OpenGL and SDL. Is there an easy way?

MicahM · 2001-12-30T15:42:06

A couple weeks ago I decided to spend my winter break teaching myself 3D/Game programming. So, I started out by looking for a good website that contained all the information that I would need. I then went through and looked into what 3D, windowing, and input APIs I would need. From what I have found there are two options: Direct X (with Direct 3D) and SDL (with OpenGL). So I then went and looked for some tutorials on how to get all this working. Seeing as how I am a big fan of cross platform compatability I decided to go with SDL/OpenGL. That was where my problems began. What I was hoping for was to be able to just sit down and start coding. What I ended up doing instead was spending the next 3 days tring to figure out how to get a bare bones program to compile using anything other than MSVC++. Everywhere I go there are tutorials for how to do this and that in MSVC++. Meanwhile, here I am, with my connection to the internet, a copy of CodeWarrior and a distinct dislike for MSVC. Teaching myself the art of compiling was not what I had in mind for my break. My question is this (finally): Is there an easy way to write and compile SDL/OpenGL applications without all the hassle of beefed up IDEs and optimizing compilers? What I''m imagining is writing my program in a text editor, telling a command line compiler where the required headers, libraries, and DLLs can be found, and then compiling and running my program. So far, after going through various tutorials, forums, websites, etc, all I have found are a collection of tutorials discribing how to get SDL/OpenGL working in MSVC++, and a couple tutorials that tell you to download their package that has everything setup for you and not learn to do it yourself. The reason I want the basics is because I want to learn what all is going on when I compile my programs, I don''t want to just "trust" that everything is going as planned and that MS or a guy with a website set everything up correctly. MORE RANTING: Why can''t it be like ANSI C where you write you program and compile it. No fuss. No worries. If you have libraries you want to use just let the compiler know where to find them and all is well. Sorry, this turned into quite the rant. I am very frustrated with all the MSVC++ stuff I''m finding. Even the people that are against the usage of MS and Direct X/3D use MSVC++ to write their programs which is even more frustrating. -Micah the Frustrated

Graphics and GPU Programming Programming OpenGL

Started by MicahM December 27, 2001 01:34 AM

9 comments, last by MicahM 22 years, 3 months ago

zedzeek

529

December 30, 2001 03:42 PM

>>Are you off your rocker? Please list some game development houses (since this is a game development related forum) that don''t use Windows as their primary (usually its their ONLY) development platform?<<

prolly 80percent of all the largest game companies DONT use windows as there main development platform
eg nintendo, rockstar, Konami etc

http://uk.geocities.com/sloppyturds/gotterdammerung.html

Captain Courgette, eat more veg

OpenGL and SDL. Is there an easy way?

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