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# The screenCoordSystem example

A saucers control viewer that illustrates the screen coordinate system feature.

Use `startScreenCoordinatesSystem()` and `stopScreenCoordinatesSystem()` to set this mode. Once this mode has been activated in `draw()`, the X,Y coordinates correspond to the pixel units (origin in the lower left corner). Combined with the `camera()->projectedCoordinatesOf()`, this feature enable the mix of 2D and 3D drawing.

In this example, the arrows that designate the saucers seem to be attached to the object. Of course, such 2D drawing could have been computed in 3D, but this implies complex geometric computations to make the arrow always face the camera and this method is much simpler.

## screenCoordSystem.h

    #include <QGLViewer/qglviewer.h>
    #include <qcolor.h>

    class Viewer : public QGLViewer
    {
    protected :
      virtual void init();
      virtual void draw();
      virtual QString helpString() const;

    private :
      void drawSaucer() const;

    #if WIN32 && QT_VERSION < 0x030000
    # define nbSaucers 10
    #else
      static const int nbSaucers = 10;
    #endif
      qglviewer::Frame saucerPos[nbSaucers];
      QColor saucerColor[nbSaucers];
    };

## screenCoordSystem.cpp

    #include "screenCoordSystem.h"
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdlib.h> // RAND_MAX

    using namespace qglviewer;
    using namespace std;

    void Viewer::init()
    {
      for (int i=0; i<nbSaucers; i++)
        {
          Vec pos;
          pos.x = rand() / static_cast<float>(RAND_MAX) - 0.5;
          pos.y = rand() / static_cast<float>(RAND_MAX) - 0.5;
          pos.z = rand() / static_cast<float>(RAND_MAX) - 0.5;

          Quaternion ori(Vec(static_cast<float>(rand()) / RAND_MAX,
    			  static_cast<float>(rand()) / RAND_MAX,
    			  static_cast<float>(rand()) / RAND_MAX),
    		      rand() / static_cast<float>(RAND_MAX) * M_PI);

          saucerPos[i].setPosition(pos);
          saucerPos[i].setOrientation(ori);

          saucerColor[i].setRgb(int(255.0 * rand() / static_cast<float>(RAND_MAX)),
    			    int(255.0 * rand() / static_cast<float>(RAND_MAX)),
    			    int(255.0 * rand() / static_cast<float>(RAND_MAX)));
        }

      restoreStateFromFile();
      help();
    }

    QString Viewer::helpString() const
    {
      QString text("<h2>S c r e e n C o o r d S y s t e m</h2>");
      text += "This example illustrates the <i>startScreenCoordinatesSystem()</i> function ";
      text += "which enables a GL drawing directly into the screen coordinate system.<br><br>";
      text += "The arrows are drawned using this method. The screen projection coordinates ";
      text += "of the objects is determined using <code>camera()->projectedCoordinatesOf()</code>, ";
      text += "thus <i>attaching</i> the 2D arrows to 3D objects.";
      return text;
    }

    void Viewer::drawSaucer() const
    {
      static GLUquadric* quadric = gluNewQuadric();

      glTranslatef(0.0, 0.0, -0.014f);
      gluCylinder(quadric, 0.015, 0.03, 0.004, 32, 1);
      glTranslatef(0.0, 0.0, 0.004f);
      gluCylinder(quadric, 0.03, 0.04, 0.01, 32, 1);
      glTranslatef(0.0, 0.0, 0.01f);
      gluCylinder(quadric, 0.05, 0.03, 0.02, 32, 1);
      glTranslatef(0.0, 0.0, 0.02f);
      gluCylinder(quadric, 0.03, 0.0, 0.003, 32, 1);
      glTranslatef(0.0, 0.0, -0.02f);
    }

    void Viewer::draw()
    {
      static Vec proj[nbSaucers];

      int i;
      // Draw 3D flying saucers
      for (i=0; i<nbSaucers; i++)
        {
          glPushMatrix();
          glMultMatrixd(saucerPos[i].matrix());
          qglColor(saucerColor[i]);
          drawSaucer();
          glPopMatrix();
        }

      // Draw the arrows
      qglColor(foregroundColor());
      startScreenCoordinatesSystem();
      for (i=0; i<nbSaucers; i++)
        {
          glBegin(GL_POLYGON);
          proj[i] = camera()->projectedCoordinatesOf(saucerPos[i].position());
          // The small z offset makes the arrow slightly above the saucer, so that it is always visible
          glVertex3fv(proj[i] + Vec(-55, 0, -0.001f));
          glVertex3fv(proj[i] + Vec(-17,-5, -0.001f));
          glVertex3fv(proj[i] + Vec( -5, 0, -0.001f));
          glVertex3fv(proj[i] + Vec(-17, 5, -0.001f));
          glEnd();
        }
      stopScreenCoordinatesSystem();

      // Draw text id
      glDisable(GL_LIGHTING);
      for (i=0; i<nbSaucers; i++)
        drawText(int(proj[i].x)-62, int(proj[i].y)+4, QString::number(i));
      glEnable(GL_LIGHTING);
    }

## main.cpp

    #include "screenCoordSystem.h"
    #include <qapplication.h>

    int main(int argc, char** argv)
    {
      QApplication application(argc,argv);

      Viewer viewer;

    #if QT_VERSION < 0x040000
      application.setMainWidget(&viewer);
    #else
      viewer.setWindowTitle("screenCoordSystem");
    #endif

      viewer.show();

      return application.exec();
    }

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Last modified on Thursday, December 19, 2013.