Hi,

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]I'm thinking of writing a modern OpenGL guide. I realize that more and more modern OpenGL guides are popping up, but I think there are still things that most (if not all) of them lack:[/font]
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• A site that can be corrected and updated by users, e.g. a wiki.
• Information for setting up your context in every language and platform (C++, C#, WebGL, Android, ...).
• Bare-bones interaction, not letting libraries do everything for you. At least not in the beginning.
• Beats NeHe's tutorials in Google's search results (I've registered http://open.gl for this exact purpose).
• Including everything in one place. The current situation makes modern OpenGL too hard to learn.

I've come up with the following structure for the site I want to develop:

http://codepad.org/4yH2kxLl




I'd like to hear your input.

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So if you have some good ideas, then you should try to contribute to the more or less 'official' OpenGL wiki instead, helping to bring it out of its current desolate state.

I am afraid I won't be able to, as I do not currently have a PhD in graphics programming. Nor do I meet any of your other royal standards.

we need an MSDN equivalent for modern OpenGL.

No

Are you under a delusion that OpenGL is so complex that it requires professional experience to simply explain it to beginners? Adding more crap to the pill of crap won't help, and waiting for someone else to do it is lazy, what harm could come from making another website that would not anyways happen from bogging down a already unhelpful website?

In other words, we need an MSDN equivalent for modern OpenGL.

There are few things I want to see happen as badly as that.

I know that Microsoft is out of the question, but at the very least Apple should step up to the plate. They've done a pretty good job at creating very MSDN-like knowledge base for IOS development, among other things. My respect for Apple would increase drastically if they helped propel OpenGL as Microsoft did with DirectX, and with a market share over $300B they should have the money to blow away on increasing the standards of all the technologies their own software and operating systems rely on!

/anxious-to-see-opengl-truly-mature


I don't know what Polkm's deal is but he has clearly never used MSDN, I use it on a daily basis just about and can say with utmost confidence that he has no idea what he's talking about. Some examples; I was recently working on a C++ application to visualize music, and in that process I wanted to try and visualize audio playing through the system's audio endpoint, to get around having to play a specific MP3 or write a plug-in for an existing media player. So what I did is research the Windows 7 audio platform and architecture on MSDN, found the API's on MSDN, and even some sample code on MSDN, as well as ridiculously clear and intuitive information on how it was all connected (hell, they even create logical diagrams for you). Within a couple hours I had it all done and my software was running as I wanted, much simpler than it was for XP.

http://gltiich.blogs...-windows-7.html

Not long after that I bought some MIDI instruments, again, Microsoft documented everything so well and so clearly, that I was up and going with my own MIDI software to do some stuff for fun in just a couple hours (piecing everything together at first can be a bit slow hehe).

http://gltiich.blogs...put-with-c.html

MSDN has STL C++ documentation, and even entire sections around clever/neat short-hand notations and tricks. Things I never found so well centralized or organized on C++ focused websites like cprogramming.com or cplusplus.com. After having been developing with C++ for years I came across those sections in MSDN and learned quite a few new things and even had better clarity on many features I didn't have before then.

Also all of their platforms are documented in detail and followed-up with technical and howto articles.

Learning OpenGL in contrast for me was a long and painful experience, specifications are not clear or intuitive. I spent years trial-and-error developing a lot of it and piecing together a lot of separate specification documents to build the 'whole picture' conceptually. I don't care who you are or how smart you think you are - that is not a good method to learn something, especially if you want broader acceptance out of the professional gaming industry.

An MSDN equivalent for OpenGL is exactly what OpenGL needs in order to have a foundation to back its marketing. OpenGL as a whole needs to grow up, not just it's API, but everything around it including a support base for future/new programmers.

Finally, clearly, Microsoft has a conflict of interest in supporting OpenGL, even though they do to a limited extent (documentation wise). But a major player that is as well as financed like Apple, that could really make this all happen, it must! >:]

Yes, absolutely. Significant experience is a prerequisite for teaching any form of advanced concept to a beginner. No need for a PhD, but if you don't know the material inside-out, then you have no business teaching it.

I agree, but that is not what you were saying before. You were asking for professional experience, significant and professional are different. I am not interested in a deep argument over linguistics though. I say no to MSDN because it has only minimal documentation, and rarely covers relevant application. When I was starting out, MSDN might as well have been written in Latin. Beginners often have to resort to tutorial websites because the documentation website was written, unintentionally, for people who already know how it works.

why gamedev members like to derail threads to their own liking like this?


This guy has asked a clear question: "IS THERE A NEED FOR AN OGL GUIDE?"

I mean really its very clear.

And Im not talking bout this thread as a single example, many many times (including threads made by myself) this kind of behavior appears


And yeah, personally, Yes I think there is a need for an OGL guide that has no assumptions whatsoever . (well at least I need one xD)