New to graphics development, where should I start?

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on /r/cpp

Our great sponsors
  • WorkOS - The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS
  • InfluxDB - Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale
  • SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews
  • sokol

    minimal cross-platform standalone C headers

  • An alternative you did not mention, which might also be useful to you, are these https://github.com/floooh/sokol and https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx . These are graphics API abstraction layers. They work the similarly to SDL in that they aim to abstract the API details of the graphics APIs into a single front facing API, allowing you to do graphics work without caring (too much) about the underlying backends. This could be a good option for you too if you want to go the multiplatform way.

  • LearnOpenGL

    Code repository of all OpenGL chapters from the book and its accompanying website https://learnopengl.com

  • I'm not too familiar with UI programming but for graphics I would recommend https://learnopengl.com/ if you're trying to build your own engine (which it seems like you are).

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

    WorkOS logo
  • bgfx

    Cross-platform, graphics API agnostic, "Bring Your Own Engine/Framework" style rendering library.

  • An alternative you did not mention, which might also be useful to you, are these https://github.com/floooh/sokol and https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx . These are graphics API abstraction layers. They work the similarly to SDL in that they aim to abstract the API details of the graphics APIs into a single front facing API, allowing you to do graphics work without caring (too much) about the underlying backends. This could be a good option for you too if you want to go the multiplatform way.

  • tinyrenderer

    A brief computer graphics / rendering course

  • Last point I'd mention is, if this seems overwhelming and there's too much to learn here you could start with either a smaller project like this one https://github.com/ssloy/tinyrenderer or go the engine route and let an engine take care of all the platform and API details and you can focus exclusively in the gfx like here: https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/ .

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

Suggest a related project

Related posts