Totally OT OpenGL question

#1

Since there’s a load of OpenGL chatter going on lately, I figure I’ll throw this in here, on the off chance that someone can save me a couple of days of heavy googling.

If I have a series of 2D contours that when stacked together could make up a 3D shell, what is involved in turning those contours into something that OpenGL could render? What terms should I be using when searching?

3D graphics is way out of my area, which I why I’m pretty clueless about where to start, but I need to start learning it.

#2

Try sampling the contour (to 3D points) and then make triangle out of that (if you sample in the same order for each curve).

If you can’t sample in similar order, try a Delaunay triangulation out of the contour’s points. It’ll create the “best” possible triangles for the 3D object.

#3

OK, thanks. That gives me something to get started with. The delaunay triangulation looks like what I’ll need to do.

Time to get reading. :slight_smile:

#4