How to get OpenGL running on OSX

Question

I normally program on Windows, but I got a macbook pro from my school, so I'm trying to make an OpenGL app for OSX. I downloaded and installed XCode, but I have no clue how to get a simple OpenGL app going. I would prefer not to use Objective-C, but I definitely don't want to use GLUT. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

The biggest difference between OpenGL on OS X compared to pretty much everything else is the location of the header files. On OS X:

#include <OpenGL/gl.h>
#include <OpenGL/glu.h>
#include <GLUT/glut.h>

If you want to stay away from Objective-C/Cocoa and GLUT you can try SDL which is a cross platform gaming library (windows, 2D graphics, sound, input, etc.).

Edit: forgot about the compiler flags, which mipadi posted, namely:

-framework OpenGL

Answer 2

This question is extremely old in internet time, but the most straightforward way... is to just dabble your feet in Objective-C... Sorry.

My general way of approaching this is as follows:

• You can keep doing all your core programming in C++, no problem.
• Create a new "Cocoa application" in XCode.
• In the interface builder (where you edit your .xib file), find an NSOpenGLView object in the object browser, and smack it on your window.
• This bit is important: In the object inspector change the subclass to your own subclass (that still needs to be made). You can name it anything you like, for example MyRenderer or something.
• Hit [cmd]+[n] and create a new Objective-C class, MyRenderer.
• Important! Change the extension from MyRenderer.m to MyRenderer.mm. This way, XCode knows that it must compile for Objective-C++ instead of Objective-C.
• In MyRenderer.mm, override at least the following methods of NSOpenGLView.
  • - (void) awakeFromNib: Do your class initialization here. Do not initialize OpenGL here, or your program will crash.
  • - (void) drawRect:(NSRect)dirtRect: Do your drawing stuff here.
  • - (void) prepareOpenGL: Initialize OpenGL here.
  • - (void) reshape:(NSRect)bounds: For when the view gets resized.

The good news is that you can freely mix C++ functions and classes inside MyRenderer.mm. You can also make use of C++ #include directives alongside Objective-C #import directives. You can do C++ inside drawRect with no problems.

The bad news is that NSOpenGLView does not redraw the scene every x milliseconds. It will only redraw the scene once it feels it's necessary. You'll have to make use of Cocoa's NSTimer class for that.

Edit: Extra note: In the drawRect method, make sure to call glFlush() as well as [[self openGLContext] flushBuffer]. For some reason, only calling [[self openGLContext] flushBuffer] doesn't draw anything on the view for me.