Rendering a skybox using static cube mapping

This recipe will show how to render a skybox object using static cube mapping. Cube mapping is a simple technique for generating a surrounding environment. There are several methods, such as sky dome, which uses a spherical geometry; skybox, which uses a cubical geometry; and skyplane, which uses a planar geometry. For this recipe, we will focus on skyboxes using the static cube mapping approach. The cube mapping process needs six images that are placed on each face of a cube. The skybox is a very large cube that moves with the camera but does not rotate with it.

Getting ready

The code for this recipe is contained in the Chapter3/Skybox directory.

How to do it…

Let us get started with the recipe as follows:

1. Set up the vertex array and vertex buffer objects to store a unit cube geometry.

2. Load the skybox images using an image loading library, such as SOIL.

   int texture_widths[6];
   int texture_heights[6];
   int channels[6];
   GLubyte* pData[6];
   cout<<"Loading...