Compiling OpenGL Outside the Lab

You are allowed to develop code on your own machine, instead of the lab machines. However, you must ensure that your code compiles and runs on the lab machines for grading (with the exception of the final project). You must do this before the project is due, don't put it off until the last minute!

Note that it is up to you to configure your home machine so that it works. To make your lives a bit easier, we're providing the information based on the experience of past students. If you have additions or corrections, let us know.

OpenGL should be default-installed on everything (Linux/Windows/Macs).

You will need to install GLUT yourself on Windows and Linux.

Windows:
- Visual Studio setup
  1. Step 1 : Install Visual Studio. Download Visual C++ 2008 Express from http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/default.aspx, or you can get the Visual Studio 2008 Prefessional from the UBC MSDN academic alliance through http://www.cs.ubc.ca/local/computing/system/software.shtml.
  2. Get OpenGL libraries. (These libraries *do* come with a standard installation of Visual Studio, so this step would only needed if you decide to use some other IDE.) Install Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5, from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E6E1C3DF-A74F-4207-8586-711EBE331CDC&displaylang=en.
  3. Install GLUT
    1. Download bins from http://www.xmission.com/~nate/glut.html.
    2. Copy glut.h to (Visual Studio 9 Installation directory)\VC\include\GL (Ex. : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\include)
    3. Copy the glut32.lib to (Visual Studio 9 Installation directory)\VC\lib (Ex. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\lib)
    4. Copy the glut32.dll to (Windows Directory)\System32 (Ex. )
- Bloodshed Dev-C++: A free IDE for Windows that uses MinGW (a port of GCC/G++) that can be downloaded from http://www.bloodshed.net/dev/index.html, and you can get an add-on for GLUT from http://devpak.org. Another advantage is that the add-on is compiled into a library instead of a dll, so no dll required.
- Cygwin/make/g++: These free tools supporting compiling in an environment similar to Linux. Download cygwin using their setup.exe loader. Make sure to select opengl and freeglut from Graphics, and make, gcc, and g++ from Devel. Compile with a line like g++ -I/usr/include/openGL p1.cpp -lglut32 -lglu32 -lopengl32 -o -p1. (If you're confused by conflicting instructions on the web: you want the native Windows version, not the Mesa/X version!)
- Troubleshooting hint: If you're developing GLUT code in Windows, but can't compile because there are "undefined references to GLUT functions": before pulling out any hair, you should consider including <windows.h> immediately before you include <GL/glut.h> in all parts of your source code. For example:
```
#include <windows.h>
#include <GL/glut.h>
// Other source code goes here
```
Macs:
- GLUT should already be installed on your Mac, as described here.
- The only code difference on the Mac is the #include statement for GLUT, which makes portability a one-line-change operation. Change #include <GL/glut.h> to #include <GLUT/glut.h>
- To work from the command line, you will just need to modify your Makefile. Change the -lGL -lGLU -lglut flags to -framework GLUT -framework OpenGL -framework Foundation.
- Instructions for using XCode: http://www.vis.uky.edu/~dnister/Teaching/CS535/macNotes.html. Or another Glut/Xcode tutorial, with pictures, at http://onesadcookie.com/Tutorials
Linux:
- The easiest way is to install freeglut (an opensource version of glut). Depending on your linux distribution, you can directly download freeglut and install it by the software/package manager. Or you can download "freeglut" from the web (http://freeglut.sourceforge.net) and install it with ./configure; make; make install and then do: ln -s usr/lib/libglut.so.3 /usr/lib/libglut.so
- Or you can install official glut by downloading it from: http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut/glut_downloads.php#2
  The steps to install it are shown below (you can also find it in the README file from the downloaded files):
  1. Change into $GLUT_HOME/. and make a backup copy of the Glut.cf file. Then, take the copy from this archive and move it into $GLUT_HOME.
  2. Run the script to build all the makefiles: ./mkmkfiles.imake
  3. Change into $GLUT_HOME/lib/glut/. and make a backup copy of the Makefile. Now, take the Makefile out of the archive and replace the old one.
  4. WHILE STILL IN THE $GLUT_HOME/lib/glut/. DIRECTOR, RUN: make This should build the shared library 'libglut.so.3.7'. IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH HEADER FILE DEPENDENCIES, try doing: make depend make This should rebuild the Makefile dependencies. If this does not work, remove all the lines in "Makefile" below the line saying "DO NOT DELETE" (yes, disregard what the line says). Then try "make depend; make"
  5. Make two symbolic links: ln -s libglut.so.3.7 libglut.so.3
    ln -s libglut.so.3.7 libglut.so
  6. Now, back up to $GLUT_HOME/. and: make
    This will make all the example programs.
  7. Add the line from archive file 'path' to your .profile, or better to your systemwide /etc/profile. Then logout out and back in again (to refresh your path.)

See also the detailed instructions from USC.

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Last modified: Wed Jan 20 21:38:53 PST 2010