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Graphics Library Installation: OpenGL / Metal

You probably already have OpenGL (Linux/Windows) or Metal (Mac) on your machine. However, the operating system may not have set you up with the best version of the graphics driver for your particular hardware. You don't want to be stuck with OpenGL 1.X! We'd like to have at least OpenGL 3.2.

So make sure you have recent graphic card drivers. Download the specific driver for your card from NVidia, ATI, or Intel rather than the default Linux or Microsoft Windows driver.

WARNING: OpenGL features beyond OpenGL 1.1 generally do not work over Remote Desktop. Similarly, running graphics/GPU programs in a virtual machine is often problematic.

OpenGL Graphics Libraries Installation

If you're using Linux or Windows, you'll need to install the following libraries:

Please follow the detailed instructions below for each OS.

Please take notes as you work. Share any instructions corrections, roadblocks, and workarounds on the Submitty Discussion Forum (to help your classmates, and help maintain the instructions and homework codebase. Thanks!

GNU/Linux

Ubuntu 18.04 / Mint

  • First install or upgrade CMake to at least version 3.1.1.
    Download cmake-3.X.X-Linux-x86_64.sh.
    Run it.
    In your .bashrc, add 

      export PATH="$PATH:path_to_the_cmake_bin_folder"

    Confirm that you have the correct cmake by typing: 

      cmake --version

  • Install the necessary packages: 

      sudo apt install libglfw3-dev glew-utils libglew-dev libglm-dev
  sudo apt install libxrandr-dev xorg-dev

Arch 

  pacman -S glfw-x11 glew glm

Fedora 

  yum install glew glew-devel glm-devel glfw-devel

Mac OSX

No longer supports OpenGL. Instead we'll be porting everything to Apple Metal this term (it will be bumpy).

  • We recommend the Homebrew package manager. After brew is installed, just type: 

        brew install cmake

  • Make sure you've installed XCode and XCode's command line tools (Google to find instructions).

  • Update to Mac OSX Mojave 10.14.2 (or higher) and XCode 10.1 (or higher).

  • In a terminal, run: 

      xcode-select -p
    It should print: 
      /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    If it doesn't, reset the path with: 
      xcode-select -r

  • ... Let me know if I'm missing any steps.

Windows

  • Create a new folder on your machine named "C:\GraphicsLibraries\"
    and subfolders named:

    • "C:\GraphicsLibraries\include\"
    • "C:\GraphicsLibraries\include\GL\"
    • "C:\GraphicsLibraries\include\GLFW\"
    • "C:\GraphicsLibraries\lib\"
    • "C:\GraphicsLibraries\bin\"

  • Download and unzip the following files and place them as instructed below.
    NOTE: Make sure you are consistent and grab either all 64-bit or all 32-bit versions of the libraries. You probably want to choose the 64-bit versions.

    • Download a recent zip of the GLM headers (a headers only libraries) from http://glm.g-truc.net/ under "Downloads". Extract the compressed file, which makes a glm folder. Inside of that folder is another glm folder. Copy the inner glm folder to "C:\GraphicsLibraries\".

      To check: The file "glm.hpp" should be in this folder "C:\GraphicsLibraries\glm\"

    • Download the GLFW Windows binaries (probably 64-bit) from http://www.glfw.org/download.html and unzip the files.
      NOTE: Make sure to select 64-bit and also select the version that matches your version of Visual Studio. Note that the GLFW for Visual Studio 2015 seems to work ok with Visual Studio 2017.

      Put "glfw3.h" and "glfw3native.h" in "C:\GraphicsLibraries\include\GLFW\"
      Put "glfw3.lib" in "C:\GraphicsLibraries\lib\"

    • Download the GLEW Windows binaries from http://glew.sourceforge.net/ and unzip the files.

      Put "glew.h" and "glxew.h" "wglew.h" into "C:\GraphicsLibraries\include\GL\"
      Put "glew32.lib" and "glew32s.lib" in "C:\GraphicsLibraries\lib\"
      Put "glew32.dll" in "C:\GraphicsLibraries\bin\"

  • Edit the "PATH" variable for your account (not the system variables) to append the location of the dynamic libraries (dll's) "C:\GraphicsLibraries\bin\". (Google search if you don't know how to do this already). You might need to make a new variable if you don't already have a PATH.

  • The CMakeLists.txt line in each homework:

    set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH ${CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH} "C:\\GraphicsLibraries")

    points your compilation at these directories. You could choose to put all of the downloaded library files in another location, and then specify the new path on the command line when building each project for the first time, e.g.: 

    cmake ../src -D CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="${CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH} C:\\My\\Path\\Here"