NGL VS ModernGL

I have a number of instructions on my Github pages here https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/main/Windows.md whilst aimed at my own library the first part about installing Visual Studio and the basic setup will help.

code here https://github.com/NCCA/NGL

My Windows build is here https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/main/.github/workflows/windows.yml I use vcpkg for installing 3rd party libs and the msvc-dev command from here https://github.com/ilammy/msvc-dev-cmd

Also I have just done an experimental version of my code that uses WSL2 (which supports graphics). You could try that. https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/NewShaderLib/WSL.md

I also have a ShaderLib class that does similar stuff keeping everything in a static map (used to be a singleton class). Been using it for teaching for a number of years you can see it here https://github.com/NCCA/NGL

There are loads of edge cases and gotcha's as well. I have a full(ish) parser here with unit tests if it helps. (Note I use pystring to do the string processing). https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/main/src/Obj.cpp unit tests here https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/main/tests/ObjTests.cpp. May give you some ideas.

I use glfw in a number of projects here are my instructions for building my library https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/main/Windows.md You should be able to use the bits you need from here to setup vcpkg etc. I suggest using the free Visual Studio community edition and installing most of the tools you need from there. After that install vcpkg and setup the paths required. (see my notes).

The one I use in my teaching is here. https://github.com/NCCA/NGL it also includes Math / Vec class which you may not need if you use something like GLM. Also this uses TDD so get into writing unit tests as part of it.

typically I just have classes with static factory methods to keep things together, usually with a std::unordered_map s_things; so I can create by name. This is an example for an OpenGL Vertex Array Object https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/master/include/ngl/VAOFactory.h

I have several using a Factory design pattern here https://github.com/NCCA/NGL Checkout https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/master/include/ngl/AbstractVAO.h for the basic structure, then I have different versions depending upon context and usage.

Also have a look at this repo https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL/ which has a load of different demos using different libraries for Context generation and extension loading.

If you follow the instructions I give to my students here https://github.com/NCCA/NGL/blob/main/Windows.md up to the vcpkg install. You can then install GLEW via vcpkg and try something like this https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL/tree/master for your OpenGL demos.

See if these simple demos work for you https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL/tree/master (I write these on a mac first if I can, you just need vcpkg and cmake to build).

Also a full working demo to draw a triangle https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL/tree/master/SDL2TriangleGLEW It uses GLEW on Windows and Linux but defines it out on the Mac, You need CMake and SDL2 installed using vcpkg but you can adapt to your install

I have a number of demos here that use various libs to create a modern OpenGL triangle https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL

I use glfw with vcpkg which will download and build it for you. Makes things a little easier as you can do it all with CMake. This example (showing OpenGL and GLEW with GLFW) should give you all you need if you want to do it this way. https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL/tree/master/GLFWTriangleGLEW

You need to ensure you use either a full core profile context or an old compatibility OpenGL 2.1 context, you can't mix and match (Like in Windows / linux). Also Vertex Array Objects are mandatory for core profile on the mac (on some older systems you can get away without using them). Personally I use either Qt or SDL2 for creating the context but you can also use other frameworks. I've got a load of simple demos using different frameworks here https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL Including one that uses the Objective C / coca for creating the window / context.

Here is a basic example drawing a coloured triangle using two buffers, https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL/blob/master/PyQtTriangle/PyQtTriangle.py You can modify this to draw points quite easily by changing the glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, 3) call to use GL_POINTS

Creating the context you have a few options, SDL2, GLFW Qt or native mac. I wrote a series of demos to draw a basic triangle https://github.com/NCCA/ModernGL Each one uses a different tool / library. It uses cmake and vcpkg to install all the libs you need etc.