This may or may not be a very stupid question so I do apologise, but I haven't come across this in any books or tutorials as yet. Also I guess it can apply to any language...
Assume you create a window of size: 640x480 and an object/shape inside it of size 32x32 and you're able to move the shape around the window with keyboard inputs.
Does it matter what Type (int, float...) you use to control the movement of the shape. Obviously you can not draw halfway through a pixel, but if you move the shape by 0.1f (for example with a glTranslation function) what happens as supposed to moving it by an int of 1... Does it move the rendered shape by 1/10 of a pixel or?
I hope I've explained that well enough not to be laughed at.
I only ask this because it can affect the precision of collision detection and other functions of a program or potential game.
glTranslate produces a translation by x y z . The current matrix (glMatrixMode) is multiplied by this translation matrix, with the product replacing the current matrix, as if glMultMatrix were called with the following matrix for its argument:
1 0 0 x 0 1 0 y 0 0 1 z 0 0 0 1 If the matrix mode is either GL_MODELVIEW or GL_PROJECTION, all objects drawn after a call to glTranslate are translated.
Use glPushMatrix and glPopMatrix to save and restore the untranslated coordinate system.
This meaning that glTranslate will give you a translation, to use with the current matrix, resulting in non decimal numbers. You can not use half a pixel. glTranslate receives either doubles or floats, so if you are supposed to move it 1 in x,y or z, just give the function a float 1 or double 1 as an argument.