OpenGL or OpenGL ES

What should I learn? OpenGL 4.1 or OpenGL ES 2.0?

I will be developing desktop applications using Qt but I may start developing mobile applications in a few months, too. I don't know anything about 3D, 3D math, etc and I'd rather spend 100 bucks in a good book than 1 week digging websites and going through trial and error.

One problem I see with OpenGL 4.1 is as far as I know there is no book yet (the most recent ones are for OpenGL 3.3 or 4.0), while there are books on OpenGL ES 2.0.

On the other hand, from my naive point of view, OpenGL 4.1 seems like OpenGL ES 2.0 + additions, so it looks like it would be easier/better to first learn OpenGL ES 2.0, then go for the shader language, etc

Please, don't tell me to use NeHe (it's generally agreed it's full of bad/old practices), the Durian tutorial, etc.

Thanks

qt opengl opengl-es-2.0

Edit Report

Yes, definitely start with OpenGL ES 2.0. In fact, I would say start with WebGL (which is almost like OpenGL ES 2.0). The public wiki over here is a good place to start. The nice thing about WebGL is that you don't have to deal with things like compiling/linking and you avoid a lot of boilerplate code to setup a lot of stuff. So you get to focus on the actual drawing (which really is the fun bit :) ). If you have an OpenGL ES 2.0 book, that should still map over well to WebGL.

Plus there are a lot of demos in the repository which you can run immediately (and click your browser's 'View Source' to jump right into the code). Start with the simple ones like: image-texture-test, Colored Box, Textured Box

Those examples, together with your OpenGL ES 2.0 book, should get you started right away. Have fun!

EDIT: I should probably also point out that if you do decide to go the OpenGL 4.1 route, you probably don't need to wait for an OpenGL 4.1 book. An OpenGL 3.3 or 4.0 book would do just fine.

answered 2011-01-27T12:03:41.727

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