awesome-opengl

A curated list of awesome OpenGL libraries, debuggers and resources.

Contents

• Articles
• Books
• Debug
• GLSL Editors
• Libraries
• Profile Loaders
• References
• Talks
• Videos
• Websites

Articles

OpenGL articles (non-tutorials)

• (2014) Ray tracing with OpenGL Compute Shaders by Kai Burjack - Detailed tutorial series about ray tracing using OpenGL (LWJGL).
• (2014) Things that drive me nuts about OpenGL by Rich Geldreich - Constructive (or not) criticism of GL API.
• (2011) A trip through the graphics pipeline by Fabian Giesen - Comprehensive and rich series about the D3D/OpenGL graphics pipeline.
• (2010) What is OpenGL? by Joe Groff - Brief introduction to the building blocks of OpenGL.

Books

Popular books about OpenGL

• A Trip Down the Graphics Pipeline by Jim Blinn - Popular book that contains wealth information about the graphics pipeline, and of the best sources to learn the core concepts of Computer Graphics.
• Computer Graphics by John F. Hughes, et al. - Computer Graphics is indeed a must for anyone being involved in the design and implementation of Computer Graphics algorithms. However, this is not a OpenGL focused book, but contains valuable demonstrations of the technology.
• Interactive Computer Graphics by Edward Angel and Dave Shreiner - It provides several examples using OpenGL and it covers several aspects at once, but if you are trying to learn OpenGL on your own you might not find this helpful.
• OpenGL ES 3.0 Programming Guide by Dan Ginsburg, et al. - It presents all the necessary information to use the OpenGL ES 3.0 API in a clear manner.
• OpenGL Insights by Patrick Cozzi, Christophe Riccio - Rich and comprehensive resource to learn techniques and tips, covering several advanced topics of OpenGL.
• OpenGL Programming Guide by Dave Shreiner, et al. - It does a good job covering the basics and providing clear reference of the API.
• OpenGL Shading Language by Randi J. Rost, et al. - Very clear and well written book about Shading Language. Also, it provides several explanations of writing shaders.
• OpenGL SuperBible by Richard S. Wright, et al. - It covers the basic concepts of computer graphics and provides clear examples using OpenGL. Definitely, it is a must for beginners.
• Real-Time Rendering by Tomas Akenine-Moller, Eric Haines and Naty Hoffman - It does a good job at explaining concepts for game engine, basis for game client programming as well as the necessary knowledge for understanding DirectX and OpenGL.

Debug

Debugging and profiling libraries

• apitrace - Tools for tracing OpenGL, Direct3D, and other graphics APIs.
• CodeXL - AMD's tool suite that includes debugger, profiler and frame/shader analysis.
• GL-SL Debugger - Tool for debugging OpenGL programs.
• GLIntercept - OpenGL function call interceptor for Windows.
• Intel-GPA - Intel's OpenGL Graphics Performance Analyzer.
• NVIDIA® Nsight™ - Development platform for graphics applications.
• RenderDoc - RenderDoc is a stand-alone graphics debugging tool.
• tracy - A real time remote telemetry frame profiler for games and other applications.
• vogl - OpenGL capture and playback debugger developed by Valve.

GLSL Editors

Online GLSL Editors

• GLSL Sandbox - Online live editor for fragment shaders.
• GLSLbin - Fragment shader sandbox supporting glslify.
• SHDR Editor - Live GLSL shader editor, viewer and validator.
• Shader Toy - Most popular live editor for fragment shaders.
• ShaderFrog - WebGL Shader Editor and Composer

Libraries

Useful libraries for OpenGL applications

• assimp - Portable library to import 3D models in a uniform manner.
• Bullet - It provides state of the art collision detection, soft body and rigid body dynamics.
• fltk - C++ Toolkit to generate UI widgets portably. LGPLv2
• freeGLUT - Mature library that allows to create/manage windows containing OpenGL contexts.
• GLFW - Modern library for creating/interact windows with OpenGL contexts.
• GLFM - Supplies an OpenGL ES context and input events for mobile devices and the web.
• glm - Mathematics library for graphics software based on the GLSL specifications.
• Magnum - It is a 2D/3D graphics engine for modern OpenGL.
• MathFu - C++ math library developed primarily for games focused on simplicity and efficiency.
• Newton - It is a cross-platform life-like physics.
• OGLplus - Collection of libraries which implement an object-oriented facade over OpenGL.
• SDL - Designed to provide low level access to multimedia and graphics hardware.
• SFML - Simple interface to ease the development of games and multimedia applications.
• SOIL - Tiny C library used primarily for uploading textures into OpenGL. (see SOIL2)
• Pangolin - Lightweight portable rapid development library for managing OpenGL display / interaction and abstracting video input.
• morphologica - OpenGL graphics engine for data visualization, especially of numerical simulations.

Profile Loaders

Profile loaders for OpenGL

• gl3w - Simple OpenGL core profile loader.
• glad - Multi profile loader-generator based on the official specs.
• glbindify - Command line tool to generate C bindings for OpenGL, wgl, and glX.
• glbinding - Profile loader leveraging C++11 features to provide type safety.
• GLEW - Mature cross-platform library to load OpenGL extensions.

References

OpenGL references

• docs.GL - It is an alternative documentation for OpenGL.
• OpenGL API Tables - Quick reference of API's for several OpenGL and GLSL versions.
• OpenGL Cheat Sheet - Quick reference card of OpenGL 4.3 commands and syntax.
• OpenGL Docs - Official documentation website.
• OpenGL Wiki - Official OpenGL wiki.

Talks

OpenGL related talks

• Approaching Zero Driver Overhead in OpenGL - Slides - AMA Reddit by Cass Everitt, Tim Foley, John McDonald, Graham Sellers [1:15:54]
• How Modern OpenGL Can Radically Reduce Driver Overhead by Cass Everitt, John McDonald [51:13]
• Moving Your Games to OpenGL by Rich Geldreich, Dan Ginsburg, Peter Lohrmann, Jason Mitchell [54:45]

Videos

OpenGL video tutorials

• Jamie King - Comprehensive tutorials about modern OpenGL and Qt.
• MakingGamesWithBen - Video tutorials (step-by-step) about OpenGL and game development.
• SIGGRAPH - Popular conference about computer graphics.
• TheChernoProject - Introduction to OpenGL in C++
• thebennybox - Videos tutorials about OpenGL and game development.
• ThinMatrix - Video tutorials about OpenGL and game development using Java.
• sentdex - Videos tutorials about OpenGL (immediate mode) using Python.
• Sonar Systems - Learn about the new and modern OpenGL 3.0+.

Websites

OpenGL tutorial websites

• 3D Game Shaders For Beginners by David Lettier
• Learn OpenGL by Joey de Vries
• Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming by Jason L. McKesson
• Light House 3D by Light House 3D
• Modern OpenGL by Tom Dalling
• OpenGL Examples by Norbert Nopper
• OpenGL Step by Step by Etay Meiri
• OpenGL Tutorial by Alexander Overvoorde
• OpenGL Tutorial by Anton Gerdelan
• OpenGL Tutorial by Bonder Wu
• OpenGL Tutorial by Song Ho Ahn

Related lists

Similar awesome lists

• awesome - A curated list of awesome lists.
• awesome-computer-vision - A curated list of awesome computer vision resources.
• awesome-webgl - A curated list of awesome WebGL libraries, resources and much more.
• awesome-vulkan - A curated list of awesome Vulkan projects and ecosystem.
• gamedev - A awesome list about game development.
• graphics-resources - A list of graphic programming resources.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.