Setting up OpenGL for use, I'm a completely newbie :)

Hey guys, I’ve literally just come across OpenGL as we have been told that wer are using OpenGL 3.3 to do 3D Graphics Programming for this year of our degree course. I spoke to my lecturer about running OpenGL 3.3 on my macbook which currently uses Windows 7 on VMware.

However I have not installed anything as I don’t really know what to install, where to look etc! But when I try and run this test program he gave us it just opens and then closes straight away. There are no graphics shown or anything. I was also given two files which I presume as the source as they are GLSL files!

My question mainly is how do I set it up to work on my Macbook? It isn’t the brand new Macbook Pro, but the one from last year! So it’s still pretty new! Is there a way to do this using a virtual machine or do I have to dual boot? Also what do I need to download :smiley:

p.s Sorry if this is the wrong forum area! Literally just signed up :smiley: Thanks in advance!

Your professor should have covered this. OpenGL is not standalone software. It is a library that is called from a computing language such as C or FORTRAN. Therefore you need to know how to write, compile, link, and execute in one of the languages from which OpenGL can be called. Since GL is platform independent, it does not provide routines for hardware dependent operations such as opening a window or interfacing with the keyboard or mouse. You must select a Windowing system to do this. GLUT or something similar is an easy way to start. Look at the first few Chapters of the Red Book for a clear discussion of this stuff. The OpenGL library is often provided with a language compiler (such as Visual C++ Express).

Good luck. It’s actually fun once you get into it.

      http://www.glprogramming.com/red/

Ahhh okay! Well last year we were studying C++ so hopefully that will all tie in! I literally have no idea about this OpenGL but I will look into this Red Book!
Thank you Carmine, appreciate the help! :slight_smile: