A Comprehensive Guide to Setting Up Windows with OpenGL 4.3 for Beginners

In this tutorial, we will cover the basics of setting up a development environment on Windows to work with OpenGL 4.3.

### Prerequisites

- A working installation of Visual Studio (2010 or later recommended)

- .NET Framework 4 Client Profile installed if not included during VS setup

- SDL2 Development Libraries and Headers (for windowing functionality)

### Step-by-One Installation

#### Downloading the Necessary Tools

1. Head to 'https://www.opengl.org/wiki/Upendra'(https://www.opengl.org/wiki/Upendra) for detailed installation instructions specific to your system.

#### Setting Up Visual Studio

- Create a new C++ project in VS and choose 'Empty Project' or similar, depending on the version you're using.

- Add the following include directories:

- SDL2/include (for header files)

- SDL2/lib/VC/'64bit' (depending on your system architecture) for static libraries

- 'path to GLFW SDK'/include and lib/x86_ or x86_64/ for GLFW headers and libraries

#### Setting Up OpenGL

1. Install the latest version of GLEW from their official website:

2. Follow these steps to include it in your project:

- Download and extract GLEw-2.x.x.zip (where x is the current version number) somewhere on your system.

- Add the following directories to both 'Include' and 'Libraries/Linker/Libraries':

* 'GLEW installation directory'/include

* 'GLEW installation directory'/lib/'x86 or x64' depending on whether you're using 32-bit or 64bit VS

#### Creating Your First OpenGL Program

1. Create a new C++ project in Visual Studio and call it 'HelloWorld'.

2. In the source file (e.g., main.cpp), paste this code:

```cpp

#include #include

int main(int argc, char *argv'') {

// Initialize SDL

if(SDL_Init(0) != 0){

return -1;

}

// Create an OpenGL window and context.

Uint32 flags = SDL_WINDOW_SHARABLE | SDL_DOUBLEBUFFER;

const int width = 800;

const int height = 600;

SDL_Window* pWindow = NULL;

if( !SDL_CreateWindowAndContext(

'Hello World',

SDL_WINDOWPOS_CENTERED,

width, height, flags, &pWindow,&g_pDC

)

) {

return -1; // Error creating window or context.

}

// Set up the OpenGL rendering API (e.g., for older systems)

if (!glewInit(pDC)) { /* error */ }

SDL_GLMakeCurrent(g_hglrc);

while( !Quit() )

{

// Here you can call your main loop here

// If no events are pending, wait until there are some.

while (SDL_PollEvent(&event) == 0)

;

// Handle any quit attempts

if(event.type==QUIT){

// Clean up and exit

SDL_GLDeleteContext(g_hglrc);

SDL_Quit();

return -1;

}

return 0;

}

```

3. Build the project using 'Build' -> 'Rebuild All'.

4. Run the application.

This tutorial should have you set up with a basic development environment for creating OpenGL applications on Windows.

Windows opengl 4.3 tutorial