Start without GLUT?

And what if OpenGL becomes outdated?. I, for one am using SDL. Also there is SFML.SDL gives me most of the things I need in a cross-platform manner(initialization,hadling input, etc ..). I don't know how the bigs app do it but since Blender is open source you can check it out yourself.

Hope this helps.

As far as i know GLUT is not outdated rather it is GLAUX that is replaced by GLUT.
And that is the reason you find all the newer tutorials using GLUT.

i am also a beginner and i started with GLAUX.But now a days i am using GLUT.
And GLUT supports most of the standard library.You can also use gl.h and glu.h with GLUT :)

If you are a beginner i would recommend you to go with GLUT(obviously if you want to use OpenGL).

to CableGuy->OpenGL is always going to rule.I have no idea about SDL or SFML.So i can't say anything about that.
TC

thanks a lot.. well, thats true, opengl might be outdated too in a few years/centuries :-D, but the lobby is much bigger behind OpenGL than Glut, isn't it?

Well, using Glut might be not the worst Idea so I have to check out. Is there any information about the stuff, when GLUT is not be available on further OS? Windows Seven / OSX Snow Leopard?

Cheers, ShadowMaker

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Original post by ShadowMaker Is there any information about the stuff, when GLUT is not be available on further OS? Windows Seven / OSX Snow Leopard?

Windows 7 is still Windows. GLUT will work on it.

Similarly, Snow Leopard is still OS X. GLUT will (generally) work on it.

There's a list of windowing toolkits for GL here.

I don't think you should even care about whether or not you're using GLUT. GLUT is only for creating a window and initializing OpenGL on multiple platforms. If you're goal is to learn graphics programming, then just use any toolkit that is easy to learn.

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Original post by ShadowMaker But I used GLUT and I read that GLUT is outdated. What would you prefer to use?

In order of my preferences:
1. SFML - Modern C++ library that provides a nice framework for things to use alongside your application.
2. GLFW - A very lightweight C based OpenGL framework that is easy to use.
3. SDL - A C based framework that has been around for a long time and offers a lot to the cross platform development domain.

GLUT is 'ok' to use if you are doing anything that does not relate to games. The architecture and features of the library make itself more applicable and beneficial to toolkits, academia projects, and anything that needs a crossplatform GUI. If you want to get into game development, then you will need to choose something else as GLUT was not intended for such tasks. There is a GameGlut functionality, but you really are better off with a more flexible architecture in the long run.

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I tried to use no library and just the standard lib of OpenGL but its hard to find resources which don't use any lib.

Nehe's Tutorials offers such tutorials, but they are old and messy (for that very reason no library was used, mostly because there weren't many around at the time they were written!) Likewise, there are tons of other series floating around that don't use libraries simply because when you are programming in OpenGL, the API is the same no matter what library you use. Search around some more as finding tutorials for OpenGL that actually do use a specific library is hard. Don't forget to simply use the GameDev search for OpenGL Tutorials. There are tons of resources accumulated over the past 10 years here!

So, if you want to start out using GLUT, I think that's fine in your situation. Just be sure to take a look at other alternatives first to see what's out there. Don't spend too much more time trying to figure out what to use, as that won't help you. Just pick one library and start working with it. If you find you are not making good progress, try another library and so on until you find one you can get stuff done with. The key is to just 'do' and not 'contemplate'. Good luck!

Hi!

Thanks for your suggestions. They helped me a lot that it might be not the best idea to start with the question: "which".

Well, I did not want to to any game, just to create a 3d editor (like blender). Well, thats serious, so I don't think I will create something which is better. I just want to begin with something like "moving the cam around instancable objects", "rotate the cam", "move objects" so I guess these targets are okay and are serious.


Cheer, ShadowMaker :)