About QuickDraw 3D

QuickDraw 3D is a graphics library developed by Apple Computer that you can use to create, configure, and render three-dimensional objects. It is specifically designed to be useful to a wide range of software developers, from those with very little knowledge of 3D modeling concepts and rendering techniques to those with very extensive experience with those concepts and techniques.

At the most basic level, you can use the file format and file-access routines provided by QuickDraw 3D to read and display 3D graphics created by another application. For example, a word-processing application might want to import a picture created by a 3D modeling or image-capturing application. QuickDraw 3D supports the 3D Viewer, which you can use to display 3D data and objects in a window and allow users limited interaction with that data, without having to learn any of the core QuickDraw 3D application programming interfaces.

See the chapter "3D Viewer" for complete information about the 3D viewer, as well as complete source code samples illustrating how to create and manage a viewer object.

You can also use QuickDraw 3D for more sophisticated applications, such as interactive 3D modeling and rendering, animation, data visualization, or any of thousands of other ways of interpreting and displaying data in three (or more) dimensions. Figure 1 illustrates the kinds of images you can produce using QuickDraw 3D. It shows a texture, a wireframe model, and the result of applying the texture to that model.

Figure 1 A simple three-dimensional picture

Modeling and Rendering

Interacting

Extending QuickDraw 3D

Naming Conventions

Retained and Immediate Modes

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© 1997 Apple Computer, Inc.

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