Drawing the perspective view frustum with OpenGL

A visualization of the current view frustum can be helpful in some cases. <a id="more"></a><a id="more-441"></a> 1. Extract the two important matrices you wish to visualize:

static float proj[16];
glGetFloatv(GL_PROJECTION_MATRIX, proj);

static float mv[16];
glGetFloatv(GL_MODELVIEW_MATRIX, mv);

  1. Do some math and draw your frustum:

void Helper::drawFrustum(float * proj, float *mv) {

	// Get near and far from the Projection matrix.
	const double near = proj[11] / (proj[10] - 1.0);
	const double far = proj[11] / (1.0 + proj[10]);

	// Get the sides of the near plane.
	const double nLeft = near * (proj[2] - 1.0) / proj[0];
	const double nRight = near * (1.0 + proj[2]) / proj[0];
	const double nTop = near * (1.0 + proj[6]) / proj[5];
	const double nBottom = near * (proj[6] - 1.0) / proj[5];

	// Get the sides of the far plane.
	const double fLeft = far * (proj[2] - 1.0) / proj[0];
	const double fRight = far * (1.0 + proj[2]) / proj[0];
	const double fTop = far * (1.0 + proj[6]) / proj[5];
	const double fBottom = far * (proj[6] - 1.0) / proj[5];

	/*
	 0	glVertex3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
	 1	glVertex3f(nLeft, nBottom, -near);
	 2	glVertex3f(nRight, nBottom, -near);
	 3	glVertex3f(nRight, nTop, -near);
	 4	glVertex3f(nLeft, nTop, -near);
	 5	glVertex3f(fLeft, fBottom, -far);
	 6	glVertex3f(fRight, fBottom, -far);
	 7	glVertex3f(fRight, fTop, -far);
	 8	glVertex3f(fLeft, fTop, -far);
	 */

	glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
	glPushMatrix();
	//glLoadIdentity ();

        // TODO - Update: You need to invert the mv before multiplying it with the current mv!

	glMultMatrixf(mv);

	glLineWidth(2);
	glBegin(GL_LINES);

	glVertex3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
	glVertex3f(fLeft, fBottom, -far);

	glVertex3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
	glVertex3f(fRight, fBottom, -far);

	glVertex3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
	glVertex3f(fRight, fTop, -far);

	glVertex3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
	glVertex3f(fLeft, fTop, -far);

	//far
	glVertex3f(fLeft, fBottom, -far);
	glVertex3f(fRight, fBottom, -far);

	glVertex3f(fRight, fTop, -far);
	glVertex3f(fLeft, fTop, -far);

	glVertex3f(fRight, fTop, -far);
	glVertex3f(fRight, fBottom, -far);

	glVertex3f(fLeft, fTop, -far);
	glVertex3f(fLeft, fBottom, -far);

	//near
	glVertex3f(nLeft, nBottom, -near);
	glVertex3f(nRight, nBottom, -near);

	glVertex3f(nRight, nTop, -near);
	glVertex3f(nLeft, nTop, -near);

	glVertex3f(nLeft, nTop, -near);
	glVertex3f(nLeft, nBottom, -near);

	glVertex3f(nRight, nTop, -near);
	glVertex3f(nRight, nBottom, -near);

	glEnd();
	glLineWidth(1);
	glPopMatrix();
}