OpenGL Programming Guide

Chapter 6Lighting

Creating Light Sources

Color

OpenGL allows you to associate three different color-related parameters - GL_AMBIENT, GL_DIFFUSE, and GL_SPECULAR - with any particular light. The GL_AMBIENT parameter refers to the RGBA intensity of the ambient light that a particular light source adds to the scene. As you can see in Table 6-1 , by default there is no ambient light since GL_AMBIENT is (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0). This value was used in Example 6-1 . If this program had specified blue ambient light

GLfloat light_ambient[] = { 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0};
glLightfv(GL_LIGHT0, GL_AMBIENT, light_ambient);

the result would have been as shown in the left part of Figure J-14 .

The GL_DIFFUSE parameter probably most closely correlates with what you naturally think of as "the color of a light." It defines the RGBA color of the diffuse light that a particular light source adds to a scene. By default, GL_DIFFUSE is (1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) for GL_LIGHT0, which produces a bright, white light as shown in Figure J-14 . The default value for any other light (GL_LIGHT1, ... , GL_LIGHT7) is (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0).

The GL_SPECULAR parameter affects the color of the specular highlight on an object. Typically, a real-world object such as a glass bottle has a specular highlight that's the color of the light shining on it (which is often white). Therefore, if you want to create a realistic effect, set the GL_SPECULAR parameter to the same value as the GL_DIFFUSE parameter. By default, GL_SPECULAR is (1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) for GL_LIGHT0 and (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0) for any other light.

OpenGL Programming Guide