SDK.. where ?? how ??

Hey guys…

I’ve been a DirectX graphics programmer (my job) for the last 8 years… Only did some OpenGL a long long time ago (before VBOs and stuff like this), and I’m trying to get back at it now…

But I’ve got one problem : I don’t get it !
I’m desperately looking for the Open GL SDK… can’t find it…

Then, I see on some forums (cause I’ve googled before asking here) that you’re not supposed to download the SDK… that you must use the one that comes with your compiler.
I’m still using Visual 2008… Am I supposed to use a 4 y.o. SDK !?! What about OpenGL 4.x ? All the new features ? How can I determine my SDK version ?

Some people advice to get the SDK from you graphics card vendor… will the executables will then be compatible with other brands ?

How do the “extensions” work… Again, I’m not sure to understand that part either… I’ve seen a few ‘extension SDKs like GLew or Glee’ …
isn’t there some official one ? Aren’t extensions part of the GL SDK ?

Sorry, I realise those really are noob questions… But it’s silly… I couldn’t find any clear explanation anywhere… like you’re just “supposed to know” all this. And pretty much every tutorial I’ve seen just don’t mention that…

Thanks in advance !

hi,

i guess to answer all question will confuse you even more.
best place to start may be here:

follow this introduction and i guess you have everything you need…

cu
uwi

Thanks a lot !
I didn’t realize GLEW was including the whole GL sdk, I thought it was an additionnal lib to use extensions… it all makes sense now

thanks !

Side note : for the beginner, the OpenGL SDK web page is quite confusing :confused:

glew is designed to expose all the functions of OpenGL that your graphics card supports. So it has to be called immediately after your device context is created.
If you are an experienced DirectX coder, OpenGL is pretty easy to use. Assume that there is a function in OpenGL to mimic the one in DirectX (this is pretty true except for Compute Shaders - these are available with the release of 4.3 drivers but they are
only in beta at the moment). There is no sdk as such but a lot of support code.

I recommend you find glew to initialise the OpenGL interface, the glm library for matrices and vectors, freeglut for a simple window interface. and glsw shader wrangler to manager shaders. Also since your are from a DirectX environment perhaps Framework3 with has both a DirectX and slightly out of data OpenGL render manager so you can more easily compare how to do things in both environments (www.humus.name)

There is no sdk as such

ahem. There is no [i]official[/i] SDK.

Thanks everybody !

It’s all clearer now… Used GLew which is, indeed, a complete OpenGL SDK (I thought it was only an extension manager of some sort)… :slight_smile:

It is an extension loader and also a core GL function loader.
GLEW is not an SDK!
PS : if you are interested in modern GL only, then there are better loaders such as GL3W
http://www.opengl.org/wiki/OpenGL_Loading_Library

and then, for even more information for newcommers.
http://www.opengl.org/wiki/Getting_Started

[QUOTE=V-man;1244531]It is an extension loader and also a core GL function loader.
GLEW is not an SDK!
[/QUOTE]

In most ways, it is :wink: It’s a header/lib set that allows you to program OpenGL stuff… so… for me, it IS definetly a SDK ! :wink:

Thanks ! Will try that too !