OpenGL resources

[Wielkie G]

Hello.

I wanted to learn OpenGL more (I know generally how it works, but I can't write any usable program). However, every tutorial I've found (like NeHe, red book) is very old and teaches about 1.x. OpenGL 2.0 brigs GLSL, which totally changes the way you have to program. I know that probably such a great tutorial that teaches GLSL + GL3.x + VBO + etc doesn't exist... But maybe some sort of resource center that is oriented on newer OGL programming? Of cource I'm talking about HTTP and free web

Any help appreciated.

[rohcQaH]

there's no point in learning GLSL unless you understand the basics. NeHe is still good, if you understand the first lessons as a teaching aid rather than the final wisdom.

[Svartalf]

You're not going to find such a tutorial, even for Direct3D.

However, as rohcQaH pointed out you can get a good set of tutorials on a good portion of the basics over at NeHe's website. You should also consider getting the OpenGL SuperBible. It's a very good book, written by Richard Wright, Benjamin Lipchak (one of my former managers), and Nicolas Haemel (He was the team lead for the job Benj was the manager for...).

Here's a good lineup of links to look into for the info you're going to need to do OpenGL stuff...

The SuperBible
NeHe Productions Website
The OpenGL 2.1 Programming Guide (Also referred to OpenGL programmers as the "Red Book".
The OpenGL 2.1 Reference Pages
OpenGL(R) Shading Language (2nd Edition) (Referred to as the "Gold Book")
The GLSL 1.5.0 Reference
The OpenGL 3.2 and GLSL 3.2 quick reference card

And, if you're interested in doing things within the handheld space being opened up by Maemo/Moblin/MeeGo, Android, WebOS, and others, you'll be interested in the following links:

OpenGL(R) ES 2.0 Programming Guide (You can make-do with the spec docs and the above info, but it's better if you can obtain this book...)
The spec docs page for OpenGL ES 1.0, 1.0 SC, 1.1, and 2.0

There's more stuff to be had out on the net with a bit of googling- but this covers a good portion of the stuff you'd need to have as a tutorial or reference to get started. The stuff at HeNe is a good tutorial, but not a steadfast guide to practice. The stuff in the SuperBible IS, however a pretty good guide to practice, but there's a bit more of a learning curve within it. The main reason I suggest you consider it along with NeHe's stuff is that the folks writing the SuperBible KNOW OpenGL like the back of their hands. One of them has sat on some of the ARB boards, the same gent and one other do the device drivers for OpenGL (and in one case OpenGL ES at least for a while, OpenGL ES...).

[Wielkie G]

Thanks for the links. I'm now studying NeHe tutorial. I knew basics a bit, but I thought that they're irrelevant now, because of GLSL. But now I think that basics are also important. Also AFAIK, for performance reasons, GLSL and VBO's are important, and I'm going to look at them a bit more later.

I won't buy any book now simply because I do it all for hobby. But it's highly possible that I will be learning such things at university - that's a year ahaead. Writing own simple 3D engine would be a good practice

[sarman]

The tutorial helps you create an OpenGL program with simple polygons, etc.

The tutorial gives you source code for many languages: C++, Visual Basic, etc.

I believe you'll find it interesting.

Best regards,