r/opengl

I've looked around and it seems that resources for 4.6 are fewer and far between especially compared to something like 3.3, and it looks like basically no major games really used 4.6 either.
I'm curious on how viable it actually is for like games, engines, etc. or if there's some astute reason as to why no one seems to use this version, because supposedly it's better optimized for modern hardware (albeit not on the same level as something like Vulkan)

Hi, I recently got interested in learning graphics programming with OpenGL and I've heard a lot about learnopengl.com. So, I gave it a try.

I just completed the "Hello Triangle" section of the page and honestly I learned quite well about vertex buffer objects, vertex shaders and vertex attribute objects. Though, honestly I had to ask ChatGPT about some concepts that didn't "click" to me immediately like the use of glVertexAttribPointer and why VAO is important. but, I finally got it.

The thing that I observed and which bothers me a bit is that the author explains a concept and drops the code snippets that correspond to that concept but, They don't tell you where the code should go in your existing codebase. In one moment it goes on to explain the use of VBO then drop some code snippets then in another moment how the vertex attribute pointers work then drop some other snippets and then finally explain the use of VAO for storing all those configurations and which buffer data it use and drop some snippets thereafter. but, It doesn't seem to explain how it all should be laid out in order. I had a hard time understanding it.

Okay, It could be just me. but, Anyways it's really a helpful resource. I might get used to it after a while.

I am just here to say Hi to the community. I hope I do well in my journey to learn graphics programming. Let me know what you think about this.

I wanted to add simple physics interactions to my project, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to properly link any of the popular physics libraries to my Visual Studio/OpenGL project. I have been trying for a few hours now to get something/anything to work, and I am about to give up.

I don't need it to do much. Just basic collisions and simple shapes along a 3D plane.

With GLEW and SDL, I can just download the binaries, add the include folder, and reference the lib files. With every physics engine I have found (PhysX, Bullet, Jolt, ReactPhysics3D, Chrono), it seems as though I have to build it myself, scour the directories for the lib file I should be referencing, and then try to figure out what Visual Studio is looking for to resolve the LINK errors. I got close to getting Bullet to work, but I was runtime errors when following the example code that is provided on Github.

So I am asking: what is the simplest 3D physics library that I can plug into my project? Or there a more verbose guide for I can follow for adding physics to an OpenGL visual studio project?

I wanna make something simple in opengl like a grass renderer or something along those lines. I want to be able to do it on my own with only man pages/documentation. If I would like to do it in c how much experience should I have in the language? Also, are there any new resources to learn from. I started a long time ago and am just coming back.

I’m currently working on a 3D character project intended for use on a website, and I’ve run into several challenges specifically related to creating and optimizing a cape. I’m hoping to get some detailed advice from people who have experience with cloth simulation, real-time rendering, and web optimization.

Project Overview:

The goal is to display a 3D character on a website (real-time or near real-time rendering).

The character includes a cape, which I want to feel dynamic and visually appealing.

I’m using Marvelous Designer to create and simulate the cloth because of its realism.

Main Challenges:

1. Achieving Natural Cloth Motion (Wind / Flowing Cape):

I want the cape to behave as if it’s being affected by wind—flowing, waving, and moving naturally. However:

The simulation often looks stiff or too heavy.

Increasing wind values sometimes causes chaotic or unrealistic movement instead of smooth flowing motion.

I’m unsure how to balance fabric properties (weight, stiffness, damping, etc.) to get a believable result.

2. Creating a Seamless Loop Animation:

Since this will be used on a website, I need the animation to loop continuously without noticeable jumps. Right now:

The simulation always has a clear start and end point.

When I try to loop it, there’s a visible “reset” or pop.

I’m not sure if I should simulate a long animation and trim it, manually match start/end frames, or use another technique entirely.

3. Heavy Geometry / Performance Issues:

This is probably my biggest concern:

The cape mesh exported from Marvelous Designer is extremely dense—sometimes 10x heavier than the base character.

Reducing particle distance helps slightly but quickly destroys the shape/detail.

This level of geometry is not suitable for web use (especially with WebGL / Three.js or similar frameworks).

What I’ve Tried So Far:

Adjusting particle distance and mesh density

Tweaking fabric presets and physical properties

Testing different wind controllers and simulation strengths

Exporting and trying basic optimizations in other 3D tools

Where I Need Guidance:

I would really appreciate insights on the following:

A. Workflow & Tools

Is Marvelous Designer the right tool for this kind of use case (real-time/web)?

Should I simulate in Marvelous Designer and then retopologize in another software like Blender or Maya?

Are there better pipelines for game/web-ready cloth (e.g., using baked animations, rigged bones, or shader-based tricks)?

B. Optimization Techniques

Best practices to drastically reduce polygon count while preserving silhouette

Retopology workflows for cloth

Using normal maps or baked details to fake high-resolution cloth

C. Animation Approach

How professionals create looping cloth animations

Whether to use simulation vs. manual animation (bones, shape keys, etc.)

Tips for blending start/end frames seamlessly

D. Real-Time Considerations

Recommended polycount ranges for animated assets on the web

Whether I should avoid cloth simulation entirely and fake it for performance

Any tricks specific to WebGL / Three.js / Babylon.js pipelines

E. General Advice

Common mistakes when using Marvelous Designer for real-time assets

Any tutorials, courses, or resources that explain a complete pipeline from simulation → optimization → web integration

I’d really appreciate detailed answers, workflow breakdowns, or even small tips that could point me in the right direction. Thanks a lot in advance!

So I am planning to use instancing to draw wheels for a truck. I draw the truck first and then the wheels. Since I need to use a separate shader for instancing, Whenever I bind that shader, the truck disappears and only the wheels I draw are visible.

For the shaders, I have the same fragment shader (main.fs) and for the vertex shaders I have two (main.vs & wheels.vs) which I have attached below.
> main.vs

#version 410


layout(location = 0) in vec3 positionIn;
layout(location = 1) in vec2 textureCoord;
layout(location = 2) in vec3 normalIn;


out vec3 position;
out vec2 textureCoordinate;
out vec3 normal;


uniform mat4 projMat;
uniform mat4 transMat;


void main() {
    normal = (transMat * vec4(-normalIn, 0)).xyz;
    
    textureCoordinate = textureCoord;
    
    position = (transMat * vec4(positionIn, 1)).xyz;
    gl_Position = projMat * transMat * vec4(positionIn, 1);
}

> wheels.vs

#version 410


layout(location = 0) in vec3 positionIn;
layout(location = 1) in vec2 textureCoord;
layout(location = 2) in vec3 normalIn;


out vec3 position;
out vec2 textureCoordinate;
out vec3 normal;


uniform mat4 projMat;
uniform vec3[10] offsets;
uniform vec2[10] rotationXY;


void main() {   
    
    vec3 offset = offsets[gl_InstanceID];
    
    vec2 rotation = rotationXY[gl_InstanceID];
    
    mat4 transMat = mat4(
    cos(rotation.y), 0, sin(rotation.y), 0,
    0, 1, 0, 0,
    -sin(rotation.y), 0, cos(rotation.y), 0,
    0, 0, 0, 1
    );
    
    transMat *= mat4(
    1, 0, 0, 0,
    0, cos(rotation.x), -sin(rotation.x), 0,
    0, sin(rotation.x), cos(rotation.x), 0,
    0, 0, 0, 1
    );
    
    normal = (transMat * vec4(-normalIn, 0)).xyz;
    
    textureCoordinate = textureCoord;
    
    position = (transMat * vec4(positionIn + offset, 1)).xyz;
    gl_Position = projMat * vec4(position, 1);
}

And this is how I render the object. Note that the child.render() has the exact same structure, apart from the fact that no transformation matrix is sent and glDrawElementsInstanced is used instead.

texture.bind();
glUniformMatrix4fv(transMatrix, false, getTransformationMatrix());

glBindVertexArray(vertexArray);
glEnableVertexAttribArray(0);
glEnableVertexAttribArray(1);
glEnableVertexAttribArray(2);

glDrawElements(mode, vertexCount, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, 0);

glDisableVertexAttribArray(0);
glDisableVertexAttribArray(1);
glDisableVertexAttribArray(2);
glBindVertexArray(0);
texture.unbind();

for(LCObject child : children) {
  child.getShader().bind();
  child.render();
}

PS: Im on a Mac M1 if that is of any importance.

Hi everyone!

This is a bit of an update on the game I'm working on, TD inspired by Warcraft 3 where you are tasked with defending "something", I cannot talk much about it because the game has a story and campaign, but this is just a small update on the first act/map: Forest Pass.

https://preview.redd.it/a4amjehujszg1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=739d25d917f208db3ca34f0be844c20bc17a0ced

I need to rework a bit the UI, today I added new textures, flowers and decorations, baked in AO, etc.

The game features 3 classes: mage, ranger and holy knight. Each class has 4 different abilities (you can choose only one of them, therefore 4 different ways of playing each class) and each ability has 3 different upgrades to choose from (therefore 3 different builds to specialize into for each ability). You also have talents that give you raw stats.

The first map features 10 distinct enemies, a total of 30+ waves before the final boss.

If you guys are interested in seeing more of this game, on the next post I can add a discord link.

https://pastebin.com/jbufHHk9 The pixels render as black, even though the data is sent to the GPU. I've swapped out the BufferedImageBasedTexture with a SimpleTexture that just loads a file using stbimage, and that works perfectly, and the shader is fine, but this texture thing doesn't work. It creates a valid texture ID with a blank texture attached to it. Nothing is wrong as far as I can tell, but it still renders black. Please help. I've tried byte arrays but lwjgl doesn't accept them, and I've tried memoryutil but that doesn't work.

Hello,

I have been trying to make a 3d snake game in OpenGL, I have the basic game logic working but right now every section of the snake is just a square I render at some point (x, y, z), I want to create a single cylinder like object that is rendered for the body that grows and shrinks at run time. I'm just wondering how to go about that?

Should I do the calculations in world space or the Local space?
Should I be using functions like glGetNamedBufferSubData?

Thanks in advance