I just decided to learn openGl(yesterday).
I am therefore very green and don’t know anything about how to get started.
I got hold of DJGPP and emacs and installed the software. I’ve got a printout of ‘OpenGL Programming Guide - the official guide to learning opengl, version 1.1’
My biggest problem so far is this:
I can’t find the librarys I need!!!
I’m running windows Xp and I think I need the following:
gl.h
glu.h
glut.h
Where are they - where can I find them?
It feels like I’ve looked all over but one of my tallents is overlooking things…
Do I need anything else to get started? software?
drivers?
You need gl.h and glu.h. You also need libopengl32.a and libglu32.a. If you use MinGW instead of DJGPP (MinGW is also a GCC port for Windows), these libs & headers are included (in any case you can find the .h files on the web page given above).
As for GLUT, that is just one solution of many to a difficult problem: OpenGL is a graphics library, ONLY. OpenGL does not know how to open a window, read the mouse coordinates, etc. GLUT does that (GLUT = GL Utility Toolkit). There are also other toolkits available (CPW, GLFW, FLTK etc). From the web page given above, you will find a link to the GLFW homepage. Check it out. On the GLFW homepage, there are links to numerous other toolkits. Check them out too. You’ll probably have questions about these toolkits. If so, go to the toolkit discussion forum here at opengl.org.
You need gl.h and glu.h. You also need libopengl32.a and libglu32.a. If you use MinGW instead of DJGPP (MinGW is also a GCC port for Windows), these libs & headers are included (in any case you can find the .h files on the web page given above).
As for GLUT, that is just one solution of many to a difficult problem: OpenGL is a graphics library, ONLY. OpenGL does not know how to open a window, read the mouse coordinates, etc. GLUT does that (GLUT = GL Utility Toolkit). There are also other toolkits available (CPW, GLFW, FLTK etc). From the web page given above, you will find a link to the GLFW homepage. Check it out. On the GLFW homepage, there are links to numerous other toolkits. Check them out too. You’ll probably have questions about these toolkits. If so, go to the toolkit discussion forum here at opengl.org.
Thanks
I found the .h files I needed
but I can’t find the
libopengl32.a and libglu32.a files you mentioned - where do I find those (and what do they do?).
how come the .h files aren’t available from this site? - It was the first place I thought of looking
You can find all of the MinGW files (including OpenGL libraries) at www.mingw.org. DJGPP is 32-bit extended DOS, right? You won’t get OpenGL running in DOS. Get MinGW. Good luck.
ok so now I’ve installed MinGW.
Can I start programming now or do I need to do some other things too (placing the right glut files the right places for instance?)
Originally posted by Aaron: You can find all of the MinGW files (including OpenGL libraries) at www.mingw.org. DJGPP is 32-bit extended DOS, right? You won’t get OpenGL running in DOS. Get MinGW. Good luck.
Check the library directory (<mingw_directory>\lib) for libopengl32.a, libglu32.a, and libglut32.a. Now check the include directory (<mingw_directory>\include) for the subdirectory GL which should contain gl.h, glu.h, and glut.h. To compile programs, you must include the appropriate libraries with the linker commands [-lglut32] -lopengl32 [-lglu32] -lgdi32. Always include windows.h before gl.h
EDIT: Fixed the names of the libs.
[This message has been edited by Aaron (edited 10-05-2002).]