what do you think about using glut for games? I think that I read about some disadvantages, but cant remember :] tia, dani [edited by - daniDG on June 18, 2003 10:11:37 PM]

Well, I wouldn''t use it because I just don''t like the setup. Also, it is not kept up n e more and problems can arise from that. And also, I like to have full controll over EVERYTHING(my windows included) and glut doesn''t really allow for that.

Hiya!

I have been actually debating this same thing. I think that its up to you and what you want to do. Im not sure, but I think glut can work on linux and mac as well (correct me if Im wrong, please!), if so, theres a big reason to use it!

Glut is really easy to use, it has a ton of features and it will save you time and work. Then again though, you could use NeHe''s base code if you dont want to code your own windows code, Im sure that glut does not have all of the same functionality windows does and in a commercial games, the console window that comes up along with the main window may be a bit lame.

Its up to you though, I am personally going to make my own windows system though, but using glut would probably be more then sufficient enough.(im just one of those evil people who like to code windows stuff

Thats just my personal thoughts, you probably should just forget what I just said. lol.

~yodaman

Plus:
GLUT is very easy
GLUT has ok documention, good for OpenSource.
GLUT has a lot of example programs for it. A large plus for learning.

Con:
GLUT''s design makes it unsuitable for large projects. (you can still use it, you just have to design better)
GLUT doesn''t come with Sound, networking, you''ll have to use seperate sources
GLUT doesn''t return. A very big negitive
GLUT isn''t really free Open Souce, you cannot change it to suit you needs.
GLUT requires some source crawling inorder to use advance functions, which are not documented.

---
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Dont want to sound like an ass but if you want to make a serious game engine and ultimately game then you want your code to be modular enough so that you can easily remove or add both GLUT or OGL. This shouldnt be a big issue.

If you are doing games and don''t plan to have windows functionality such as menus, buttons, etc.. meaning everything u need will be displayed in OpenGL, it is perfectly fine to use GLUT.

All GLUT does is to help u open up a window which accepts OpenGL function calls. So unless u like to use the additional window features, i see no reason why you shouldnt use GLUT since it opens up a window with a few lines of code as compared to a few hundred lines using Windows Code. A major plus is it will make your code portable to many platforms like Linux and Mac.

Also, it is easier to handle Keyboard input, Mouse Input etc.. in GLUT as compared to Windows Input or DirectInput.

Also GLUT provides many useful functions like a timer callback function, Bitmap rendered fonts(stay away from this though as bitmap fonts are slow, but it''s useful for debugging),etc...

Personally i feel Windows Code is a real pain, especially when developing games in fullscreen since all i really want is a window or a fullscreen mode. Why would i want to bother about Device contexts, rendering contexts, setting them up, then deleting them and releaseing them.

However if you plan to make typical Windows applications, it would be to your advantage to learn windows coding.

As for the console window it can be easily removed by creating a Windows App and changing the linker options

Entry Point: mainCRTStartUp

thanx for your answers.

I indent to do some opengl stuff with c/c++ first. Then I want to implement some stuff using java and lwjgl.

I asked about GLUT because I don''t really want to write for one os only. At least Linux(/Mac) should be supported.

hf,
dani

I personally consider glut good for quick test cases and for tutorials, other than that it''s not much flexible and not that much useful either. Also, I think llvllatrix is kinda right too. But anyway, who cares about what I think huh? ;p

Also look into SDL, similar functionality as GLUT, but a bit more extensive of a library, and I beleive it''s still being kept up.