testglobe
testglobe is a cross-platform demo program to display a 3d globe on different APIs and hardware. Only OpenGL/GLUT is currently implemented. Provisions are there for color mapping but are incomplete - the texture is stored in an 8-bit (to 24-bit) colormap.
This was originally conceived as a test for lower spec systems (late 80s and early 90s 3D hardware) and was initially implemented on more modern high spec systems for convenience, but it may envolve into a general 3D demo for medium-high spec.
A feature is the ability to compare detail from the number of quads or triangles used on screen vs. detail from hardware texture mapping. Out of the box, the default mode is texture mapping off, highest resolution sphere, which is likely not going to be the most performant on older systems. Note that it still appears texture mapped, however it is all flat shaded single color quads mapped to the texture of earth by the program itself, rather than texture mapping per se through the graphical API and hardware. Adjust as needed per the Interface section below.
Running on macOS (OS X)
Interface
- keys 1-5 adjust number of faces of globe
- mouse spins globe
- a key toggles auto-rotate / benchmark mode
- o key toggles on-screen display
- t key toggles texture mapping
- esc key exits immediately
Planned drivers
- Apple (classic) Macintosh QuickDraw
- IBM PGC and derivatives
- IRIS GL
- OpenGL
- PHIGS
- Sun XGL
- WebGL
- IBM Adapter Interface? VBE/AF? Amiga? others?
Binary builds
The following binaries are available in the corresponding releases:
- OpenGL / IRIX / MIPSIV: v0.1
- OpenGL / Linux / ARM64: v0.1
- OpenGL / macOS / AMD64/ARM64: v0.1
- OpenGL / Solaris / SPARCv8: v0.1
Build notes
cosf and sinf
If you don’t have cosf and sinf (some old Unixes) define NO_SINF as in the Makefile example.
Classic Mac (QuickDraw)
The files provided here are in Unix format and can’t be used directly on Classic Mac without conversion. The utility “dos2unix” can do this conversion, e.g. with its alias “unix2mac”.
Symantec Think C++ was used for testing but a cross-compiler like Retro68 (https://github.com/autc04/Retro68) should work.
DOS
Borland C++ 3.0 used, and the utility “unix2dos” for converting the CR/LF from Unix to DOS/Windows.
OpenGL
OpenGL is currently written to support a 24-bit (true color) desktop. It would not be hard to adjust this but it seems unlikely that there is much 8-bit 3D hardware with OpenGL.
GLUT is required. If your system did not include GLUT out of the box you may have to hunt around for it:
- Linux:
sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev - Solaris:
- https://web.archive.org/web/20010726192034/http://reality.sgi.com/opengl/glut3/glut-3.7b.sparc_solaris_64.tar.gz
- https://web.archive.org/web/20010726175006/http://reality.sgi.com/opengl/glut3/glut-3.7b.sparc_solaris.tar.gz
If you don’t have glGenerateMipmap define NO_GENMIPMAP as in the Makefile example.
Xcode
No .xcodeproj is provided at this time (as of v0.1), however testglobe was built for macOS with Xcode. This will be provided at some point in the future.
Known issues
- Linux or Mesa OpenGL seems to have an issue with drawing text when texturing is enabled (should be fixed in v0.2).
Version history
v?.?
- Elevation
- Sunlight, real time
- Clouds, real time if feasible
- Shadows
- City lights
- One-button benchmark
- Add WebGL driver
- Add Classic Mac/QuickDraw driver
- Add XGL driver
- Add IBM PGC and derivatives driver (start with Matrox)
v0.2 (in development)
- Compile for Amiga 68k OpenGL
- Add FPS counter (complete)
- Add auto-rotation feature (complete)
- Change all comments to C style (complete)
- [bugfix] Disable texture mapping during drawing of bitmap text in OpenGL for Mesa quirk (complete)
v0.1
First release, OpenGL/GLUT only. Provide binaries for several platforms.