4 replies to this topic

[zee_ola05]

Hello. I would like to learn OpenGL 4 but I am pretty sure that my laptop does not support it. When I was learning DirectX 11 (which my laptop also does not support) before, there was a way to run it using software emulation. I am wondering if same also goes to OpenGL 4. If there is, how? and can you also point me to some great tutorials? Thanks!

Edit: I just checked. My laptop supports OpenGL 3.3. Do you guys think that it's better to just learn OpenGL 3.3, instead OpenGL 4?

Edited by zee_ola05, 27 November 2012 - 07:56 PM.

[Lazy Foo]

Edit: I just checked. My laptop supports OpenGL 3.3. Do you guys think that it's better to just learn OpenGL 3.3, instead OpenGL 4?

Depending on what you want to do, the differences aren't all the big. The fundamentals of sending vertex data to a shader haven't changed much since OpenGL 2.1, but OpenGL 3.3 is missing nice stuff like tessellation and compute shaders.

You can check out the history of opengl to find out the differences between the different versions. If don't understand what a feature means, odds are you won't miss it.

[zee_ola05]

I don't I will be using tessellation and compute shaders at this point. I only want to know the basics like lighting, importing models, etc. So I guess I will stick to OpenGL 3.3 for now. Do you know any good tutorials? Something that starts with "Creating a Window" and "OpenGL initialization"? I am using Visual Studio 2010.

Thanks

[larspensjo]

I think Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming could be just the right thing for you.

And I agree, version 3.3 should suffice quite good for learning. Contrary to 2.1, where some things are no longer true.

[zee_ola05]

Thank you, everyone! I'm going to try Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming.