ok if wanted to make like a sphere, and like a regian inside that is another circle, and wanted it to show when i pressed like the s button, like it shades in, but you can still see it, how would i do that? talking like line drawing almost, the goes to shaded area...if you have any idea what im talking about, please help

> if you have any idea what im talking about, please help

Hehe, not the slightest... Please rephrase your question

Yann is right. Your explanation lack of good english.

> ok if wanted to make like a sphere,
assuming you''re trying to write "ok if I wanted to make something like a sphere,"

> and like a regian inside that is another circle,
"regian" : maybe "region" ?
a circle inside, but inside what ? over the sphere surface ? inside the sphere volume ?

> and wanted it to show when i pressed like the s button,
assuming you want to show the ''circle'', right ?

> like it shades in,
what shades in what ? the circle shades in the sphere ?
and what do you mean by ''shades'' ?

> but you can still see it,
how can we see it ? would you like it to be half-trasparent ? would you like to display the wireframe in this ''zone'' ?

> how would i do that?
no idea with such details.

> talking like line drawing almost, the goes to shaded area...
I don''t understand at all what you do mean.


I''m sorry, but we can''t help more without better explanations.
I suggest you to use screenshots if the problem is too complex.

Ok here you go. You have a clear sphere, like aline drawing, but you cant see it. Then you press a button and it shades in, to a sphere you can see. So you have invisable objects and then make them visable. That help?

This may or may not help, but im doing this for a quantum mechanics project, where i will be showing an electron moving around in each of the energy levels. for example in the s1 level you have the atom with an infinate boundy, but in the middle there is another boundry which is called the surface boundry ( i think) and it is the spot 95% of the time, that electron will be. If i pressed like the S button, it shows that surfact boundry.

If that is still unclear i will type up my notes...which arint much clearier, but it might help.

If you want to shade an object from invisible to visible, you can use alpha channel.
Instead of drawing your sphere like that :

glColor3f(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
glutSphere(...);

You could do something like that :

glEnable(GL_BLEND);
glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
glColor4f(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, visibility);
glutSphere(...);

where visibility is a GLfloat that goes from 0 (for invisible sphere) to 1 (for fully visible sphere).

Is that what you look for ?

Are you just trying to show an electron orbiting the nucleus?

I might know what you mean ... tell if this is correct:

You want a 3D sphere in the middle of the screen representing the nucleus.
You want a second 3D sphere representing an electron orbiting around the first sphere.
You want a third sphere which can be visible or invisible (or semi transparent maybe) which shows how far away (the energy level) the electron is

???????

shag, yes that is very close, but i would incorperate all the energy levels, and an electron tracker, up to all the elements, and maybe even more, lol. It would be a project...pretty big one too, so if you want to help that would be great. I hope that helps

OK!

So you want to show a series of concentric rings showing all the possible electron orbits.

I'd be happy to help. You said you'd write up your notes - ok then send them to me! I'm pretty sure I know where you're coming from - lets just make sure we're talking on the same wavelength.

The reason for wanting to see your notes, is that in the real world it's impossible to visualise electrons. That's where Boer's theory of the atom is totally wrong. He mistakenly thought that energy levels and orbits were the same thing, which of course is nonsense. But I assume you want to visualise the electron with traditional orbits. Am I correct?



Edited by - Shag on February 15, 2002 8:18:42 PM

yes, im sry if my responses are not right away, but i will be able to answer anything now that its the weekend, no school. Do you want me to send my notes via email? or just type them up. I will find them now, might take me a couple hours, cause i have them scattered around the house, lol.