webgl adding projection doesnt display object - webgl

Question

I am having a look at web gl, and trying to render a cube, but I am having a problem when I try to add projection into the vertex shader. I have added an attribute, but when I use it to multiple the modelview and position, it stops displaying the cube. Im not sure why and was wondering if anyone could help? Ive tried looking at a few examples but just cant get this to work
vertex shader
attribute vec3 aVertexPosition;
uniform mat4 uMVMatrix;
uniform mat4 uPMatrix;
void main(void) {
gl_Position = uPMatrix * uMVMatrix * vec4(aVertexPosition, 1.0);
//gl_Position = uMVMatrix * vec4(aVertexPosition, 1.0);
}
fragment shader
#ifdef GL_ES
precision highp float; // Not sure why this is required, need to google it
#endif
uniform vec4 uColor;
void main() {
gl_FragColor = uColor;
}
function init() {
// Get a reference to our drawing surface
canvas = document.getElementById("webglSurface");
gl = canvas.getContext("experimental-webgl");
/** Create our simple program **/
// Get our shaders
var v = document.getElementById("vertexShader").firstChild.nodeValue;
var f = document.getElementById("fragmentShader").firstChild.nodeValue;
// Compile vertex shader
var vs = gl.createShader(gl.VERTEX_SHADER);
gl.shaderSource(vs, v);
gl.compileShader(vs);
// Compile fragment shader
var fs = gl.createShader(gl.FRAGMENT_SHADER);
gl.shaderSource(fs, f);
gl.compileShader(fs);
// Create program and attach shaders
program = gl.createProgram();
gl.attachShader(program, vs);
gl.attachShader(program, fs);
gl.linkProgram(program);
// Some debug code to check for shader compile errors and log them to console
if (!gl.getShaderParameter(vs, gl.COMPILE_STATUS))
console.log(gl.getShaderInfoLog(vs));
if (!gl.getShaderParameter(fs, gl.COMPILE_STATUS))
console.log(gl.getShaderInfoLog(fs));
if (!gl.getProgramParameter(program, gl.LINK_STATUS))
console.log(gl.getProgramInfoLog(program));
/* Create some simple VBOs*/
// Vertices for a cube
var vertices = new Float32Array([
-0.5, 0.5, 0.5, // 0
-0.5, -0.5, 0.5, // 1
0.5, 0.5, 0.5, // 2
0.5, -0.5, 0.5, // 3
-0.5, 0.5, -0.5, // 4
-0.5, -0.5, -0.5, // 5
-0.5, 0.5, -0.5, // 6
-0.5,-0.5, -0.5 // 7
]);
// Indices of the cube
var indicies = new Int16Array([
0, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, // front
5, 4, 6, 5, 6, 7, // back
0, 1, 5, 0, 5, 4, // left
2, 3, 6, 6, 3, 7, // right
0, 4, 2, 4, 2, 6, // top
5, 3, 1, 5, 3, 7 // bottom
]);
// create vertices object on the GPU
vbo = gl.createBuffer();
gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
gl.bufferData(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, vertices, gl.STATIC_DRAW);
// Create indicies object on th GPU
ibo = gl.createBuffer();
gl.bindBuffer(gl.ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, ibo);
gl.bufferData(gl.ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, indicies, gl.STATIC_DRAW);
gl.clearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0);
gl.enable(gl.DEPTH_TEST);
// Render scene every 33 milliseconds
setInterval(render, 33);
}
var mvMatrix = mat4.create();
var pMatrix = mat4.create();
function render() {
// Set our viewport and clear it before we render
gl.viewport(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
gl.clear(gl.COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | gl.DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
gl.useProgram(program);
// Bind appropriate VBOs
gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
gl.bindBuffer(gl.ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, ibo);
// Set the color for the fragment shader
program.uColor = gl.getUniformLocation(program, "uColor");
gl.uniform4fv(program.uColor, [0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 1.0]);
//
// code.google.com/p/glmatrix/wiki/Usage
program.uPMatrix = gl.getUniformLocation(program, "uPMatrix");
program.uMVMatrix = gl.getUniformLocation(program, "uMVMatrix");
mat4.perspective(45, gl.viewportWidth / gl.viewportHeight, 1.0, 10.0, pMatrix);
mat4.identity(mvMatrix);
mat4.translate(mvMatrix, [0.0, -0.25, -1.0]);
gl.uniformMatrix4fv(program.uPMatrix, false, pMatrix);
gl.uniformMatrix4fv(program.uMVMatrix, false, mvMatrix);
// Set the position for the vertex shader
program.aVertexPosition = gl.getAttribLocation(program, "aVertexPosition");
gl.enableVertexAttribArray(program.aVertexPosition);
gl.vertexAttribPointer(program.aVertexPosition, 3, gl.FLOAT, false, 3*4, 0); // position
// Render the Object
gl.drawElements(gl.TRIANGLES, 36, gl.UNSIGNED_SHORT, 0);
}
Thanks in advance for any help

Answer 1

Problem is here:
..., gl.viewportWidth / gl.viewportHeight, ...
Both gl.viewportWidth and gl.viewportHeight are undefined values.
I think you missed this two lines:
gl.viewportWidth = canvas.width;
gl.viewportHeight = canvas.height;
You will see a lot of people doing this:
canvas.width = canvas.clientWidth;
canvas.height = canvas.clientHeight;
gl.viewportWidth = canvas.width;
gl.viewportHeight = canvas.height;
But please note that WebGL context also have this two attributes:
gl.drawingBufferWidth
gl.drawingBufferHeight

Answer 2

So your cube shows up without the perspective matrix, correct?
At first glance I would think that you may be clipping away your geometry with the near plane. You provide a near an far plane to the perpective function as 1.0 and 10.0 respectively. This means that for any fragments to be visible they must fall in the z range of [1, 10]. You cube is 1 unit per side, centered on (0, 0, 0), and you are moving it "back" from the camera 1 unit. This means that the nearest face to the camera will actually be at 0.5 Z, which is outside the clipping range and therefore discarded. About half of your cube WILL be at z > 1, but you'll be looking at the inside of the cube at that point. If you have backface culling turned on you won't see anything.
Long story short - Your cube is probably too close to the camera. Try this instead:
mat4.translate(mvMatrix, [0.0, -0.25, -3.0]);