Simplest GLUT alternative?

[Lindley]

I'm trying to add a window to my OpenGL program. So far most of my rendering has been off-screen, and the context created for that didn't have to deal with too many windowing-system issues.

There's a window coming up, and I can draw to it, but there are things like mouse-overs pause execution, and the window stops responding if it's moved to the background.

I'm on XP64 and using WGL, incidentally, but I'd like whatever I come up with to be easily portable to Unix.

I'm looking for a free windowing system that I can get working fast----no annoyingly complex build process or linking issues.

I need functions to:
CreateWindow(w,h)
SwapBuffers()

and preferably also a function to toggle the window visible/invisible (probably cheaper than destroying/recreating).

Any suggestions?

GTK+ doesn't seem to have built-in OpenGL support, although there are some addon packages that do. Qt's open source version doesn't seem to include Windows support.

[sharp_pixel]

In the latest Qt 4.3.2 it seems that Windows is now supported for compilation though it still lacks Visual Studio integration.
Change log (http://trolltech.com/developer/notes/changes/changes-4.3.2/)

Enabled MSVC project generator for the Qt Open Source edition.I haven't tested it yet since I use the commercial version.

[plasmonster]

IMHO nothing beats GLUT for instant OpenGL satisfaction.

[Korval]

wxWidgets has an OpenGL window. And it works on most things (OSX, Linux, Win32).

[Zengar]

http://glfw.sourceforge.net/

[MZ]

wxWidgets is overkill, I'd recommend FLTK (http://www.fltk.org) instead.

[Lindley]

IMHO nothing beats GLUT for instant OpenGL satisfaction.


If GLUT were an option, I would have just used that. I need something that gives me more control.

Thanks for the other suggestions, I'll check them out.

[debuggah]

Hello,

I have found simply using SDL pretty good - http://www.libsdl.org, in particular the instructions found here: http://www.libsdl.org/cgi/docwiki.cgi/Using_20OpenGL_20With_20SDL

--- though you may want to read up a bit on the window show/unshow bit - I am not sure about that on reflection.

Good luck.

[tfpsly]

I'm looking for a free windowing system that I can get working fast----no annoyingly complex build process or linking issues.
I need functions to:
CreateWindow(w,h)
SwapBuffers()
and preferably also a function to toggle the window visible/invisible (probably cheaper than destroying/recreating).If you only need full window 3D, no widget and nothing fancy, then SDL is definitely the simplest library to use: http://libsdl.org
Still it won't have a "show/hide this window" feature.

On the other hand if you do need gui, menus, widgets and the like, I recommand Fltk which has built-in OpenGL support and which is much easier to use than GTK and the others. It's surprisingly simple to use, yet it is used in professional environments like Lucasfilm tools.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fltk
http://www.fltk.org