6 replies to this topic

[thecheeselover]

Hi,

I'm switching from DirectX/Xna to OpenGL and I have a few questions.

1) I want to use OpenGL 4.3 but it seems like there's no specific version of the library. Does it mean that opengl32.dll will support OpenGL 4.3 if your graphic card supports it?

2) Do you have any tutorials that cover OpenGL 4.3 from A to Z? I found a lot of old tutorials (2.2 and 3.0) but not good 4.3 ones?

3) Is there a way to do glLoadMatrix (and the reverse) but for the transformation matrix (the one you use to rotate, translate and scale vertices)?

Thank you!

[TheChubu]

1) I want to use OpenGL 4.3 but it seems like there's no specific version of the library. Does it mean that opengl32.dll will support OpenGL 4.3 if your graphic card supports it?

The little experience that I have with OpenGL tells me this:

There are specific versions of OpenGL implementations. Those are provided with the GPU drivers. That means, you get core profiles of OpenGL, compatibility contexts and probably some proprietary extensions of the GPU manufacturer.

When you code for OpenGL, you ask for a context (say, 4.3 core profile) and load up the extensions available in the system.

Now, as far as I know (haven't checked lately), only latest (developer beta?) nVidia drivers for GTX5xx and GTX6xx cards support OpenGL 4.3, so you might wanna go with something more available, like 4.2 (also supported by AMD HD6xxx and HD7xxx series) or 3.3 (goes back to GeForce 8xxx and HD3xxx series).

[thecheeselover]

Now, as far as I know (haven't checked lately), only latest (developer beta?) nVidia drivers for GTX5xx and GTX6xx cards support OpenGL 4.3, so you might wanna go with something more available, like 4.2 (also supported by AMD HD6xxx and HD7xxx series) or 3.3 (goes back to GeForce 8xxx and HD3xxx series).

OpenGL 4.3 for nvidia cards is 400 and up.

[Chris_F]

1. Nvidia is the only company with 4.3 drivers at the moment. The version of opengl32.dll depends on your OS and has nothing to do with what version of OpenGL your graphics driver supports.

2. OpenGL 4.3 is very new. You probably aren't going to find any tutorials referencing it. You could looks at http://openglbook.com/ for a beginners tutorial to OpenGL 3.x/4.x.

3. glLoadMatrix is part of the fixed function vertex pipeline. You won't find it in OpenGL 3.1+ just like you wouldn't find the equivalent function in DirectX 10+.

Edited by Chris_F, 07 October 2012 - 08:01 PM.

[thecheeselover]

The version of opengl32.dll depends on your OS and has nothing to do with what version of OpenGL your graphics driver supports.

By the way, if the library opengl32.dll doesn't exist (dlls don't exist on those OS) on Linux and OSX, do you need another type of library?

[Chris_F]

The version of opengl32.dll depends on your OS and has nothing to do with what version of OpenGL your graphics driver supports.

By the way, if the library opengl32.dll doesn't exist (dlls don't exist on those OS) on Linux and OSX, do you need another type of library?

OpenGL isn't a software library, it's just an API. The architecture and implementation is different on various platforms.

In the case of Linux, libopengl.so is analogous to opengl32.dll.

Edited by Chris_F, 07 October 2012 - 08:39 PM.

[Racoonacoon]

I'm actually in the process of moving from DirectX/XNA to OpenGL myself. Figured I should widen the boundaries a bit

As others have said, you are going to be hard pressed to find up-to-date and relevant examples. To be honest, most of the tutorials I run into make use of old deprecated code and thus are not going to be much help. There are a couple of websites I have ran into that do a good job of teaching somewhat more relevant OpenGL, however:
http://www.arcsynthesis.org/gltut/index.html
and (as someone else has already mentioned) http://openglbook.com/

The 8th edition of The OpenGL Programming Guide is supposed to cover OpenGL 4.3, but it isn't scheduled for release until February.