I have been coding OpenGL for a while now using Java and LWJGL. However recently I decided that I would switch from Java to C++.
I managed to set up OpenGL with Visual Studio 2013, and had some fun with that. However I am used to using modern OpenGL (shaders, vbo's, vao's etc...), and I believe what I am looking for is OpenGL ES.
I have been using the GLFW library to create a window with OpenGL context, so how do I do this with OpenGL ES.
I tried adding the #define GLFW_INCLUDE_ES31 line to above the glfw3.h include, however then it cannot find the GLES3/gl31.h header file. I don't know how to obtain this file on my computer, because the GL/gl.h file was just on my computer by default.
Am I supposed to download it?
Apparently OpenGL ES is aimed at smartphones or less powerful devices, so I was wrong in thinking I wanted to use OpenGL ES. In that case, how can I use these newer functions within Visual Studio, and C++. At the moment I only seem to have access to OpenGL 1.1 functions.
You are lacking a loader (GLEW for example)
"just" add it to your project and you will be able to use the GL_ functions again
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I'm attempting to make a video game in Unreal Engine 4.9. I'm building it for Windows, but I'd like to have it use opengl instead of directx in the executable. However, I've found no options that let you do this. Unreal Engine uses OpenGL when it creates executables for Linux and Mac, but there seems to be no way to use OpenGL with Windows.
Am I missing something? Is there some way to force Unreal Engine to use OpenGL in Windows executables?
EDIT: The reason I want to use OpenGL is because I want this game to run without having to install anything on the end user's computer (DirectX has to be installed to work)
Microsoft doesn't really support OpenGL, they typically go out of their way to make it very difficult to use OpenGL on Windows and strongly encourage people to use DirectX instead.
The simplest way to get a working OpenGL context in windows is sometimes to use ANGLE which is a compatibility layer which translates OpenGL calls to DirectX calls. This is what Chrome and Firefox use to support WebGL on windows. I doubt that Unreal Engine is integrated with this, so you might have a hard time.
Edit:
EDIT: The reason I want to use OpenGL is because I want this game to run without having to install anything on the end user's computer (DirectX has to be installed to work)
One thing you could do is cross-compile the Mesa3D drivers, as described here: https://wiki.qt.io/Cross_compiling_Mesa_for_Windows
But then you won't get hardware acceleration.
I am trying to experiment with the Qt library on Windows. On their downloads page, I notice that the binaries built using VS2012 are available in two forms, with and without OpenGL. What exactly is the difference between the two? In the OpenGL version, do they have some special API implemented using OpenGL or does all of Qt rendering depend on OpenGL? Also, is there a version of Qt that uses DirectX?
#Raman: The opengl variant is using the desktop opengl version just like with Qt4.
The non-opengl variant is using angle, and you need to have that installed alongside the DirectX SDK to get it working. Angle is an adapter between the directx and the opengles API. Only the latter is support directly by Qt, but unfortunately directx drivers tend to work better on Windows than the opengl(es) ones. There are no plans to support a directx backend inside Qt, so we leave with Google's Angle work in that regard.
As for providing some extra bit, there was a discussion about it recently on the mailing list, that this decision should not be build time, but more like run time. However, no one has stood up just yet to make that work. Hopefully, that will change soon. It is causing confusion for the end users just like, so do not feel alone. ;-)
Hope this explanation helps.
DirectX is supported via the ANGLE based library.
Note that this has changed and as of Qt 5.5 the prebuilt binaries you can download from the Qt website are configured with the -opengl dynamic option. This is what #lpapp above was talking about. Qt defaults to choosing either native OpenGL drivers or ANGLE at run time now.
Qt internally uses OpenGL to render unless you specify otherwise now. You can also render custom OpenGL content using Qt's QOpenGLxxx functions and classes.
For a simple introduction to Qt and OpenGL that covers this and more click here.
this one drives me crazy. I've been searching for two days but cant find any answer.
I want to develop some things with OpenGL 3 (or newer) with Visual Studio 2010 / C++.
The header and libraries provided by Microsoft are way too old to support OpenGL 3, so I'm trying to find newer versions. I easily found the header file in the OpenGL registry (http://www.opengl.org/registry/) but I cant find the OpenGL32.lib anywhere. How am I supposed to link a program without it?
There isn't a newer OpenGL library for windows, and there won't be. They decided to stop at OpenGL 1.1 and even call it a legacy graphics.
However, you can use load opengl function, and that is how people get access to the latest opengl features.
You can also use GLEW library to get access to the opengl functions.
I've read around that there is a lot of deprecation going on with OpenGL. I've heard this has to do with the implementation of shaders. Are there any libraries that are affected by this deprecation?
seems to suggest SFML, GLFW, and SDL as up to date libraries.
Do other libraries such as glew or glut have problems with the deprecation?
GLUT is the utility library which contains helpful methods mostly related to GUI. GLUT is outdated for something like 10 years already so it can't be used with the new (programmable) pipeline. From what I know it supports up to GL 3.1 inclusive only. The project which replaces GLUT is FREE GLUT which is up to date and can be used both with old and new OpenGL versions. Glew is the lib that exposes the GL API for windows users. It has both deprecated and current functionality. It is up to you which to use as it mostly depends on GL version and profile type you choose. If you use compatability profile for example in OpenGL 4.0 version then you can use mix of deprecated and 4.0 API specific functionality. But if you select Core profile then using deprecated methods will not work.
I'm trying to setup VC++ to compile code with OpenGL 4.1 functionality. I downloaded the 3 header files from from opengl.org; put them in the correct paths and include them - but keep getting errors like this:
error C3861: 'wglSwapIntervalEXT': identifier not found
I have the latest video drivers. OpenGL says the problem is MS includes only version 1.1 with their compiler when though the vendor/driver supports 4.1.
One of the big pains of using OpenGL on Windows is that the Windows SDK only ships with OpenGL 1.1. There's probably a really good technical (and non-political) reason for this, but the fact remains, if you want to do anything with OpenGL on Windows, you're on your own.
What you need then, is something to bring the Windows SDK up to current standards (OpenGL 4.1 as I write this.) When I was originally trying to solve this problem (around the time of OpenGL 3.0), I came across GLee http://elf-stone.com/glee.php which is a cool library which makes the full OpenGL spec available easily. I didn't like their license, so I decided to write my own extension loader.
I don't think anyone should ever have to do this again, so I've made mine public domain, do with it as you will. I'd like to hear if you use it in something, but that's not a requirement.
http://www.onemanmmo.com/index.php?cmd=newsitem&comment=news.1.28.0