Opengl: How do I texture a model made with a vertex array?

Question

I'm trying to get away from immediate mode because I keep getting told that it really isn't the best way to program in Opengl. I found a tutorial that will make a cube and colour it, but it doesn't cover texturing.

This is the code I have:

GLfloat vertices[] = { 1, 1, 1,  -1, 1, 1,  -1,-1, 1,   1,-1, 1,   // v0,v1,v2,v3 (front)
                        1, 1, 1,   1,-1, 1,   1,-1,-1,   1, 1,-1,   // v0,v3,v4,v5 (right)
                        1, 1, 1,   1, 1,-1,  -1, 1,-1,  -1, 1, 1,   // v0,v5,v6,v1 (top)
                       -1, 1, 1,  -1, 1,-1,  -1,-1,-1,  -1,-1, 1,   // v1,v6,v7,v2 (left)
                       -1,-1,-1,   1,-1,-1,   1,-1, 1,  -1,-1, 1,   // v7,v4,v3,v2 (bottom)
                        1,-1,-1,  -1,-1,-1,  -1, 1,-1,   1, 1,-1 }; // v4,v7,v6,v5 (back)

// normal array
GLfloat normals[]  = { 0, 0, 1,   0, 0, 1,   0, 0, 1,   0, 0, 1,   // v0,v1,v2,v3 (front)
                        1, 0, 0,   1, 0, 0,   1, 0, 0,   1, 0, 0,   // v0,v3,v4,v5 (right)
                        0, 1, 0,   0, 1, 0,   0, 1, 0,   0, 1, 0,   // v0,v5,v6,v1 (top)
                       -1, 0, 0,  -1, 0, 0,  -1, 0, 0,  -1, 0, 0,   // v1,v6,v7,v2 (left)
                        0,-1, 0,   0,-1, 0,   0,-1, 0,   0,-1, 0,   // v7,v4,v3,v2 (bottom)
                        0, 0,-1,   0, 0,-1,   0, 0,-1,   0, 0,-1 }; // v4,v7,v6,v5 (back)

// color array
GLfloat colors[]   = { 1, 1, 1,   1, 1, 0,   1, 0, 0,   1, 0, 1,   // v0,v1,v2,v3 (front)
                        1, 1, 1,   1, 0, 1,   0, 0, 1,   0, 1, 1,   // v0,v3,v4,v5 (right)
                        1, 1, 1,   0, 1, 1,   0, 1, 0,   1, 1, 0,   // v0,v5,v6,v1 (top)
                        1, 1, 0,   0, 1, 0,   0, 0, 0,   1, 0, 0,   // v1,v6,v7,v2 (left)
                        0, 0, 0,   0, 0, 1,   1, 0, 1,   1, 0, 0,   // v7,v4,v3,v2 (bottom)
                        0, 0, 1,   0, 0, 0,   0, 1, 0,   0, 1, 1 }; // v4,v7,v6,v5 (back)

// index array of vertex array for glDrawElements() & glDrawRangeElement()
GLubyte indices[]  = { 0, 1, 2,   2, 3, 0,      // front
                       4, 5, 6,   6, 7, 4,      // right
                       8, 9,10,  10,11, 8,      // top
                      12,13,14,  14,15,12,      // left
                      16,17,18,  18,19,16,      // bottom
                      20,21,22,  22,23,20 };    // back

// Initialization routine.
void setup(void)
{
   glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
   glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); // Enable depth testing.


}

// Drawing routine.
void drawScene()
{
   glClear (GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);

   glLoadIdentity();

    // enable and specify pointers to vertex arrays
    glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
    glEnableClientState(GL_COLOR_ARRAY);
    glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
    glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, 0, normals);
    glColorPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, colors);
    glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, vertices);

    glPushMatrix();
    glTranslatef(0, 0, -5);

    glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, 36, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, indices);

    glPopMatrix();

    glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);  // disable vertex arrays
    glDisableClientState(GL_COLOR_ARRAY);
    glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);

   glutSwapBuffers();
}

// OpenGL window reshape routine.
void resize (int w, int h)
{
   glViewport (0, 0, (GLsizei)w, (GLsizei)h);
   glMatrixMode (GL_PROJECTION);
   glLoadIdentity();
   gluPerspective(60.0, (float)w/(float)h, 1.0, 20.0);
   glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
}

// Keyboard input processing routine.
void keyInput(unsigned char key, int x, int y)
{
   switch (key) 
   {
      case 27:
         exit(0);
         break;
      default:
         break;
   }
}

// Callback routine for non-ASCII key entry.
void specialKeyInput(int key, int x, int y)
{
   //if(key == GLUT_KEY_UP) if (step < 180) step++;;
   //if(key == GLUT_KEY_DOWN) if (step > 0) step--;;
   glutPostRedisplay();
}

// Routine to output interaction instructions to the C++ window.
void printInteraction(void)
{
   cout << "Interaction:" << endl;
}

// Main routine.
int main(int argc, char **argv) 
{
   printInteraction();
   glutInit(&argc, argv);
   glutInitDisplayMode (GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGB | GLUT_DEPTH); 
   glutInitWindowSize (500, 500);
   glutInitWindowPosition (100, 100);
   glutCreateWindow ("sphereInBox2.cpp");
   setup();
   glutDisplayFunc(drawScene);
   glutReshapeFunc(resize);
   glutKeyboardFunc(keyInput);
   glutSpecialFunc(specialKeyInput);
   glutMainLoop();

   return 0;
}

This code will make a cube so I would like to know how to texture each side individually and how to texture the entire model with 1 texture. What would you recommend?

Answer 1

First you must provide texture coordinates which can be defined as an array - exactly like you already have with vertices, normals and colors.

GLfloat texcoords[] = {
    0.0f, 0.0f,
    1.0f, 0.0f,
    1.0f, 1.0f,
    0.0f, 1.0f,
};

For each vertex of a face of a cube you must provide UV coordinates that correspond to some placement on the texture. You must provide coordinates for all 6 sides and most of the time they are going to be in different order.

You will then have to load the texture using some other library like SOIL. It will return to you a pointer to the pixels which you can later pass to OpenGL.

Here is how it looks like with OpenGL. First we generate a new texture, set some parameters and fill it with pixels we loaded using external library.

glGenTextures(1, &testTexture);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, testTexture);

glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);

glTexImage2D(
    GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGB, size, size, 0, GL_RGB, GL_FLOAT, &texData[0]
);

To finally render with this texture you must bind it as an active texture:

glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE0);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, testTexture);

You're almost done! But this part is perhaps the most complicated one. You will have to load your shaders, create a program, compile it with shaders, and start using the program. Once that's done you will simply pass your texture as a uniform sampler to the program.