I'm pretty confused and sick of failing, I searched like crazy and resisted the urge to make a new thread for a long time but here it is.

I don't feel like my attributes are getting passed into my shaders properly. Here is my code for when I bind objects to VBOs

(this is LWJGL)

		int vaoId = glGenVertexArrays();
		glBindVertexArray(vaoId);

		int vboVertexHandle = glGenBuffers();
		int vboTextureHandle = glGenBuffers();
		int vboNormalHandle = glGenBuffers();

		glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboVertexHandle);
		glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
		glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL_FLOAT, false, 0, 0);

		glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboTextureHandle);
		glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, textureCoordinates, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
		glVertexAttribPointer(1, 2, GL_FLOAT, false, 0, 0);

		glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboNormalHandle);
		glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, normals, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
		glVertexAttribPointer(2, 3, GL_FLOAT, false, 0, 0);
		
		glEnableVertexAttribArray(0);
		glEnableVertexAttribArray(1);
		glEnableVertexAttribArray(2);

		glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0);
		glBindVertexArray(0);
		return vaoId;

when I call glVertexAttribute(), the first number can be whatever I want...right? It is the position that I want to find that information at in the VAO in the future?

and then I did this

	glBindAttribLocation(shaderProgram, 0, "VertexPosition");
	glBindAttribLocation(shaderProgram, 1, "TextureCoordinate");
	glBindAttribLocation(shaderProgram, 2, "Normals");

before using the shader, and tried initialize access of the information in the vertex shader like this

in vec3 VertexPosition;

Is this right? What is missing?

Also, if I'm using GLSL 4.0 is using the location like this

layout (location = 0) in vec3 VertexPosition;

a direct replacement for this?

glBindAttribLocation(shaderProgram, 0, "VertexPosition");

That last part is true. You no longer need glBindAttribLocation if you're using the layouts in the shader (works since OpenGL 3.2 I think).

About your vbos, I'm not sure. I don't know if its wrong though it looks okay. 3 different pointers for 3 different vbos that hold different attributes. Though I'd store everything in a single vbo.

Thanks for confirming that for me.

Mixing the three vbos together are called interleaved, right? I wanted to get it straightened out with them separated before introducing any complications that could occur from having them mixed.

How can I pass (is that even the right word?) a uniform?

The example I'm looking at has

uniform sampler2D myTextureSampler;

in the shader

My render code has this

	        glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE0);
		glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, textureId);
                int texLoc = glGetUniformLocation(shaderProgram, "myTextureSampler");
		glUniform1i(texLoc, 0);

When I print texLoc out it is always -1

What is wrong here?

Thanks for the continuous vbo example.

When I print texLoc out it is always -1

What is wrong here?

Thanks for the continuous vbo example.

If myTextureSampler is not used then the compiler optimizes it out of the program as if it weren't declared.

#version 330 core

in vec2 TC;

out vec3 color;

uniform sampler2D myTextureSampler;

void main(void) {
	
	color = texture( myTextureSampler, TC ).rbg;
}

It is used :\

That fixed function stuff was waaay easier, the learning curve on this seems really steep

#version 330 core

layout (location = 0) in vec3 VertexPosition;
layout (location = 1) in Vec2 TextureCoordinate;

out vec2 TC;

void main(void) {

	TC = TextureCoordinate;
	gl_Position = gl_ModelViewProjectionMatrix * vec4(VertexPosition, 1);
}

Yeah, my vertex shader isn't compiling correctly. I'm still using the built in matrix functions at the moment. Hmmmm