gl3w_ is the easiest way to get your hands on the functionality offered by the OpenGL core profile specification.
Its main part is a simple gl3wgen.py Python script that downloads the Khronos supported glcorearb.h header and generates gl3w.h and gl3w.c from it. Those files can then be added and linked (statically or dynamically) into your project.
gl3wgen.py requires Python version 2.7 or newer. It is also compatible with Python 3.x.
Here is a simple example of using gl3w_ with glut. Note that GL/gl3w.h must be included before any other OpenGL related headers::
#include <stdio.h>
#include <GL/gl3w.h>
#include <GL/glut.h>
// ...
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
glutInit(&argc, argv);
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_RGBA | GLUT_DEPTH | GLUT_DOUBLE);
glutInitWindowSize(width, height);
glutCreateWindow("cookie");
glutReshapeFunc(reshape);
glutDisplayFunc(display);
glutKeyboardFunc(keyboard);
glutSpecialFunc(special);
glutMouseFunc(mouse);
glutMotionFunc(motion);
if (gl3wInit()) {
fprintf(stderr, "failed to initialize OpenGL\n");
return -1;
}
if (!gl3wIsSupported(3, 2)) {
fprintf(stderr, "OpenGL 3.2 not supported\n");
return -1;
}
printf("OpenGL %s, GLSL %s\n", glGetString(GL_VERSION),
glGetString(GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION));
// ...
glutMainLoop();
return 0;
}
The gl3w_ API consists of just three functions:
int gl3wInit(void)
Initializes the library. Should be called once after an OpenGL context has
been created. Returns ``0`` when gl3w_ was initialized successfully,
``non-zero`` if there was an error.
int gl3wIsSupported(int major, int minor)
Returns ``1`` when OpenGL core profile version *major.minor* is available
and ``0`` otherwise.
GL3WglProc gl3wGetProcAddress(const char *proc)
Returns the address of an OpenGL extension function. Generally, you won't
need to use it since gl3w_ loads all functions defined in the OpenGL core
profile on initialization. It allows you to load OpenGL extensions outside
of the core profile.
The generator script optionally takes the arguments:
--ext
to include the GL Extensions in output header.
--root=outputdir
to set the location for the output to something else than current working directory.
.. image:: public-domain-mark.png
gl3w_ is in the public domain. See the file UNLICENSE for more information.
Slavomir Kaslev slavomir.kaslev@gmail.com Initial implementation
Kelvin McDowell Mac OS X support
Sjors Gielen Mac OS X support
Travis Gesslein Patches regarding glcorearb.h
Arthur Tombs Port to Python 3
Daniel Cousens [https://github.com/dcousens] Code contributions
OpenGL is a registered trademark of SGI.
.. _gl3w: https://github.com/skaslev/gl3w .. _gl3w_gen.py: https://github.com/skaslev/gl3w/blob/master/gl3w_gen.py .. _glcorearb.h: https://www.opengl.org/registry/api/GL/glcorearb.h .. _OpenGL: http://www.opengl.org/ .. _Khronos: http://www.khronos.org/ .. _SGI: http://www.sgi.com/