I can't seem to understand OpenGL

Hi!

Thanks for taking a look at my thread and hopefully you’ll reply! I’m trying to learn OpenGL as I’m studying computer games programming at university. I’ve been programming C++ and Java for the last 2 years and I’m being taught how to use OpenGL.

I’ve looked at several books and tutorials - like Anton’s Tutorials and The Red Book but I still don’t get how to program it. It looks complicated and hard to learn and the furthest I’ve gotten is creating a cube. I don’t understand how I’m meant to learn it.

What advice would you give to yourself if you were me?

Thanks!

~ Ccf 1k ~

EDIT: Having read through what I’ve written the biggest problem seems to be that I haven’t tried programming it. I’ve been trying to learn it without doing it which doesn’t work well. So maybe I just need to work on programming OpenGL and give that a good go. Program in OpenGL and you’ll have learnt to program in OpenGL. Hope that makes sense.

If you are learning OpenGL in the classroom, then you should probably learn what they teach it to you. At least initially.

OpenGL as an API has gone through a lot of changes, so it’s not clear what kind of OpenGL you are being taught. Different online materials and books teach different ways of using OpenGL. And if that doesn’t match what’s going on in your classroom, then it will only be confusing to you.

Once you have a general grasp on graphics programming, then you can start to learn the other forms of OpenGL development.

Thanks for replying. The biggest problem I’m having is getting my head around how to program in OpenGL. Especially the basics of OpenGL - drawing objects on-screen, rotating them and transforming them.