OpenGL ES - texture map all faces of an 8 vertex cube?

Question

Working through some OpenGL-ES tutorials, using the Android emulator. I've gotten up to texture mapping and am having some trouble mapping to a cube. Is it possible to map a texture to all faces of a cube that has 8 vertices and 12 triangles for the 6 faces as described below?

// Use half as we are going for a 0,0,0 centre.
    width  /= 2;
    height /= 2;
    depth  /= 2;

    float vertices[] = { -width, -height, depth, // 0
                          width, -height, depth, // 1
                          width,  height, depth, // 2
                         -width,  height, depth, // 3
                         -width, -height, -depth, // 4
                          width, -height, -depth, // 5
                          width,  height, -depth, // 6
                         -width,  height, -depth, // 7
    };

    short indices[] = { 
            // Front
            0,1,2,
            0,2,3,
            // Back
            5,4,7,
            5,7,6,
            // Left
            4,0,3,
            4,3,7,
            // Right
            1,5,6,
            1,6,2,
            // Top
            3,2,6,
            3,6,7,
            // Bottom
            4,5,1,
            4,1,0,
    };

   float texCoords[] = {
        1.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 0.0f,
        1.0f, 0.0f,

        1.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 0.0f,
        1.0f, 0.0f,

        1.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 0.0f,
        1.0f, 0.0f,

        1.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 0.0f,
        1.0f, 0.0f,

        1.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 0.0f,
        1.0f, 0.0f,

        1.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 1.0f,
        0.0f, 0.0f,
        1.0f, 0.0f,
    };

I have gotten the front and back faces working correctly, however, none of the other faces are showing the texture.

Drawing code

public void draw(GL10 gl) {
    // Counter-clockwise winding.
    gl.glFrontFace(GL10.GL_CCW);

    // Enable face culling.
    gl.glEnable(GL10.GL_CULL_FACE);

    // What faces to remove with the face culling.
    gl.glCullFace(GL10.GL_BACK);

    // Enabled the vertices buffer for writing and to be used during
    // rendering.
    gl.glEnableClientState(GL10.GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);

    // Specifies the location and data format of an array of vertex
    // coordinates to use when rendering.
    gl.glVertexPointer(3, GL10.GL_FLOAT, 0, verticesBuffer);

    if (normalsBuffer != null) {
        // Enabled the normal buffer for writing and to be used during rendering.
        gl.glEnableClientState(GL10.GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);

        // Specifies the location and data format of an array of normals to use when rendering.
        gl.glNormalPointer(GL10.GL_FLOAT, 0, normalsBuffer);
    }

    // Set flat color
    gl.glColor4f(rgba[0], rgba[1], rgba[2], rgba[3]);

    // Smooth color
    if ( colorBuffer != null ) {
        // Enable the color array buffer to be used during rendering.
        gl.glEnableClientState(GL10.GL_COLOR_ARRAY);
        // Point out the where the color buffer is.
        gl.glColorPointer(4, GL10.GL_FLOAT, 0, colorBuffer);
    }

    // Use textures?
    if ( textureBuffer != null) {
        gl.glEnableClientState(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);
        gl.glEnable(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_2D);
        gl.glTexCoordPointer(2, GL10.GL_FLOAT, 0, textureBuffer);
    }

    // Translation and rotation before drawing
    gl.glTranslatef(x, y, z);
    gl.glRotatef(rx, 1, 0, 0);
    gl.glRotatef(ry, 0, 1, 0);
    gl.glRotatef(rz, 0, 0, 1);

    gl.glDrawElements(GL10.GL_TRIANGLES, numOfIndices, GL10.GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT, indicesBuffer);

    // Disable the vertices buffer.
    gl.glDisableClientState(GL10.GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
    gl.glDisableClientState(GL10.GL_COLOR_ARRAY);
    gl.glDisableClientState(GL10.GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);
    gl.glDisableClientState(GL10.GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);

    // Disable face culling.
    gl.glDisable(GL10.GL_CULL_FACE);
}

Answer 1

You have to use 24 vertexes. In OpenGL, a vertex is more than just position, it is the collection of all vertex attributes. Every vertex array is accessed with the same index.

The infamous cube example is something almost everyone feels is inefficient when starting to use OpenGL, but in real-world, more complex models, the degree of duplication is quite low.