Starting to program with OpenGL.

[MentalSentinel]

Hey,
I would like to start programming with OpenGL. I have C++ experience. I was wondering, where can i download the OpenGL developer stuff? I've searched this site, but no luck. Or do i have to buy it?
Please help.
Cheers.

[ZbuffeR]

No need to pay to program with OpenGL API.

See the coding FAQ :
http://www.opengl.org/resources/faq/...g_started.html

[MentalSentinel]

Ok thanks.
I've downloaded some SDK which contained a few header files. But not some file required for opengl, windows.h.
Could anyone please tell me where to get this file?
Cheers, Sentinel

[mikael_aronsson]

Hi !

You will need at compiler to compile your OpenGL code, like Visual Studio or MinGW32 or something like that, those compilers comes with all files you need to compile OpenGL code.

Visual Studio is available as a free console only download I belive at msdn.microsoft.com, or you could use gcc (www.mingw.org).

There are of course other alternatives also like Borland, Watcom, LCC and so on.

Mikael

[MentalSentinel]

Yeah i have a compiler, (two actually) but it hasn't got windows.h.

[MentalSentinel]

I have found windows.h, thanks to all that helped.

But now i have other problems, it seems that almost every program requires header files that i DON'T have, so if anyone could point me directly to a valid OpenGL library, that would be most helpfull, i now got a few header files from a package i got from sgi.com.
Please help me.

windows.h is a include file for "Microsoft Windows".
Since your compiler(s) dont have it, I assume we arent talking about a MS Windows environment.

As said before, the compilers should come with everything you need. If they dont then it dosent help to randomly download stuff that is not meant for your environment (whatever that may be).

So what compiler(s) and os are we talking about?

[MentalSentinel]

I did some search and the compiler did include it. I'm using Digital Mars for my library stuff and Dev-C++ for compiling.
I just need a valid OGL package. Someone please point me to one. I can't seem to find a package with all the files the tutorials and programs are talking about.

[imported_dorbie]

Getting programs to compile involves making sure headers are found at compile time and that libs are found at link and probably run time.

You will have the required headers especially if you have installed an SDK from here or from NVIDIA or ATI. Same with the libraries. You need to find the headers and either add the path to your project or move the libs to an existing path.

Once you find the headers your compiler will probably start asking for missing libs or complaining about unresolved symbols during link time and you will have to add the link path or move the files locally or to an appropriate system directory. This is basic compilation stuff. You should probably get a book on OpenGL development if you can't get this working soon. Pretty much any of the OS specific books will help you with this.

[MentalSentinel]

I know what to do with the headers once i have them, but my problem is, i don't have them.
Could anyone point me to a valid package of OpenGL header files? It would be most apreciated.
Cheers.