Docs in the docs?

I’m new to OpenGL, and I might write some proggies in it, yet I can’t seem to find the OpenGL docs.
I keep hearing about OpenGL having bether docs then Direct X, yet the 15.000 pages of Direct X documentation that come with the SDK
with true-color pictures and a background in 3D graphics, can’t compete with that ten paged OpenGL helpfile that ships with VC++ if
you ask me. People go on about these wounderfull GL docs, yet where are they? In the bookstore?

Mike The Spike

yes, they are mainly in the bookstore
there’s a book review here: check the quick links into this site.

http://www.opengl.org/ http://www.gamedev.net/opengl/ http://www.xmission.com/~nate/opengl.html http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Code/1219/opengl32.html http://nate.scuzzy.net/


Looks all pretty good 'n dandy, but it’s still a matter of “seek and you shall find” instead of “Here’s the docs, go **** yourself”. I like the second one bether since atleast you know the people that created you’re 3D API aren’t just giving out their code with a big grunge in the stomach and hoping you will never learn how to use it.

Mike The Spike

Ever thought that MicroSoft has it’s own implementation of OpenGL?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/isapi/msdnlib.idc?theURL=/library/psdk/opengl/legalgl_62pa.htm

It’s the MSDN online library -> Platform SDK -> Graphics and Multimedia Services -> OpenGL.

if you check www.opengl.org, there’s a pretty good collection of documents. I’m looking through the entire OpenGL specification I downloaded from there right now… it’s really not difficult to find.

Still, much of the documentation is less than self explanatory… if you are just getting into it, it’s probably best to buy a good book and work through it.

Ok I guess the GL docs on the net will do just fine for me, and I might consider buying an OpenGL book for research some day, yet after I already know how GL works (So they can’t fill my head with crap!). I’m an MCD so
I get MSDN in my mail, and the GL docs are also located in the online help of VC++. Yet those “offical” docs look a bit of “This is what OpenGL does and that’s what it is made of” instead of “Here’s how to write a 3D engine in OpenGL”. The “OpenGL Book” samples (The samples under the Book\ directory) look pretty damn small, so that’s a good thing. Even doing stuff like drawing a single Gouraud shaded triangle under D3DIM takes you thousands of lines of code, while in GL you draw a randomly rotating dynamicly gradiently textured 3D sphere with just a few function calls and setting up some math, and with full FPS and TPS calcs along with it. Yet there’s a thing I don’t get. How is it that a full-screen GL app shoots triangles at you’re screen at 700.000 TPS in Software on a P166, while it is considered slow. Yet when looking at the max FPS a PlayStation can get (300.000) or an Allegro DOS based 3D app (3000) it is considered fast? Also, when playing a game like GLDoom, the speeds are pretty cool, yet when adding some lighting and gouraud shading to that game, it runs at 1 fps in software? The same goes for Direct X asswell, RGB mode sucks in speed, and the ref rasterizer aswell, yet under RAMP it’s all good?

Mike The Spike