AGL

AGL stands for auto-GL, a 3D graphics library written in C++. It is dedicated to creating 3D graphics with OpenGL while abstracting the complex parts.

Dependency

AGL depends on

• OpenGL version 3.0 or above (3.3 used as default)
• GLFW (needs installation)
• GLM (provided)

AGL intends to be a low requirements library. You'll only need to install GLFW to get it working.

Getting Started

Start by installing GLFW for your system. Clone or download and extract the repository. You'll find all the header and source codes in the AGL directory. The compiled library will be in build. Add them to your build system - you can either add the header files and the library for linking or just the headers and the source codes for recompilation.

First code

Several examples are available in the test folder. For this first code we'll create a new file inside this this folder. Start by creating a file first_cube.cpp, and add the following lines.

#include "../AGL/agl.h"  // Include the header file. This is all you need to get started.

int main()
{
    agl::Scene scene;  // Create your first scene. Everything in AGL is defined in the agl namespace.

    agl::Entity cube = agl::cube();                  // Create a cube to display.
    cube.material.emission = glm::vec4(1, 0, 0, 1);  // Add some red color to the cube. The color is in RGBA format.
    scene.add(cube);                                 // Add the cube to the scene.

    scene.prepare();        // You don't need to understand anything about this.
    while(scene.render());  // Render the scene. To close the window, press Esc.

    return 0;
}

Once you've saved the file, open a terminal and navigate to this folder. Compile the file with (assuming you've GCC installed)

g++ first_cube.cpp ../build/libAGL.a -lGL -lglfw

then run it with ./a.out. Once the code runs without any errors, you'll see a red colored cube on a black background on the screen, like the image below.

Red cube on a black background

Second code

In our first code we created a simple cube. But it had no depth, just looked like an irregular hexagon. Next, we'll add some lights, hence some depths. Create another file lighted_cube.cpp and add the following codes.

#include "../AGL/agl.h"  // Include the header file.

int main()
{
    agl::Scene scene;  // Create your second scene.

    agl::Entity cube = agl::cube();               // Create the cube.
    cube.material = agl::Material::green_rubber;  // This time we will not add any color. We'll directly use a predefined material.
    scene.add(cube);                              // Add the cube to the scene.

    agl::Light light(glm::vec3(-2, 3, 2),     // Create a white light positioned at (-2, 3, 2).
                     glm::vec4(1, 1, 1, 1));  // The second parameter is the color.
    scene.add(light);      // Add the light to the scene.
    scene.enableLights();  // We need to enable lights for lighting calculations.

    scene.prepare();        // Still don't need to understand.
    while(scene.render());  // Render the scene. You know how to close the window.

    return 0;
}

Compile and run this code. You should see something like the image below.

Green rubber cube with light

What next?

Add the following line inside the while loop and create your first animation.

scene.camera.rotateY(0.01);

Then? Check the tutorials for more awesomeness.