The goal of this first assignment is to familiarize yourself with the libraries and installation steps required to write and execute graphics programs using Java, JOGL and OpenGL.
The first program listing in your textbook, code also found here is a simple example of opening a graphics window and painting the background a solid color. It requires using the libraries you will be using for the rest of the semester, so the idea is to just get this program to run. Once you have the setup worked out on whatever machine you are using, you will be able to write and execute programs for the remainder of the course.
If you are using your own machine, I strongly recommend downloading the program found at this website to test whether your graphics card supports version 4.3 of OpenGL. You will need that in order to write code for this class.
Part 0: Download and Install the Necessary Libraries
If you are using your own machine, follow the instructions on pages 3-5 of your textbook to install the necessary libraries. Note that when you define a CLASSPATH variable, the full path name to the specified files themselves, not just the directories they are located in, is needed. If you are using Eclipse, you need to import these as external libraries into your project(s).
If you don't have the textbook yet, you can find a copy of pages 3-5 here. Sorry that they scanned upside down, but you can rotate them in Adobe Reader so you don't have to read upside down. This is why your instructor shouldn't be allowed to scan things herself...
Part 1: Download the first example program onto your machine and compile and execute it. It's that easy. Well, perhaps not. Getting libraries and path names to play nice together can be a headache. But once you've gotten this to work, the rest of the programs will go much more smoothly.
For this assignment, you don't need to turn in the code, but you do need to give me some proof that you've gotten it to run. So, change the window title to whatever you want, run the program, and then submit a screenshot of your running program to the Moodle dropbox.
