ABSTRACT
Chapter 13 describes how to use OpenGL to deliver realistic 3D graphics on any PC computer hardware. Even for scenes with several hundred thousand polygons, the specially designed GPU on the display adapter is able to render high-resolution images at more than 50 frames per second, i.e., in real time. OpenGL provides an API which hides from the application program any detail of whether the 3D pictures appear as a result of a traditional software renderer or a hard-wired version of the rendering pipeline. Despite the undoubted quality of the 3D that OpenGL, delivers it has limitations; it utilizes Gouraud shading, for example, instead of Phong shading.
