CS629 OpenGL/Glut Tutorial

CS629: OpenGL/Glut Tutorial

The following tutorial assumes that you have Microsoft Visual C++ and a Windows 95/98 machine. It is also assumed that Visual C++ has been installed to the default directory, e.g. c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio.

How to get OpenGL and Glut Installed

First, download opengl95.exe and glut32stuff.zip from http://csis.pace.edu/~marchese .

Second, determine if OpenGL is installed on you computer. If you are running a later version of Windows95, Windows 98, or Windows NT, most likely you have it installed. To find out, look in c:\windows\system for the files opengl32.dll and Glu32.dll. If you find them, OpenGL is installed! If and only if they do not exist, do the following:

Create a special temporary directory, c:\tempogl.

Move the opengl95.exe file into this directory.

Run opengl95.exe. This will create the following files in the current directory:

Glu32.dll, Opengl32.dll

Gl.h, Glaux.h, Glu.h

Glaux.lib, Glu32.lib, Opengl32.lib

Copy all files ending with .dll to the c:\windows\system directory.

Third, if you have Visual C++ 6.0 installed, you probably have Gl.h, Glaux.h, Glu.h installed in the compiler's ..\include\gl directory. If not, copy these files into the directory. Check also the compiler's ..\lib directory for Glaux.lib, Glu32.lib, Opengl32.lib. Copy them in, if they are not there.

Fourth, Glut will not be installed on your system. Unzip glut32stuff.zip. It will produce the following files:

glut32.dll, glut.h, glut32.lib .

Copy these into their requisite directories.

Congratulations, you are now ready to enter the fun and exciting world of OpenGL and Glut programming!

How to use OpenGL or Glut in a program under Visual C++:

First, you need to let Visual C++ know that you want it to consult all the necessary libraries. To do this, you must go under the Build menu item and chose Settings.

A Project Settings dialog box will pop up. You now need to select the Link tab. Unfortunately, the Link tab is hiding. Click the half-a-tab circled below...

...and the Link page will magically appear:

The Object/library modules section of this page which you are interested in is circled in red above. Scroll to the end of this line and add the necessary *.lib files to the list.

There are four libraries that you need to add: opengl32.lib, glu32.lib, glaux.lib, and glut32.lib. Which of these you need depends on the specific program, but since it doesn't hurt to have extra libs listed, I suggest you add all four.

That's it, everything should work.

Second: Build an OpenGL or Glut program:

Open Visual C++.

Select from the menu New->Project Workspace

Choose Console Application

Name the project gasket.

Select Insert->Files Into Project

Find and choose Angel's book example gasket.c.

Compile, link and run. Ignore any compile warnings. If you get link errors, check to see if the opengl libs have been linked in. If not, check the above procedure.

13 September, 1999