Commenting out glfwWindowHint() makes code functional (OpenGL with GLFW), why? - c++

Question

sorry I had a bit of trouble with the proper name for this question, however I've run into a roadblock and I'd like to at least be informed as to the source.
I've been trying to learn to learn openGL and I'm following this tutorial:
open.gl
Lines in question:
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MAJOR, 3);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MINOR, 2);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_PROFILE, GLFW_OPENGL_CORE_PROFILE);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_FORWARD_COMPAT, GL_TRUE);
While following through the tutorial I got an access violation exception in my code. Only after I commented out the following lines was I able to get the program working as the tutorial says it should have worked the first time. The tutorial states the following about the commented out lines:
"You'll immediately notice the first three lines of code that are only relevant for this library. It is specified that we require the OpenGL context to support OpenGL 3.2 at the least. The GLFW_OPENGL_PROFILE option specifies that we want a context that only supports the new core functionality."
My thought was that perhaps my drivers do not support OpenGL 3.2 or higher since when I commented out the lines in question my program ran fine. However, I downloaded a software called GPU caps viewer. When the software scanned my hardware it said that both my NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M and HD Graphics 3000 support OpenGL 4.3. So I'm very confused as to the source of my problem, what I am doing wrong, or is this a hardware issue?
Here are snapshots of GPU CAPS and NVIDIA PORTAL: 2 pictures on imgur
Doesn't Work:
#include "stdafx.h" //necessary headers in here
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
glfwInit();
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MAJOR, 3);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MINOR, 2);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_PROFILE, GLFW_OPENGL_CORE_PROFILE);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_FORWARD_COMPAT, GL_TRUE);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_RESIZABLE, GL_FALSE);
GLFWwindow* window = glfwCreateWindow(800, 600, "OpenGL", nullptr, nullptr); // Windowed
glfwMakeContextCurrent(window);
while (!glfwWindowShouldClose(window))
{
glfwSwapBuffers(window);
glfwPollEvents();
if (glfwGetKey(window, GLFW_KEY_ESCAPE) == GLFW_PRESS)
glfwSetWindowShouldClose(window, GL_TRUE);
}
glfwTerminate();
return 0;
}
Works:
#include "stdafx.h" //necessary headers in here
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
glfwInit();
/**
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MAJOR, 3);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_CONTEXT_VERSION_MINOR, 2);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_PROFILE, GLFW_OPENGL_CORE_PROFILE);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_OPENGL_FORWARD_COMPAT, GL_TRUE);
glfwWindowHint(GLFW_RESIZABLE, GL_FALSE);
**/
GLFWwindow* window = glfwCreateWindow(800, 600, "OpenGL", nullptr, nullptr); // Windowed
glfwMakeContextCurrent(window);
while (!glfwWindowShouldClose(window))
{
glfwSwapBuffers(window);
glfwPollEvents();
if (glfwGetKey(window, GLFW_KEY_ESCAPE) == GLFW_PRESS)
glfwSetWindowShouldClose(window, GL_TRUE);
}
glfwTerminate();
return 0;
}
Header File
#pragma once
#define GLEW_STATIC
#include <glew.h>
#include "targetver.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#define GLFW_INCLUDE_GLU
#include <glfw3.h>
One last thing that came to mind, when I go to my NVIDIA control panel it shows Visual Studio 2013 only as using Intel HD 3000 graphics card. It doesn't give me an option to use my GeForce graphics with it, could this be the issue?
EditOne:
I tried running my Visual Studio 2013 through windows explorer by right clicking on it and choosing "Run with graphics processor..." but to no avail.
I appreciate you looking through my question to help me solve it, and if you had this question yourself I hope it helped you solve your issue.

Answer 1

Actual cause of the problem (as confirmed by OP) were out-of-date and/or not fully featured drivers. This is yet again a reminder that in case of OpenGL problems the first course of action should always be to upgrade to the latest version of the graphics drivers, obtained directly from the GPU maker's download site.
Two reasons for this:
OEM drivers usually lag a significant amount of releases behind the GPU vendors.
much more important: The drivers installed through Windows update are stripped of propper OpenGL support by Microsoft for reasons only known by Microsoft.
To make a long story short: Your program is probably going to get an OpenGL context for the Intel HD graphics which lacks the requested OpenGL capabilities. Thus when setting these GLFW windows hints the window creation fails and since your program does not check for this error it will try to use that window, which of course will cause trouble.
What should you do? First and foremost add error checks!
Here's an example how you can deal with the window creation failing:
GLFWwindow* window = glfwCreateWindow(
800,
600,
"OpenGL",
nullptr,
nullptr);
if( !window ) {
print_some_error_message();
exit(-1);
}
glfwMakeContextCurrent(window);
Next you want to force the system to use the NVidia card. Don't do that "launch through explorer run on NVidia BS"; say you ship your program to someone else? Do you want to put that burden onto them? Or how about you, when you want to debug it?
Do it properly: Tell the system that you want to run on the NVidia hardware in a Optimus configuration. Simply link the following into your program:
extern "C" {
_declspec(dllexport) DWORD NvOptimusEnablement = 0x00000001;
}
The best place to put this would be right beside your program's main function, i.e. in your case
#include "stdafx.h" //necessary headers in here
extern "C" {
_declspec(dllexport) DWORD NvOptimusEnablement = 0x00000001;
}
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
…