CHAPTER 1: Computer Graphics: From Then to Now (^3)
Select the OpenGL Game template, and fill in the needed project data. It doesn’t matter
whether it is for the iPhone or iPad.
Now compile and run, making sure you have administrative privileges. If you didn’t break
anything by undue tinkering, you should see something like Figure 1-2.
Figure 1-2. Your first OpenGL ES project. Give yourself a high five.
The code will be examined later. And don’t worry, you’ll build stuff fancier than a couple
of rotating cubes. The main project will be to construct a simple solar-system simulator
based on some of the code used in Distant Suns 3. But for now, it’s time to get to the
boring stuff: where computer graphics came from and where it is likely to go.
A Spotty History of Computer Graphics
To say that 3D is all the rage today is at best an understatement. Although forms of ‘‘3D’’
imagery go back to more than a century ago, it seems that it has finally come of age.
First let’s look at what 3D is and what it is not.