Hi there, I'm new to OpenGL, and have two questions: 1. Can I find out the current GL SDK version? I installed MSVC++ 2008 and it came with its own SDK, so I'm not sure if it is 1.1, 2.1, 3.0... 2. Is there a large difference between 1.1 and 2.1? I can't find any 'Whats new in OpenGL 2.1' articles, and I ask because I am reading through the red book online for GL version 1.1 (http://glprogramming.com/red/index.html) and want to skip anything that is not applicable or obsolete in 2.1 (which I am wanting to use). Thanks, possom

1. Under Windows you have to use the extension system to get access to both new core and extension functions. See also FAQ.
The new extension headers can be fount at
http://www.opengl.org/registry/
Everything else comes with the driver.

2. Read the Specifications for the detail. A summery can be found on Wikipedia.

Thanks for the replies.

From your anwsers I gather that the version of OpenGL is determined by the extensions that you use and the specification that these extensions implement. I am using GLee so I gather I access to a recent implementation of OpenGL. I was using GLee 5.2 which supported up to GL2.0, so I installed GLee 5.4 to get support up to GL3.0 (not that it will make much diff for a beginner like me).

I'm assuming that most of the fundamental OpenGL v1.1 concepts (in the online red book) are still valid for future versions.

Cheers,
possom

Depends on what you mean with the "fundamental concepts". The theory you need to know for the most modern approaches are the same as the old versions. Theory on how transformations interact, how to move around your scene, what the concept of texturing is and such things, are the same. What differs is the way you implement it.

The fundamental ways to implement these things, however, are radically different in newer versions. As version numbers increases, there are more efficient ways to do things. And when stepping into 3.0 and later with forward compatible contexts, the old and now inefficient approaches are removed entirely. But up to that point though, everything is there.

I suggest you stick with the Red Book and learn from it. You will learn the basics, and grasping it is required to get somewhere later on. The fact that you implement things using now deprecated things is nothing you should worry about. If you jump directly on the latest features without grasping the theory, you have two parallel things to learn.

Makes perfect sense, thanks Brother Bob