Load and display texture with OpenGL and OpenCV - c++

Question

I am a bloody newbie to OpenGL and it still looks sometimes like black magic to me. I just want to load and display an texture for testing purposes and I do not want to use the tutorial libraries to really understand what happens. But I just get a black screen and I cannot find the reason for it.
My c++ source code
int main(){
new cpp_logger();
GLint program_rgb_;
Mat img = imread("plane.jpg");
std::string file_path = "plane.jpg";
// Set viewport window size and clear color bit.
glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 0);
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
glDepthFunc(GL_LESS);
//set viewport
glViewport(0, 0, img.size().width, img.size().height);
// Create a Vertex Buffer Object and copy the vertex data to it
GLuint vbo;
glGenBuffers(1, &vbo);
GLfloat vertices[] = {-1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, 1, -1,
0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1};
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(vertices), vertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
//create program and shader
program_rgb_ = glCreateProgram();
const char* vertexShader = read_shader("vertex.glsl"); //simple method to read the shader files
const char* fragmentShader = read_shader("fragment.glsl");
CreateShader(program_rgb_, GL_VERTEX_SHADER, vertexShader); //simple method to link and compile shader programs
CreateShader(program_rgb_, GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER, fragmentShader);
glLinkProgram(program_rgb_);
glUseProgram(program_rgb_);
//use fast 4-byte alignment (default anyway) if possible because using OpenCV
glPixelStorei(GL_UNPACK_ALIGNMENT, (img.step & 3) ? 1 : 4);
//set length of one complete row in data (doesn't need to equal image.cols)
glPixelStorei(GL_UNPACK_ROW_LENGTH_EXT, img.step/img.elemSize());
flip(img, img, 0);
// Load texture
GLuint tex;
glGenTextures(1, &tex);
glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, tex);
//set parameters
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);
glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR);
glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGB, img.cols, img.rows, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, img.data);
glUniform1i(glGetUniformLocation(program_rgb_,"tex"), 0);
uint8_t* result = new uint8_t[img.cols * img.rows * 4];
while(true){
GLint pos_location = glGetAttribLocation(program_rgb_, "a_position");
GLint tc_location = glGetAttribLocation(program_rgb_, "a_texCoord");
// Specify the layout of the vertex data
glEnableVertexAttribArray(pos_location);
glVertexAttribPointer(pos_location, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0);
//specify color data
glEnableVertexAttribArray(tc_location);
glVertexAttribPointer(tc_location, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, static_cast<float*>(0) + 8);
// Draw a rectangle from the 2 triangles using 6 indices
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 8);
glReadPixels(0, 0, img.rows, img.cols, GL_BGRA_EXT, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, (void*)result);
auto result_ = cv::Mat(img.rows, img.cols, CV_8UC4, result);
imshow("img", result_);
if(waitKey(1) >= 0) break;
}
destroyAllWindows();
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
My fragment shader
#version 150 core
precision mediump float;
in vec2 texCoord;
uniform sampler2D tex;
void main()
{
gl_FragColor = texture2D(tex, texCoord);
}
my vertex shader
#version 150 core
out vec2 texCoord;
attribute vec2 a_texCoord;
attribute vec4 a_position;
void main()
{
texCoord = a_texCoord;
gl_Position = a_position;
}
Thank you a lot for your help!
EDIT
Sorry for the missunderstanding. I meant: I do not want to use the libraries like SOIL and SFML and I want to go an alternative way to fully understand what actually happens.