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Re: Object Graphics [message #39369 is a reply to message #9626]

Wed, 12 May 2004 10:25

Rick Towler
Messages: 821
Registered: August 1998

Senior Member

"Michael Wallace" wrote...

>
> IDL> window = obj_new('IDLgrWindow')
> % OBJ_NEW: Creation of backing store pixmap failed.
> Requesting backing store from the server.
>
> What does this error mean? For what it's worth, this is on Linux,
> specifically Fedora Core 1.
>

As you have discovered, sometimes IDL can't provide backing store and
sometimes X won't do it either. I feel the workaround that Marc posted
isn't acceptable if you have a decent graphics adapter under the hood and as
David said, retaining an OG window is a waste. Object graphics isn't the
easiest tool to work with "interactively". You can do it, but I suggest
using something like XOBJVIEW to handle the view setup, windowing and
drawing if you are just fooling around.

Set RETAIN=0, keep hardware rendering enabled, and make sure you have the
best drivers available for your graphics adapter.

> Secondly, is there something, anything out there which actually explains
> what's going on inside the object graphics system? Or at least does
> better than RSI's documentation? I've worked with graphics systems
> before, but never with something quite like this. It took a good 30
> minutes to figure out how to draw a single diagonal line. Oh, well.

Aside from RSI's literature, the only book I know of is Ronn Kling's "Power
Graphics with IDL". This is a good introductory text.

Object graphics is built on the openGL API. If you *really* want to know
what's going on inside you can read up on openGL. The "Red Book" is the
place to start. An older version, perfectly adequate for these purposes, is
available online:

http://www.gamedev.net/download/redbook.pdf

You shouldn't need to go this far though. One of the ideas behind the
object graphics system is to provide a very powerful 3d rendering engine
that is relatively easy to use so don't get too caught up in the openGL
stuff.

FWIW, my tip to object graphics newb's is to use XOBJVIEW. Like I said
above, XOBJVIEW will handle the view setup which is often the most confusing
part of object graphics. Once you have something showing up in XOBJVIEW
then you can move on to your own custom view as needed.

-Rick

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[Message index]

		Object Graphics By: Reinhold Kroll on Wed, 23 July 1997 00:00
		Re: Object Graphics By: Michael Wallace on Thu, 13 May 2004 08:10
		Re: Object Graphics By: Karl Schultz on Thu, 13 May 2004 07:17
		Re: Object Graphics By: Michael Wallace on Wed, 12 May 2004 14:14
		Re: Object Graphics By: Rick Towler on Wed, 12 May 2004 13:15
		Re: Object Graphics By: David Fanning on Wed, 12 May 2004 12:39
		Re: Object Graphics By: Michael Wallace on Wed, 12 May 2004 11:36
		Re: Object Graphics By: Rick Towler on Wed, 12 May 2004 10:25
		Re: Object Graphics By: marc schellens[1] on Wed, 12 May 2004 00:52
		Re: Object Graphics By: Mark Hadfield on Tue, 11 May 2004 20:33
		Re: Object Graphics By: Michael Wallace on Tue, 11 May 2004 19:42
		Re: Object Graphics By: David Fanning on Tue, 11 May 2004 18:12
		Re: Object Graphics By: Michael Wallace on Tue, 11 May 2004 18:06
		Re: Object Graphics By: Michael Wallace on Tue, 11 May 2004 17:58
		Re: Object Graphics By: David Fanning on Tue, 11 May 2004 16:18

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