Scott_Arm said:
Thanks. What info would you recommend I become familiar with before jumping into OpenGL? I've learned C/C++ and Data Structures and searching algorithms and such, but since I studied comp. eng. and not comp. sci. I never really had an opportunity to touch on GUIs in Windows.
I've only done about a semester in learning basic C++, pretty much the following: Input/output, control structures (if/else, loops,switch), arrays/strings, functions, recursion, struct/class, pointers.
At first, I only needed to know up to control structures.. just create some polygons, give em some vertex lighting and do some translations/rotations. Silly stuff
. You'll need to know arrays and pointers for texturing though (and other stuff
). I haven't gone beyond those yet. I'm still messing around
Nehe has a tutorial on texturing, but I'm very imitative in coding.. so I'm quite limited if I wanted to introduce something a little more than what he covers in particular
Think I'd have problems with glut without knowing how to do native window management?
I think glut is about the easiest it gets with window management. It's quite simple... just gotta know the 6 or so 1 line function calls (and arguments) that you'll probably use for most basic GL progs.
The red book was quite helpful to me with this. It also covers camera position at the same time which is nice too.
If you look at the actual windows.h windows management... it gets quite messy IMO. Too much to remember
I've also studied linear algebra and calculus at the university level, so I think I should be alright on the math. I'll probably never get into really advanced stuff, because I'm not gonna do this professionally or anything, I don't think. I'm interested as a hobby, and I'd like to understand more of the discussions that go on in this forum. I've always been a gamer, and I find it really incredible how the technology has advanced.
same here too!
Overall, the red book just gives you the basics... it doesn't tell you how to write your own game engine though
Nehe seems to be great for sort of learning more advanced stuff... even shaders.