   Matricies, why do i need them.
  Hi again.Some time ago i asked people here about moving around in OpenGL, and i can say that i accomplished that some time ago...but what I dont understand is why people talk about matricies...I know what they are and I have done loads of them in university (too many) but I dont see a need for them here?Like I can load some geometry from a file and move around using some basic keyboard inputs, but i have not come across the need to actually use matricies in the program.   I just use glTranslatef and glRotatef to get moving around...What will i need to use matricies for? 
  4x4 matrices provide a uniform way to describe transformations such as rotation, translation, scaling and shearing, or any combination of the above. They're also useful to specify the perspective transform, or any other type of projection. They're used pretty much by everyone in CG. When you use glTranslatef, you're actually telling OpenGL to generate a translation matrix and multiply the current modelview matrix by it. Similarly with glRotate. These are just convenience functions to save you generating your own matrices by hand.  [edited by - benjamin bunny on February 11, 2004 11:09:50 AM];  But glTranslate is a matrix operation. It multiplies the current matrix with the translation matrix.And these beasts are quite handy when you have more than one transformation, since the total transform can be represented by the product of the according matrices.So you can build a rotation about a certain point by the product of a translation*rotation_about_origin*translation.That''s quite handy, isn''t it. ;  >When you use glTranslatef, you''re actually telling OpenGL to >generate a translation matrix and multiply the current >modelview matrix by it. Similarly with glRotate. These are >just convenience functions to save you generating your own >matrices by hand. Ahha i guessed that might be the case. Thanks for varifying anyhow!!;  here is some more matrix info:<a href="http://www.morrowland.com/apron/article/technical/matrix/index.php">matrices</a> 