I think changing

glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity();
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();

to

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity();

is a good place to start.

I also think your application "destroys" the modelview matrix; it s never re-computed from scratch. You should start each frame with a LoadIdentity(), then emit the lightsource, then rotate as desired, and finally emit the geometry.

This doesn t work, this doesn t work, this doesn t work, lalalalalalalala, and the FAQ is patently wrong, plain and simple.

Emitting the light just after glLoadIdentity() in order to get a camera-bound light will work in simple cases when you only translate, or only rotate the model around the origin. But when you start doing non-trivial, non-hello-world things like rotating an object around a point different than the origin (translate(-v), rotate(angle), translate(v)) and then moving it so that the rotation center is brought in front of the camera, then the "load identity, place light" technique starts failing spectacularly and in ways that make it very hard to deduce what is even going on.

No, I don t know the solution.

Try manually setting normal values for each vertex.

I ran into the same problem and got the solution. The problem was that I set the light position only in the OnLoad part of the program... I think it is the best to post some code. I work in C# using OpenTK cause I m aware I will never enter graphic business. :)

The result is a teapot or some other object that is rotating with the light that has fixed position. I can move the eye position (LookAt method) and the light source stays still. It s just like in the real word: The object can spin but the sun will not. :) Also, we can walk around the object but the sun still remains unimpressed and stays still. This code will do that trick.

protected override void OnRenderFrame(FrameEventArgs e)
 {
        base.OnRenderFrame(e);

        GL.Clear(ClearBufferMask.ColorBufferBit | ClearBufferMask.DepthBufferBit);
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10); //useful thing to lower CPU usage

        //I can set the eye position at runtime, it s not necessary to have this
        modelview = Matrix4.LookAt(this.eye, Vector3.Zero, Vector3.UnitY);

        GL.MatrixMode(MatrixMode.Modelview);                       
        GL.LoadMatrix(ref modelview);           

        //**this is the key - you have to set the light position every time**
        GL.Light(LightName.Light0, LightParameter.Position, new float[4] { 1000, 1000, 0, 0 });


        // We don t want the walls to rotate so we push the current matrix
        GL.PushMatrix();

         GL.Rotate(move, Vector3.UnitY);
         move += 0.5f;

         GL.Color3(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);

           GL.Begin(BeginMode.Triangles);
           //the object that will rotate             
           GL.End();
        GL.PopMatrix();              


        GL.Begin(BeginMode.Quads);
        //some quads (walls) in the background that will stay still
        GL.End();                                                

        SwapBuffers();
    }

I took this from my program and deleted a lot of stuff that is here unimportant so maybe it looks a bit weird. I hope it helps.

The FAQ states:

A light s position is transformed by the current ModelView matrix at the time the position is specified with a call to glLight*().

In other words, lights aren t positioned in some kind of magic static "world coordinate system"; they re multiplied by the modelview matrix just like any geometry would be. This makes sense; you often want to have lights locked to geometry.

I also think your application "destroys" the modelview matrix; it s never re-computed from scratch. You should start each frame with a LoadIdentity(), then emit the lightsource, then rotate as desired, and finally emit the geometry.

In my opinion what you should do is not only to call glLoadIdentity() at the beginning of your render routine, but to push and pop the modelview matrix.

for a scene with a globally fixed light source and two objects which are indepently positioned and rotated this pseudo code will do the trick:

glLoadIdentity();

// first object
glPushMatrix();
glTranslate(...);
glRotate(...)
glPopMatrix();

// second object
glPushMatrix();
glTranslate(...);
glRotate(...);
glPopMatrix();