# OpenGL LH vs. RH Coordinates

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I am considering taking the plunge and learning DirectX. My prior experience is in OpenGL with a lot of training in mathematics and engineering, so I am quite familiar with and used to right handed coordinate systems. I find LHCSs to be "unnatural". My question is this... In DX (or LHCS in general) what, specifically, is affected by the selected handedness? I get the impression that it is only the View matrix and polygon winding order that is LH (I am still not sure about the Model matrices). Is anything else affected? For example, do normals still face outward? Do mathematical operations, such as vector cross product and quaternion operations, yield the same results? When I rotate an object (in Model matrix space) about Z, do I rotate about the RH or LH Z axis? Thanks!!

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 I am considering taking the plunge and learning DirectX. My prior experience is in OpenGL with a lot of training in mathematics and engineering, so I am quite familiar with and used to right handed coordinate systems. I find LHCSs to be "unnatural".My question is this... In DX (or LHCS in general) what, specifically, is affected by the selected handedness? I get the impression that it is only the View matrix and polygon winding order that is LH (I am still not sure about the Model matrices). Is anything else affected? For example, do normals still face outward? Do mathematical operations, such as vector cross product and quaternion operations, yield the same results? When I rotate an object (in Model matrix space) about Z, do I rotate about the RH or LH Z axis?
I don't use D3D, but I will try to answer some of your questions based on what I know of it. Please don't take anything I say as the final word, though, as my knowledge of D3D is all second-hand.

If you're trained in math and engineering, you probably already know most of what I'm going to say. (Others might find it useful, though, as this material is confusing...)

First of all, although LH is strongly associated with +z into the screen, and RH with -z into the screen, handedness and which axis goes into the screen are really unrelated issues. I mention this because a lot of people think that LH means '+z into the screen', which isn't really accurate.

D3D and OpenGL 'lookat' matrices are set up differently, but again this is due to the +z/-z issue, not coordinate system handedness. What it comes down to in practice is that the first step in building a D3D lookat matrix is to find the forward vector as target - pos, but in OpenGL it's pos - target.

The cross product is defined the same way mathematically, but has a different geometric result depending on handedness. You can use a variation of the 'hand' trick to visualize this. Stick out your thumb on either hand and wrap the rest of your fingers around. If the thumb is the cross product, C = AxB, your other fingers wrap from A to B. You can see from this that cross products computed from the same vectors in a LH and RH system will point in opposite directions.

Another issue is rotations. You can use the same rotation matrix in either API, but the direction of positive rotation will be opposite. You can use the same hand trick as before, except in this case the thumb represents the axis of rotation, and the fingers indicate the direction of positive rotation.

I can't say much about how models are affected, but from my experience, changing handedness will change polygon winding order.

There are other differences in convention between D3D and OpenGL that people often find confusing. From an implementation standpoint, D3D matrices are row-major while OpenGL is column-major. Also, D3D uses row vectors (transformations are applied from left to right) while OpenGL uses column vectors (transformations are applied from right to left). I believe that in D3D quaternion multiplication is reversed so that, contrary to mathematical convention, they are applied from left to right rather than right to left. This is to match the row-vector convention used with D3D matrices.

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Just thought I'd point out that as far as I'm aware, just because you're using D3D doesn't mean you have to use a left handed coordinate system. Clip space is the same in D3D and OpenGL. The handedness of the coordinate system largely depends on what you choose to call "further into the screen". Because of the perspective transformation the Z axis in clip space doesn't really relate to the Z axis in object space, it's either +1/Z or -1/Z (with some other factors). Usually the choice is to call more positive depth values further away, and so the handedness of the coordinate system is decided by whether the transformation and projection matrices flip the coordinate system or not, and your chosen convention of depth values.

So in the end, you can arrange object space to have the handedness of your choice. And also being a scientist, I think RHS should be standard for the sake of consistency with everything else (except MS that is). Of course being picky the usual mathematical convention is like the Quake coordinate system where X is to the right, Y is into the screen/page, and Z is up.

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Video:

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Take a look at my code:
Sprite Class
(You mostly need to see the Constructor, the Render Method and the Move Method)
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Window Class:
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Brain Class
#include "Brain.h" #include "Sprite.h" #include "Window.h" struct Brain::Implementation { //Just A Flag. bool started; //Window Pointer. Window *window; //Sprite Pointer. Sprite *sprite; }; Brain::Brain(Window *window, Sprite *sprite) { //Create Pointer To Implementation. m_Impl = new Implementation(); //Initialize Implementation. m_Impl->started = true; m_Impl->window = window; m_Impl->sprite = sprite; } Brain::~Brain() { //Delete Pointer To Implementation. delete m_Impl; } void Brain::Start() { } void Brain::Update() { } Window * Brain::GetWindow() { return m_Impl->window; } Sprite * Brain::GetSprite() { return m_Impl->sprite; } bool Brain::GetStart() { return m_Impl->started; } void Brain::SetStart(bool value) { m_Impl->started = value; } Script Class (Its a Brain Subclass!!!)
#include "Script.h" Script::Script(Window *window, Sprite *sprite) : Brain(window, sprite) { } Script::~Script() { } void Script::Start() { std::cout << "Game Started!" << std::endl; } void Script::Update() { Input *input = this->GetWindow()->GetInput(); Sprite *sp = this->GetSprite(); //Move this sprite. this->GetSprite()->Move(200 * this->GetWindow()->GetDeltaTime(), input->GetKeyDown("left"), input->GetKeyDown("right"), input->GetKeyDown("up"), input->GetKeyDown("down")); std::cout << sp->GetTag().c_str() << ".x = " << sp->GetPos()->x << ", " << sp->GetTag().c_str() << ".y = " << sp->GetPos()->y << std::endl; }
Main:
#include "SpaceShooterEngine.h" #include "Script.h" int main() { Window w("title", 600,600); Scene *scene = new Scene(); Sprite *player = new Sprite("Resources/Images/player.png", "Player", 100,100); Sprite *other = new Sprite("Resources/Images/cherno.png", "Other", 400, 100); Sprite *other2 = new Sprite("Resources/Images/cherno.png", "Other", 300, 400); Brain *brain = new Script(&w, player); player->AddBrain(brain); scene->AddSprite(player); scene->AddSprite(other); scene->AddSprite(other2); w.LoadScene(scene); w.MainLoop(); return 0; }

I literally can't find what is wrong. If you need more code, ask me to post it. I will also attach all the source files.
Brain.cpp
Error.cpp
IndexBuffer.cpp
Input.cpp
Renderer.cpp
Scene.cpp
Sprite.cpp
Texture.cpp
VertexArray.cpp
VertexBuffer.cpp
VertexBufferLayout.cpp
Window.cpp
Brain.h
Error.h
IndexBuffer.h
Input.h
Renderer.h
Scene.h
SpaceShooterEngine.h
Sprite.h
Texture.h
VertexArray.h
VertexBuffer.h
VertexBufferLayout.h
Window.h

• Hello fellow programmers,
For a couple of days now i've decided to build my own planet renderer just to see how floating point precision issues
can be tackled. As you probably imagine, i've quickly faced FPP issues when trying to render absurdly large planets.

I have used the classical quadtree LOD approach;
I've generated my grids with 33 vertices, (x: -1 to 1, y: -1 to 1, z = 0).
Each grid is managed by a TerrainNode class that, depending on the side it represents (top, bottom, left right, front, back),
creates a special rotation-translation matrix that moves and rotates the grid away from the origin so that when i finally
normalize all the vertices on my vertex shader i can get a perfect sphere.
T = glm::translate(glm::dmat4(1.0), glm::dvec3(0.0, 0.0, 1.0)); R = glm::rotate(glm::dmat4(1.0), glm::radians(180.0), glm::dvec3(1.0, 0.0, 0.0)); sides[0] = new TerrainNode(1.0, radius, T * R, glm::dvec2(0.0, 0.0), new TerrainTile(1.0, SIDE_FRONT)); T = glm::translate(glm::dmat4(1.0), glm::dvec3(0.0, 0.0, -1.0)); R = glm::rotate(glm::dmat4(1.0), glm::radians(0.0), glm::dvec3(1.0, 0.0, 0.0)); sides[1] = new TerrainNode(1.0, radius, R * T, glm::dvec2(0.0, 0.0), new TerrainTile(1.0, SIDE_BACK)); // So on and so forth for the rest of the sides As you can see, for the front side grid, i rotate it 180 degrees to make it face the camera and push it towards the eye;
the back side is handled almost the same way only that i don't need to rotate it but simply push it away from the eye.
The same technique is applied for the rest of the faces (obviously, with the proper rotations / translations).
The matrix that result from the multiplication of R and T (in that particular order) is send to my vertex shader as r_Grid'.
// spherify vec3 V = normalize((r_Grid * vec4(r_Vertex, 1.0)).xyz); gl_Position = r_ModelViewProjection * vec4(V, 1.0); The r_ModelViewProjection' matrix is generated on the CPU in this manner.
// No the most efficient way, but it works. glm::dmat4 Camera::getMatrix() { // Create the view matrix // Roll, Yaw and Pitch are all quaternions. glm::dmat4 View = glm::toMat4(Roll) * glm::toMat4(Pitch) * glm::toMat4(Yaw); // The model matrix is generated by translating in the oposite direction of the camera. glm::dmat4 Model = glm::translate(glm::dmat4(1.0), -Position); // Projection = glm::perspective(fovY, aspect, zNear, zFar); // zNear = 0.1, zFar = 1.0995116e12 return Projection * View * Model; } I managed to get rid of z-fighting by using a technique called Logarithmic Depth Buffer described in this article; it works amazingly well, no z-fighting at all, at least not visible.
Each frame i'm rendering each node by sending the generated matrices this way.
// set the r_ModelViewProjection uniform // Sneak in the mRadiusMatrix which is a matrix that contains the radius of my planet. Shader::setUniform(0, Camera::getInstance()->getMatrix() * mRadiusMatrix); // set the r_Grid matrix uniform i created earlier. Shader::setUniform(1, r_Grid); grid->render(); My planet's radius is around 6400000.0 units, absurdly large, but that's what i really want to achieve;
Everything works well, the node's split and merge as you'd expect, however whenever i get close to the surface
of the planet the rounding errors start to kick in giving me that lovely stairs effect.
I've read that if i could render each grid relative to the camera i could get better precision on the surface, effectively
getting rid of those rounding errors.

My question is how can i achieve this relative to camera rendering in my scenario here?
I know that i have to do most of the work on the CPU with double, and that's exactly what i'm doing.
I only use double on the CPU side where i also do most of the matrix multiplications.
As you can see from my vertex shader i only do the usual r_ModelViewProjection * (some vertex coords).