Thread: Some Graphics Questions:

Can someone tell me what exactly a depth buffer is, and what a filter is?

Also, for glClearColor(r,g,b,alpha), what does the last parameter do? I've messed around with it before, and nothing happens. What's it for?

The depth buffer (also known as the z buffer) is what determines what objects are in front of other objects. Your video card holds a certain depth value for each pixel, and only the closest value for each pixel is rendererd.

The clear color function sets the background color (where nothing gets drawn). The alpha value is the transparency value, but I don't think it has any effect in this situation. But I could be wrong

What is a filter? That's kind of vague but it's just something that touches up the way the scene looks. i.e anisotropic filtering improves the texture quality of polygons at a distance.