From games to data visualizations to engineering simulations, 3D graphics and animations are at the heart of many important software applications. For several decades, the de facto standard Application Programming Interface (API)
for cross-platform 3D graphics has been OpenGL. Although many Python and C implementations of the API exist, Qt offers one that is directly integrated into its widgets, giving us the capability to embed interactive OpenGL graphics and animations in our GUI.
In this chapter, we'll take a look at those capabilities in the following topics:
- The basics of OpenGL
- Embedding OpenGL drawings with QOpenGLWidget
- Animating and controlling OpenGL drawings
