Unfortunately, some of the functions where initialized as null-pointers. As I’m running Linux, my first choice was using glext.h, whose headers can be included using: Last, we need to pick an extension loader. We will use it for window creation OpenGL context creation and, as we will soon figure out, for looking up OpenGL functions. I’m already using it in my voxel-engine and will keep using it now.Īnother library that I’m already using in my voxel-engine project, is SDL2. Almost everyone uses GLM, which is an OpenGL oriented library that provides replacements for all the camera and projection matrix manipulation methods used prior to OpenGL 3.3 and also follows the GLSL naming convention. Hence, we should use an external linear algebra library for that. Starting from version 3.3, OpenGL no longer provides methods for manipulating the camera and projection matrices. I will assume some basic knowledge of C/C++, SDL, CMake, graphics programming and linear algebra though.
It is not intended as a complete OpenGL tutorial, but it should still be useful for learning OpenGL. Because of the lack of good tutorials, I decided to write about my experiences with learning OpenGL 4.
What I little I did found on OpenGL 4 either focused too much on non-OpenGL stuff, lacked any explanation whatsoever or wasn’t cross platform, but despite that, they are still useful resources. In my case, the later is vital, as I want to use OpenGL for anything except what it is normally used for: rendering triangles. Tutorials on modern OpenGL are scarce, and those that do exist focus on getting things done, rather than giving the reader a good understanding of OpenGL. Unfortunately, good OpenGL 4 tutorials don’t exist (yet, or at least I couldn’t find them). Normally, I would pick up a good tutorial read through it try out some of the programs and I’d be back on track in no-time. I will be using OpenGL 4.5, for the sole reason that my GPU claims to support it. While no functionality is removed, the added functionality is sometimes a huge improvement over the functionality it seeks to replace, for example: the debug output added in 4.3. There are also big differences between minor OpenGL 4 versions. Basically, I have to learn OpenGL from scratch again. Furthermore, the GLSL language itself has also changed quite a lot. So, I have no experience with compiling shader programs and binding data using the OpenGL API. However, I used Qt4 which provided a very nice class for dealing with shader programs. However, the biggest change is that the fixed pipeline is gone, which means that you’re forced to use shaders.ĭuring my master in computer science and engineering, I did get some experience in using shaders and their programming language GLSL. Since OpenGL 3.3 core profile, both are gone and you need to use buffer objects to send a list of vertices to your GPU.
I grew up using glBegin and glEnd, but quickly learned that you needed to use vertex arrays to get any decent performance. When I started 3D programming, OpenGL 2 did not yet exist.
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