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Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

learnopengl.com

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Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#121

Post by tstenner »

josemanuel wrote: post #114
cyber_kinetist wrote: post #27

The one and only Holy Bible of Graphics Programming. If you're starting to learn computer graphics, just study through the entire site and do the examples one by one. It doesn't matter one bit that it uses a slightly outdated API called OpenGL - you're supposed to learn how to render things first, not about some weird obscure hardware / driver details! After you've learned it, you can start learning CUDA if you want…

> but the game industry is imploding right now... Why is that? Is it because of AI automating many steps of game creation?

Modern gaming hardware is getting increasingly inaccessible and the micro transaction infected mobile gaming market is the only one make money.

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#122

Post by meheleventyone »

josemanuel wrote: post #114
cyber_kinetist wrote: post #27

The one and only Holy Bible of Graphics Programming. If you're starting to learn computer graphics, just study through the entire site and do the examples one by one. It doesn't matter one bit that it uses a slightly outdated API called OpenGL - you're supposed to learn how to render things first, not about some weird obscure hardware / driver details! After you've learned it, you can start learning CUDA if you want…

> but the game industry is imploding right now... Why is that? Is it because of AI automating many steps of game creation?

No, it’s a combo of a post-covid slump in spend, western markets becoming saturated and an assumption from the majority of industry that wouldn’t happen. Essentially games revenue has grown incredibly over the past twenty years and it’s now crunched to a halt.

Then layer in some incredibly bad bets like Game Pass for XBox and audience tastes shifting away from splashy big budget releases making them an “inevitable” success. It’s left middle aged execs heads in a twist.

In a broader view discoverability is the big problem for everyone. People are hoping in the short term that reducing budgets and scope will save things but all that will do is make the discoverability problem worse. So everyone’s hot under the collar for codev, offshoring, “the Hollywood model*” and so on without looking at the downstream effects of everyone doing that.

AI has largely impacted games by sucking all the available money away and the discoverability problem has made what little is left extremely conservative.

* - This has been a thing for at least three decades now in games despite the obvious collapse of this model and Hollywood.

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#123

Post by daniela-vera »

cyber_kinetist wrote: post #27

The one and only Holy Bible of Graphics Programming. If you're starting to learn computer graphics, just study through the entire site and do the examples one by one. It doesn't matter one bit that it uses a slightly outdated API called OpenGL - you're supposed to learn how to render things first, not about some weird obscure hardware / driver details! After you've learned it, you can start learning CUDA if you want…

Working through every example in order is the real advice here - the site clicks once you've actually debugged your own framebuffer, not just read the chapter. The math only sticks after you've drawn something wrong a few times.

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#124

Post by dbdr »

lesquivemeau wrote: post #120
metroholografix wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no need to pay for questionable courses. Here's an excellent free alternative that covers all the basics: https://haqr.eu/tinyrenderer/

The author of this course is among the best professors I’ve had back in university, I’m happily surprised to see his work shared here

That course was posted just yesterday, in case you are interested in the discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49022038

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#125

Post by flohofwoe »

fsloth wrote: post #81
godwinson__4-8 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, and a well regarded WebGPU guide is also trending on the front page at the same time :P The "universal" nature of WebGPU with the "web" focus feels a lot like the graphics API equivalent of WASM. In that regard there are also some interesting projects/opportunities.

"The "universal" nature of WebGPU with the "web" focus feels a lot like the graphics API equivalent of WASM" Having shipped non-trivial WASM code in two projects That's not a positive thing. WASM is stuck in zone between living and the dead - just good enough (barely) to merit creating production code when you need the perf in browser but not good enough to register as industrial quality tool as it's not possible rea…

> as it's not possible really to debug a WASM application

...as others have said, this is a solved problem and has been for quite a while:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscod...

I might even go that far and say that this solution is on average more robust and more responsive than debugging native code in Xcode.

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#126

Post by oumua_don17 »

metroholografix wrote: post #113
oumua_don17 wrote: post #93

If you really want to learn from first principles, I'd recommend writing a software renderer without any graphics API. If you're looking for a course, see [1]. Next up, extend the software renderer to render a 3D character model (an obj file will suffice) which [1] covers and animate that 3D model with skeletal animation all the while on the CPU. Use quake's md5mesh and md5anim files to render the skeletal animation…

There's no need to pay for questionable courses. Here's an excellent free alternative that covers all the basics: https://haqr.eu/tinyrenderer/

>> need to pay for questionable courses

You're absolutely wrong here and without backing it up with strong justification.

FWIW, I work at a FAANG as a HW/SW GPU Engineer, have enough experience to not have any need to do this course but did so to confirm it's appropriate and found it of top notch quality. We don't have enough GPU engineers and recommend this as one of the initial courses when we hire from other domains.

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#127

Post by cyber_kinetist »

superdisk wrote: post #117
cyber_kinetist wrote: post #27

The one and only Holy Bible of Graphics Programming. If you're starting to learn computer graphics, just study through the entire site and do the examples one by one. It doesn't matter one bit that it uses a slightly outdated API called OpenGL - you're supposed to learn how to render things first, not about some weird obscure hardware / driver details! After you've learned it, you can start learning CUDA if you want…

The best selling game of all time (Minecraft) is basically GL 1.1. You really don't need much.

Nope it uses modern OpenGL and LWJGL bindings under the hood. Recently they're in the process of switching the entire thing to Vulkan.

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#128

Post by imtringued »

pton_xd wrote: post #51
the__alchemist wrote: post #7

In 2026: Please don't learn this; it's obsolete. Learn Vulkan (Or another modern API; or how to build engines on top of them; or how to write shaders; or how to do GPU compute using CUDA etc)

This advice is basically like a teenager wanting to play electric guitar to jam out a few rock tunes, but their parents insist on learning classical guitar instead because starting with the fundamentals is the only "real" way to become a great musician. Meanwhile the kid loses interest and moves on to something else.

This analogy doesn't work. Vulkan is more like assembling your own electric guitar from scratch, while OpenGL is a used out of shape electric guitar you found on the flea market that is long since out of production.

If you're in it for learning how to play music, the flea market guitar will serve you better.

Re: Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL

#130

Post by fsloth »

flohofwoe wrote: post #125
fsloth wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The "universal" nature of WebGPU with the "web" focus feels a lot like the graphics API equivalent of WASM" Having shipped non-trivial WASM code in two projects That's not a positive thing. WASM is stuck in zone between living and the dead - just good enough (barely) to merit creating production code when you need the perf in browser but not good enough to register as industrial quality tool as it's not possible rea…

> as it's not possible really to debug a WASM application ...as others have said, this is a solved problem and has been for quite a while: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscod... I might even go that far and say that this solution is on average more robust and more responsive than debugging native code in Xcode.

Hmm I never could get the DWARF debug information to hook up properly, must give this a try next time I need to return to the topic.

If you don't mind - what's your specific setup when debugging Sokol, I might start from replicating that workflow?

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