Just a stupid q, plz answear.

Is openGL free? Don’t hate me for asking.

Originally posted by wanna know:
Is openGL free? Don’t hate me for asking.

OpenGL is just an API, really. So you really want to ask, “Are particular implementations of OpenGL free?”

The answer is, yes, there are free implementations of OpenGL. Mesa3D is a free-as-in-speech implementation of something that very closely resembles OpenGL. It is available at www.mesa3d.org.

Microsoft also gives out a free-as-in-beer implementation of OpenGL… I lost the link. It’s somewhere on www.microsoft.com. It should be installed if you have Visual C++ 6 (I think).

NVidia also has a free-as-in-beer implementation of OpenGL… it’s available from www.nvidia.com.

SGI has implementations for Irix. I think they come with Irix, but Irix is not free (or is it?).

Hope this helps.

So, everything is free, if I just wanna learn it? I’m just a beginner and don’t know what you mean with free-as-in-(name).

Yes, you can program in OpenGL without spending a cent. However, spending some money on a good programming environment like Microsoft Visual C++ might be a good idea if you are serious about programming OpenGL.

j

what does “free-as-in-beer” mean?
By the way, are there any downsides to using glut with visual c++ 6 for fairly simple applications?

what does “free-as-in-beer” mean?

In English, “free” can mean either “liberated” or “without cost”,
“libre” and “gratis” in Latin.

free-as-in-beer is used to mean “without cost”. free-as-in-speech is used to mean “liberated”.

By the way, are there any downsides to using glut with visual c++ 6 for fairly simple applications?

None that I can think of. In fact, GLUT is a great way to get going quickly, and make your stuff portable.

Thanks.