Table of Contents Now that you understand at least the
beginnings of graphics programming, it would be useful to
discuss how to get started using OpenGL in your own projects.
This discussion will assume that you know how to set up a build
project in your build system of choice. The easiest way is to
just use the Unofficial OpenGL SDK. It is a well-documented
collection of tools for writing simple OpenGL applications. It
has functions for compiling shaders, the mouse-based controls we
have used, image loading tools, and various other utilities that
are vital to making OpenGL applications. Details for how to use
it are found on the SDK's website. If you choose not to use the
SDK, then you will have to build a set of useful tools yourself.
In order to use OpenGL, you will need to do two things. You must
create a window and attach an OpenGL context to it, and you must
load the OpenGL functions for that context. There are a number
of other tools you may want (vector math, model loading, image
loading, etc), but th