I want to start learning how to program with opengl.
Does anybody know any good books(free or with a price) or turorials about opengl ?
The first place you’ll want to go is http://nehe.gamedev.net/.
Get other links on my page here (scroll down for the OpenGL section).
If I remember right you are using Windows, correct?
I recommend using MinGW (which is GCC for Windows)… it should have most everything you need to get. You’ll need to make sure you have the OpenGL library and probably also the GLUT library and headers.
You can also program OpenGL using Pascal, but it has been a while since I’ve messed with it, so you’ll have to google your own for that…
Hope this helps.
Well I don’t have a lot of experience with 3d graphics programming.However I’ve been programming with directx 8 for a while.
Is opengl a lot different from directx(as regards graphics programming) ?
Some people say its easier to program with OpenGL than DirectX. But I wouldnt know.
However you could try using Java3D it can use both OpenGL & DirectX and is probably less of a headache to get your head round it.
I’ve never programmed DirectX myself, but I’ve read that it is a bit easier to dive into OpenGL…
Some good books:
Interactive Computer Graphics with OpenGL by Edward Angel
2nd Ed ISBN 0-201-38597-X
Not my favorite book, but goes pretty thoroughly through everything. Assumes you know nothing about 3D programming (in your case, you know plenty).
OpenGL Programming Guide
Third Edition by Mason Woo, et. al.
Very good reference. You should be able to find a copy of this online somewhere…
Other than that and NeHe, you know enough to easily get started with OpenGL.
As for Java, it is a VM and you program the JVM, which uses the native 3D machine, whether it be OpenGL or DirectX. There are OpenGL bindings for use with Java, but they are non-standard and they still require you to dink around with Java as much as the OpenGL. If you really want to mess with OpenGL, use C or C++ for the most direct experience.
Programming with OpenGL is different than programming with DirectX 8. I believe it is much easier and my favorite feature is that it portable.
Start with nehe.gamedev.net. Also check out www.codesampler.com for a bunch of great samples. Also www.opengl.org has a bunch of documents (gotta have those) and examples.
Cheers,
Bob
I’ve seen the NeHe tutorials and they are really awsome They are very good sources of knowledge.Thanks for the responses guys (if someone has to add something else please post it)
The OpenGL red and blue books are handy references:
http://www.gamedev.net/download/redbook.pdf
http://rush3d.com/reference/opengl-bluebook-1.0/
They have some very useful info that is tricky to find elsewhere. They are references remember, NeHe is better for tutorials. I only went up to tutorial 5 or 6 before I felt I wasn’t learning that much but rather just copying and pasting and then I started doing my own OpenGL programming.