OpenGL - the real beginner

What is the best way to start learning OpenGL, I mean there’s a lot of tutorials over the internet, but they don’t really say what should be your main topic you should focus while you’re learnning OpenGL.
I really would like to learn OpenGL to game development and simulation, so what’s the best way to start ??

Ah one more thing, does any one how to use Maya geometry texturized and animated, with OpenGL ???
I know Maya exports for lots of formats, but I’m not sure if OpenGL can understand them.

thank you for your help

my advice would be using the Nehe-tuts and buying the red book (OpenGL Prgramming Guide)

Chris

yes , read the ne-he tutorial ( lesson 10 , lesson 23 )or get the cd if you can,there is the basic of simulation
and also you need to have in hand the 'bible of opengl’for the functions

About Maya…

We’re using it as the primary design tool for our current project. It has a lot of nice features and it’s API is well documented, but the main reason is because that was the artist’s tool of choice. ( in the end it’s all geometry, isn’t it? )

While maya does support a number of file formats, we decided not to use any of them and I developed plug-ins to export to our own proprietal format. You might want to look at the Maya Games translators, especially the RTG exporter/format. Those plug-ins were developed using the MDt API and there’s plenty of sample code. All pretty straightforeward.

OpenGL has no built-in file format support, so no matter how you choose to export the data, it all has to be fed to the subsystem in a way that OpenGL understands. I would suggest coding an exporter that formats the data in structures that closely resembles the submission structure you’ll be using in OGL.

Hope this helped,
Dave

I was in the same boat about six months ago. I started with an easy format to parse, the OBJ format. First thing I did was go to www.wotsit.org to read up on the OBJ file format. Then I modeled a few quick test models in Maya (if you don’t see OBJ in Maya’s export dialog, go under Window->Settings/Preferences->Plug-in Manager and check the OBJ import/export plug-in). I don’t think Maya exports the materials with the OBJ file, but it’s a good way to start. Or if you’re feeling a little more adventurous than I did, you could try out the VRML export (Wotsit has the VRML spec too). In my case, already having written an OBJ importer, the next steps were easy (textured and animated models).