Implementing OBJ model loading using interleaved buffers

In this recipe we will implement the Wavefront ® OBJ model. Instead of using separate buffer objects for storing positions, normals, and texture coordinates as in the previous recipe, we will use a single buffer object with interleaved data. This ensures that we have more chances of a cache hit since related attributes are stored next to each other in the buffer object memory.

Getting started

The code for this recipe is contained in the Chapter5/ObjViewer folder.

How to do it…

Let us start the recipe by following these simple steps:

1. Create a global reference of the ObjLoader object. Call the ObjLoader::Load function, passing it the name of the OBJ file. Pass vectors to store the meshes, vertices, indices, and materials contained in the OBJ file.

     ObjLoader obj;
     if(!obj.Load(mesh_filename.c_str(), meshes, vertices, indices, materials)) {
       cout<<"Cannot load the 3ds mesh"<<endl;
       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
     }

2. Generate OpenGL...