I've got basically a 2d game on the iPhone and I'm trying to set up multiple backgrounds that scroll at different speeds (known as parallax backgrounds).

So my thought was to just stick the backgrounds BEHIND the foreground using different z-coordinate planes, and just make them bigger than the foreground (in size) to accommodate, so that the whole thing can be scrolled (just at a different speed).

And (as far as I know) I basically implemented that. The only problem is that it seems to entirely ignore whatever z-value I give it, or rather it just zeroes all of them. I see the background (I've only tested ONE background so far, to keep it simple...so for now I just have a foreground and I want one background scrolling at a different speed), but it scrolls 1:1 with my foreground, so it obviously doesn't look right, and most of it is cut off (cause it's bigger). And I've tried various z-values for the background and various near/far clipping planes...it's always the same. I'm probably just doing one simple thing wrong, but I can't figure it out. I'm wondering if it has to do with me using only 2 coordinates in glVertexPointer for the foreground? (Of course for the background I AM passing in 3)

I'll post some code:

This is some initial setup:

glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
glOrthof(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.5f, 1.5f, -10.0f, 10.0f);
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
glLoadIdentity();

glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);
//glEnableClientState(GL_COLOR_ARRAY);
glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);

//transparency
glEnable (GL_BLEND);
glBlendFunc (GL_ONE, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);

A little bit about my foreground's float array....it's interleaved. For my foreground it goes vertex x, vertex y, texture x, texture y, repeat. This all works just fine.

This is my FOREGROUND rendering:

glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 4*sizeof(GLfloat), texes); <br>
glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 4*sizeof(GLfloat), (GLvoid*)texes + 2*sizeof(GLfloat)); <br>
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, indexCount / 4);

BACKGROUND rendering:

Same drill here except this time it goes vertex x, vertex y, vertex z, texture x, texture y, repeat. Note the z value this time. I did make sure the data in this array was correct while debugging (getting the right z values). And again, it shows up...it's just not going far back in the distance like it should.

glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 5*sizeof(GLfloat), b1Texes);
glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 5*sizeof(GLfloat), (GLvoid*)b1Texes + 3*sizeof(GLfloat));
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, b1IndexCount / 5);

And to move my camera, I just do a simple glTranslatef(x, y, 0.0f);

I'm not understanding what I'm doing wrong cause this seems like the most basic 3D function imaginable...things further away are smaller and don't move as fast when the camera moves. Not the case for me. Seems like it should be pretty basic and not even really be affected by my projection and all that (though I've even tried doing glFrustum just for fun, no success). Please help, I feel like it's just one dumb thing. I will post more code if necessary.