OpenGL Programming Guide

Chapter 6Lighting

Selecting a Lighting Model

OpenGL's notion of a lighting model has three components:

• The global ambient light intensity
  
  

• Whether the viewpoint position is local to the scene or whether it should be considered to be an infinite distance away
  
  

• Whether lighting calculations should be performed differently for both the front and back faces of objects

This section explains how to specify a lighting model. It also discusses how to enable lighting - that is, how to tell OpenGL that you want lighting calculations performed.

Global Ambient Light
Local or Infinite Viewpoint
Two-sided Lighting
Enabling Lighting

OpenGL Programming Guide