[CSC 315] A First Time for Everything...

[Andrew J. Pounds]

Okay guys -- I want to alert you of a possible problem you may see as 
you work on your animation code.

As you saw in class today, the animation code of the moving dot worked 
perfectly on the machines in lab 204.  I ported the code to my laptop 
this evening and when I ran it I could initially see the dot at the 
lower left hand corner.  Once I started the animation the dot 
disappeared.  I got back in the code and increased the pointsize to 
something insanely big (like 20).  When I re-ran the program I could see 
the dot in the animation, but it was moving extremely fast around the 
square.  As a matter of fact, it was moving so fast that I couldn't tell 
where the dot was.

Here is the point... Some of you have very powerful graphics cards in 
your systems and, like me, have taken the time to load the graphics 
drivers from the graphics card manufacturer.  While this will give you 
incredible game performance, at this stage of your OpenGL career it 
could cause you some problems in debugging your graphics codes because 
you won't be able to see what is actually happening.

I can't believe I am saying this -- but I'll try to come up with a 
simple method to help slow down your codes to facilitate debugging your 
graphics.

If anyone has suggestions before I get this done, send them to the 
listserve...

-- 
Andrew J. Pounds, Ph.D.  (pounds at theochem.mercer.edu)
Associate Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science
Mercer University,  Macon, GA 31207   (478) 301-5627