Implementation

• Built a roller coaster in OpenGL using the Catmull-Rom spline formula to create the curve of the rails. To make the spline smoother, I utilized recursion to vary the drawing step size.
• Made a T-shape cross-section rail, it was just copy-pasting the points but placing them perpendicular to one another.
• The fun part was making the camera move along the rail! I basically calculated the forward, normal, and binormal vectors to adjust the camera’s view at a position based on the previous position.
• Well, the rider should be able to tell where it’s up and down, so I added a ground plane textured with my chosen image (ice ground).
• Finally, calculate Phong shading combining diffuse and specular light on the rail to add that metallic finishing touch.

Demo

🛠️ Tools used

• C++
• OpenGL