Graphics Libraries for C++

Before I ask my question, I'm programming under Red Hat 9.

I would like to have some suggestions as to what, if any, graphics libraries I should use for graphics programming in C++. I know of Allegro but I was just curious if there is anything better or should I just drop using libraries and do something from scratch.

>> or should I just drop using libraries and do something from scratch.

That really depends on what your doing.

Research DirectX and OpenGL, they are good libraries.

DirectX is MS-Windows. If you really really want to start from scratch them you can use X11R6 or newer libraries which I think are in the /usr directory. But that isn't really for beginners and they have a dozen or so very thick programming books that tell how to use them. You can find a few tutorials on the web. Beginners are better off with OpenGL, QT, or something like that.

There's a good tutorial on OpenGL on http://nehe.gamedev.net/

First, why would you want to do something from scratch? It will probably be slower, more buggy, take much more effort, and may be less portable; unless you have a very very good reason to go it solo, it's usually best to use the wheel someone else invented and refined over the years.

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There's a good tutorial on OpenGL on http://nehe.gamedev.net/

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I like this tutorial a lot but the problem is, as with most anything that is public domain in the programming realm, it's Windows based; it wants me to do stuff with Visual C++. It has the cource code examples for Linux but all of the explaination is done in regards to MSVC++, which I can't stand anymore. I'll continue looking for a good OGL tutorial for Linux. Anyone with a link to a good tutorial or suggestions for books would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all of the previous help.

OpenGL is the same across platforms, really. All that is different is the wrapper code, and in the later tutorials, that is really not relevant anymore.

Try http://smartwin.sourceforge.net/

Its template based.

I have done dozens of things that have already been done... generally I have learned a lot from these things. Now this is a herculean undertaking starting from scratch and I believe the OP could do it... eventually... with tons of persaverance... and lots of caffine... But in this case it is too large of a project to take on and I would suggest to avoid reimplementing a graphics library unless you can read the OpenGL source code and understand every algorithm and reason for how they did it. But then again if you could do that... you wouldn't be asking this question.

Anyway this post seems to go in like 10 directions... summary, sometimes reimplementing something is good, but pick your battles wisely because some (such as this) could be too large of a project.

For Linux it's got to be OpenGL because DirectX is a no go. And if you want to make it simpler, try some of those open-source engines out there, e.g. OGRE 3D. I like it better than pure OpenGL.

If you want to do OpenGL directly, check out SDL. A copy of it might come with RedHat 9. But you'll want to update it since RedHat 9's libraries are all about two or three years old now.

For 3D, like mentioned there is OGRE. But there is also Irrlicht. I personally like this one.

Irrlicht dude...Irrlicht....