Graphics card vendor OpenGL drivers: How do you create an OpenGL context?

Thompson Lee · 2014-01-29T12:54:08

I am looking for a guide on implementing OpenGL with versions larger than what Visual Studios has provided. In Visual Studios, you get OpenGL 1.1. I am using Nvidia Geforce 640, but I am assuming that I may want to learn about creating OpenGL context on AMD and Intel. I do know that Geforce 6XX supports OpenGL 4.4, according to the Nvidia specs. On the Nvidia site, I see that they provided the OpenGL 4.4 specs and driver, along with the latest include header files. But they don't provide any info on what default OpenGL context they meant for my programs to use GL 4.4, let alone anything above GL 1.1. I do have a few questions: 1. Calling the default OpenGL context automatically tells the graphic card driver to instantiate an OpenGL context that supports from 1.2 and up? 2. If I were to use a library that supports OpenGL context creation, such as SDL, how would I create an OpenGL context from the library that supports OpenGL 1.2 all the way to OpenGL 4.4 (in this case, from SDL itself)? 3. How do I create an OpenGL context that supports 1.2 and up, without relying on extensions such as FreeGLUT and GLEW? This is for learning purposes and understanding the fundamental C++ and C implementations, not for game development. 4. As above per #3, where can I view an example code? Thanks in advance.