Hi All, I have a question about the coordinate system in OpenGL. I want to be able to control the screen coordinates so that they behave like so: -1,1================1,1 -1,-1===============1,-1 I.e when I translate a quad to say 0.0, 0.0 it should draw in the center of the screen. At present I am trying to make a game that draws in 2d using Opengl/SDL. I have been basing a lot of my code from the OpenGL examples in NeHe's tutorials. I have also been reading the red book (totally excellent) but I am still having trouble understanding how to define the screen coordinate system (is that even the correct term to use for what I want?). Anyway, at present to get my quads to draw in the top corner I have to translate them to something like (-3,2) which is totally not what I want. The following function is what I use to initialize my opengl settings in my Graphics class: void Graphics::InitGL(int widthScreen, int heightScreen) { glViewport(0, 0, widthScreen, heightScreen); glClearColor(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); // This Will Clear The Background Color To Black glClearDepth(1.0); // Enables Clearing Of The Depth Buffer glDepthFunc(GL_LESS); // The Type Of Depth Test To Do glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); // Enables Depth Testing glShadeModel(GL_SMOOTH); // Enables Smooth Color Shading glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); // Reset The Projection Matrix // Calculate The Aspect Ratio Of The Window gluPerspective(45.0f,(GLfloat)widthScreen/(GLfloat)heightScreen,0.1f,100.0f); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); } This is a function I use to draw a circle: void Graphics::DrawCircle(float x, float y, float radius) { float DEG2RAD = 3.14159/180; glPushAttrib(GL_ALL_ATTRIB_BITS); glLoadIdentity(); glPushMatrix(); glTranslatef(x, y,-6.0f); glBegin(GL_TRIANGLE_FAN); glColor3f(0.0f,1.0f,0.0f); // Set The Color To Green for (int i=0; i < 360; i++) { float degInRad = i*DEG2RAD; glVertex2f(cos(degInRad)*radius,sin(degInRad)*radius); } glEnd(); glPopMatrix(); glPopAttrib(); } Any comments or critique about the way I am going about this would be most appreciated. Also, any links to any tutorials or references to parts of the red book that explain this would be most welcome (I am rereading chapter 3 at present). Thanks in advance for all the help.

It sounds like you want an orthographic projection.

Take a look at glOrtho(). To get the effect you describe in your post, you would use it as follows:

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);glLoadIdentity();glOrtho(-1, 1, -1, 1, -1, 1);

Quote:Original post by jyk
It sounds like you want an orthographic projection.

Take a look at glOrtho(). To get the effect you describe in your post, you would use it as follows:

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);glLoadIdentity();glOrtho(-1, 1, -1, 1, -1, 1);

Thanks Jyk, I saw that in an allegro/OpenGL tutorial. When I change my Opengl init code to do that projection I still get weird results. Like translatf(0.5,0.5,1); makes my circle disappear from the screen completely (I set my screen res to 640x480 with sdl and disabled depth check). I will play around with it some more maybe I am just doing something stupid. Thanks for the help.

Quote:Original post by jyk
It sounds like you want an orthographic projection.

Take a look at glOrtho(). To get the effect you describe in your post, you would use it as follows:

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);glLoadIdentity();glOrtho(-1, 1, -1, 1, -1, 1);

Gah, I left in this line:

//gluPerspective(45.0f,(GLfloat)widthScreen/(GLfloat)heightScreen,0.1f,100.0f);

That was what screwed the whole thing up! Ah well, it made me read chapter 3 of the redbook again and I learned more about different projections. Thanks for the help.