Furthering my OpenGL knowledge

I’m not an OpenGL expert by any means. Nor am I an intermediate OpenGL dude. I know the bare minimum of OpenGL. I can draw polygons on the screen, I know basic lighting stuff, etc.

However, I know nothing about the stencil buffer, extensions, GLSL, etc… I don’t even know anything about shaders in general other than roughly what they do, but not how to use them.

My question is, what should I work on after learning the basic OpenGL stuff? And where would be a good resource to look for this stuff? I’m just not sure of the order in which some of this stuff could be learned. If I knew what to tackle next, I could google, but I don’t want to try learning the GLSL if it’s going to require the use of extensions which I don’t know how to use along with the stencil buffer, just as an example.

Think anyone could point me in the right direction? Thanks.

Have you got the OpenGL Redbook?

Try writing up a few simple programs using the concepts it discusses.

Eg, for the stencil buffer:

Block out a region of the screen using the stencil buffer and render two different coloured/textured cubes in the same place using different stencil tests (one into the marked area, one into the unmarked area). I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the details, you should be able to do it.

Simple programs like this are a good way of experimenting with stuff. Experimenting is a good way of learning.

Good luck, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Okay, thanks. I’ll look around Amazon for the redbook and see what it’s got to offer. =D