenGL-enabling
[wxWidgets.git] / interface / wx / glcanvas.h
1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: glcanvas.h
3 // Purpose: interface of wxGLContext and wxGLCanvas
4 // Author: wxWidgets team
5 // RCS-ID: $Id$
6 // Licence: wxWindows license
7 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9 /**
10 @class wxGLContext
11
12 An instance of a wxGLContext represents the state of an OpenGL state
13 machine and the connection between OpenGL and the system.
14
15 The OpenGL state includes everything that can be set with the OpenGL API:
16 colors, rendering variables, display lists, texture objects, etc. Although
17 it is possible to have multiple rendering contexts share display lists in
18 order to save resources, this method is hardly used today any more, because
19 display lists are only a tiny fraction of the overall state.
20
21 Therefore, one rendering context is usually used with or bound to multiple
22 output windows in turn, so that the application has access to the complete
23 and identical state while rendering into each window.
24
25 Binding (making current) a rendering context with another instance of a
26 wxGLCanvas however works only if the other wxGLCanvas was created with the
27 same attributes as the wxGLCanvas from which the wxGLContext was
28 initialized. (This applies to sharing display lists among contexts
29 analogously.)
30
31 Note that some wxGLContext features are extremely platform-specific - its
32 best to check your native platform's glcanvas header (on windows
33 include/wx/msw/glcanvas.h) to see what features your native platform
34 provides.
35
36 @library{wxgl}
37 @category{gl}
38
39 @see wxGLCanvas
40 */
41 class wxGLContext : public wxObject
42 {
43 public:
44 /**
45 Constructor.
46
47 @param win
48 The canvas that is used to initialize this context. This parameter
49 is needed only temporarily, and the caller may do anything with it
50 (e.g. destroy the window) after the constructor returned. @n
51 It will be possible to bind (make current) this context to any
52 other wxGLCanvas that has been created with equivalent attributes
53 as win.
54 @param other
55 Context to share display lists with or @NULL (the default) for no
56 sharing.
57 */
58 wxGLContext(wxGLCanvas* win, const wxGLContext* other = NULL);
59
60 /**
61 Makes the OpenGL state that is represented by this rendering context
62 current with the wxGLCanvas @e win.
63
64 @note @a win can be a different wxGLCanvas window than the one that was
65 passed to the constructor of this rendering context. If @e RC is
66 an object of type wxGLContext, the statements
67 @e "RC.SetCurrent(win);" and @e "win.SetCurrent(RC);" are
68 equivalent, see wxGLCanvas::SetCurrent().
69 */
70 virtual bool SetCurrent(const wxGLCanvas& win) const;
71 };
72
73 /**
74 @anchor wxGL_FLAGS
75
76 Constants for use with wxGLCanvas.
77
78 @note Not all implementations support options such as stereo, auxiliary
79 buffers, alpha channel, and accumulator buffer, use
80 wxGLCanvas::IsDisplaySupported() to check for individual attributes
81 support.
82 */
83 enum
84 {
85 /// Use true color palette (on if no attributes at all specified).
86 WX_GL_RGBA = 1,
87
88 /// Specifies the number of bits for buffer if not WX_GL_RGBA.
89 WX_GL_BUFFER_SIZE,
90
91 /// Must be followed by 0 for main buffer, >0 for overlay, <0 for underlay.
92 WX_GL_LEVEL,
93
94 /// Use double buffering if present (on if no attributes specified).
95 WX_GL_DOUBLEBUFFER,
96
97 /// Use stereoscopic display.
98 WX_GL_STEREO,
99
100 /// Specifies number of auxiliary buffers.
101 WX_GL_AUX_BUFFERS,
102
103 /// Use red buffer with most bits (> MIN_RED bits)
104 WX_GL_MIN_RED,
105
106 /// Use green buffer with most bits (> MIN_GREEN bits)
107 WX_GL_MIN_GREEN,
108
109 /// Use blue buffer with most bits (> MIN_BLUE bits)
110 WX_GL_MIN_BLUE,
111
112 /// Use alpha buffer with most bits (> MIN_ALPHA bits)
113 WX_GL_MIN_ALPHA,
114
115 /// Specifies number of bits for Z-buffer (typically 0, 16 or 32).
116 WX_GL_DEPTH_SIZE,
117
118 /// Specifies number of bits for stencil buffer.
119 WX_GL_STENCIL_SIZE,
120
121 /// Specifies minimal number of red accumulator bits.
122 WX_GL_MIN_ACCUM_RED,
123
124 /// Specifies minimal number of green accumulator bits.
125 WX_GL_MIN_ACCUM_GREEN,
126
127 /// Specifies minimal number of blue accumulator bits.
128 WX_GL_MIN_ACCUM_BLUE,
129
130 /// Specifies minimal number of alpha accumulator bits.
131 WX_GL_MIN_ACCUM_ALPHA,
132
133 /// 1 for multisampling support (antialiasing)
134 WX_GL_SAMPLE_BUFFERS,
135
136 /// 4 for 2x2 antialising supersampling on most graphics cards
137 WX_GL_SAMPLES
138
139 };
140
141 /**
142 @class wxGLCanvas
143
144 wxGLCanvas is a class for displaying OpenGL graphics. It is always used in
145 conjunction with wxGLContext as the context can only be made current (i.e.
146 active for the OpenGL commands) when it is associated to a wxGLCanvas.
147
148 More precisely, you first need to create a wxGLCanvas window and then
149 create an instance of a wxGLContext that is initialized with this
150 wxGLCanvas and then later use either SetCurrent() with the instance of the
151 wxGLContext or wxGLContext::SetCurrent() with the instance of the
152 wxGLCanvas (which might be not the same as was used for the creation of the
153 context) to bind the OpenGL state that is represented by the rendering
154 context to the canvas, and then finally call SwapBuffers() to swap the
155 buffers of the OpenGL canvas and thus show your current output.
156
157 Notice that versions of wxWidgets previous to 2.9 used to implicitly create a
158 wxGLContext inside wxGLCanvas itself. This is still supported in the
159 current version but is deprecated now and will be removed in the future,
160 please update your code to create the rendering contexts explicitly.
161
162 To set up the attributes for the canvas (number of bits for the depth
163 buffer, number of bits for the stencil buffer and so on) you should set up
164 the correct values of the @e attribList parameter. The values that should
165 be set up and their meanings will be described below.
166
167 @note
168 On those platforms which use a configure script (e.g. Linux and Mac OS)
169 OpenGL support is automatically enabled if the relative headers and
170 libraries are found.
171 To switch it on under the other platforms (e.g. Windows), you need to edit
172 the @c setup.h file and set @c wxUSE_GLCANVAS to @c 1 and then also pass
173 @c USE_OPENGL=1 to the make utility. You may also need to add @c opengl32.lib
174 and @c glu32.lib to the list of the libraries your program is linked with.
175
176 @library{wxgl}
177 @category{gl}
178
179 @see wxGLContext
180 */
181 class wxGLCanvas : public wxWindow
182 {
183 public:
184 /**
185 Creates a window with the given parameters. Notice that you need to
186 create and use a wxGLContext to output to this window.
187
188 If @a attribList is not specified, double buffered RGBA mode is used.
189
190 @param parent
191 Pointer to a parent window.
192 @param id
193 Window identifier. If -1, will automatically create an identifier.
194 @param pos
195 Window position. wxDefaultPosition is (-1, -1) which indicates that
196 wxWidgets should generate a default position for the window.
197 @param size
198 Window size. wxDefaultSize is (-1, -1) which indicates that
199 wxWidgets should generate a default size for the window. If no
200 suitable size can be found, the window will be sized to 20x20
201 pixels so that the window is visible but obviously not correctly
202 sized.
203 @param style
204 Window style.
205 @param name
206 Window name.
207 @param attribList
208 Array of integers. With this parameter you can set the device
209 context attributes associated to this window. This array is
210 zero-terminated: it should be set up using @ref wxGL_FLAGS
211 constants. If a constant should be followed by a value, put it in
212 the next array position. For example, WX_GL_DEPTH_SIZE should be
213 followed by the value that indicates the number of bits for the
214 depth buffer, e.g:
215 @code
216 attribList[n++] = WX_GL_DEPTH_SIZE;
217 attribList[n++] = 32;
218 attribList[n] = 0; // terminate the list
219 @endcode
220 If the attribute list is not specified at all, i.e. if this
221 parameter is @NULL, the default attributes including WX_GL_RGBA and
222 WX_GL_DOUBLEBUFFER are used. But notice that if you do specify some
223 attributes you also need to explicitly include these two default
224 attributes in the list if you need them.
225 @param palette
226 Palette for indexed colour (i.e. non WX_GL_RGBA) mode. Ignored
227 under most platforms.
228 */
229 wxGLCanvas(wxWindow* parent, wxWindowID id = wxID_ANY,
230 const int* attribList = NULL,
231 const wxPoint& pos = wxDefaultPosition,
232 const wxSize& size = wxDefaultSize,
233 long style = 0,
234 const wxString& name = "GLCanvas",
235 const wxPalette& palette = wxNullPalette);
236
237 /**
238 Determines if a canvas having the specified attributes is available.
239
240 @param attribList
241 See @a attribList for wxGLCanvas().
242
243 @return @true if attributes are supported.
244 */
245 static bool IsDisplaySupported(const int* attribList = NULL);
246
247 /**
248 Sets the current colour for this window (using @c glcolor3f()), using
249 the wxWidgets colour database to find a named colour.
250 */
251 bool SetColour(const wxString& colour);
252
253 /**
254 Makes the OpenGL state that is represented by the OpenGL rendering
255 context @a context current, i.e. it will be used by all subsequent
256 OpenGL calls.
257
258 This is equivalent to wxGLContext::SetCurrent() called with this window
259 as parameter.
260
261 @note This function may only be called when the window is shown on
262 screen, in particular it can't usually be called from the
263 constructor as the window isn't yet shown at this moment.
264
265 @return @false if an error occurred.
266 */
267 bool SetCurrent(const wxGLContext& context) const;
268
269 /**
270 Swaps the double-buffer of this window, making the back-buffer the
271 front-buffer and vice versa, so that the output of the previous OpenGL
272 commands is displayed on the window.
273
274 @return @false if an error occurred.
275 */
276 virtual bool SwapBuffers();
277 };