2D, SDL, and OpenGL Help Needed...

OK, after the earlier post regarding SDL's slow framerates (not that
it's *that* slow) I have been looking at OpenGL related stuff on the
internet. The thing is, I can't seem to find out what files I need to
start programming with OpenGL, and there seems to be little (if any)
documentation about how to integrate OpenGL with SDL.

Just to do a bit of running before I can walk, do you open a window
(define/display a surface) with SDL and use OpenGL to write to it?

I've been reading about GLU and GLUT, would either of these be better to
use for programming a 2D game? If I used GLUT, would that render SDL
obsolete (it looks like you can use it for detecting input etc.)?

I would really like to use the core OpenGL if I can as I feel it would
be more beneficial to learn that API.

Sorry for all the questions!

Thanks,
Pete

Pete Taylor wrote:
> OK, after the earlier post regarding SDL's slow framerates (not that
> it's *that* slow) I have been looking at OpenGL related stuff on the
> internet. The thing is, I can't seem to find out what files I need to
> start programming with OpenGL, and there seems to be little (if any)
> documentation about how to integrate OpenGL with SDL.

Surely there is an example on the SDL website?

It's been a while since I looked at SDL & OpenGL, but I don't recall it
being that hard.

> Just to do a bit of running before I can walk, do you open a window
> (define/display a surface) with SDL and use OpenGL to write to it?

I beleive that you set up an SDL surface, and use SDL_OPENGL or
something similar as one of the property flags.

> I've been reading about GLU and GLUT, would either of these be better to
> use for programming a 2D game? If I used GLUT, would that render SDL
> obsolete (it looks like you can use it for detecting input etc.)?

I wouldn't. GLUT is intended for a quick utility GUI for openGL, not
for games. I think SDL is the right way to go

Peter Ashford <me@here.there.com> wrote in
newsH3Db.29247$VV6.674099@news.xtra.co.nz:

> Pete Taylor wrote:
>> OK, after the earlier post regarding SDL's slow framerates (not that
>> it's *that* slow) I have been looking at OpenGL related stuff on the
>> internet. The thing is, I can't seem to find out what files I need to
>> start programming with OpenGL, and there seems to be little (if any)
>> documentation about how to integrate OpenGL with SDL.
>
> Surely there is an example on the SDL website?
>
> It's been a while since I looked at SDL & OpenGL, but I don't recall
> it being that hard.
>
>> Just to do a bit of running before I can walk, do you open a window
>> (define/display a surface) with SDL and use OpenGL to write to it?
>
> I beleive that you set up an SDL surface, and use SDL_OPENGL or
> something similar as one of the property flags.
>
>> I've been reading about GLU and GLUT, would either of these be better
>> to use for programming a 2D game? If I used GLUT, would that render
>> SDL obsolete (it looks like you can use it for detecting input etc.)?
>
> I wouldn't. GLUT is intended for a quick utility GUI for openGL, not
> for games. I think SDL is the right way to go
>
>

Thanks for the advice Peter, I will continue using SDL then (hooray!)

Cheers,
Pete

Pete Taylor <not@this.address> wrote in
news:Xns944F7A6665F8Fpetetaylorphilipscom@130.139. 56.200:

> OK, after the earlier post regarding SDL's slow framerates (not that
> it's *that* slow) I have been looking at OpenGL related stuff on the
> internet. The thing is, I can't seem to find out what files I need to
> start programming with OpenGL, and there seems to be little (if any)
> documentation about how to integrate OpenGL with SDL.
>
> Just to do a bit of running before I can walk, do you open a window
> (define/display a surface) with SDL and use OpenGL to write to it?
>
> I've been reading about GLU and GLUT, would either of these be better
> to use for programming a 2D game? If I used GLUT, would that render
> SDL obsolete (it looks like you can use it for detecting input etc.)?
>
> I would really like to use the core OpenGL if I can as I feel it would
> be more beneficial to learn that API.
>
> Sorry for all the questions!
>
> Thanks,
> Pete

Just to answer my own moronic questions!

Everything you need to start using OpenGL is already provided with the
complete Dev-Cpp download (the one that incorporates gcc) so there is no
need to search for library/header files as they already exist!

As Mr Ashford pointed out, there is a cunningly hidden piece of example
source code for initialising OpenGL using SDL. I found it in the HTML
documentation, *not* by following the link for "OpenGL" on the
libsdl.org website (which is where I was initially looking)!

Finally, as Peter pointed out, SDL and OpenGL appear to work together
quite well (which is good news for me as I didn't want to have to
re-write all my code to be Windows specific).

I've posted this just in case any other newbies out there find
themselves struggling as I was (unlikely I know, but I can't be the only
moron, can I?)!

Thanks,
Pete