|
 
GLT OpenGL C++ Toolkit
Introduction
GLT is a C++ class library for programming interactive 3D graphics with OpenGL.
GLT can be used as an object oriented interface to OpenGL, or as a library of
pre-canned functionality for transformations, shapes or fonts, and so on.
GlutMaster is a C++ interface to the
GLUT
library, providing a portable
window, keyboard, mouse and menu environment for OpenGL programs. GlutMaster
can also be used in combination with
Open Inventor. (Note that using GlutMaster with OpenInventor has limitations
in terms of user interface components)
GlutMaster is based on a
previous implementation
by George Stetten and Korin Crawford. This version of GlutMaster is
a complete re-write, with additional support for menus, and "examiner" style
mouse manipulation.
GLT is extremely portable. It depends only on OpenGL. It has been
compiled and tested on Windows NT with Visual C++ 6.0 and Cygwin gcc.
Linux and SGI IRIX are also supported.
GLT is a work in progress, and by no means covers the entire OpenGL
specification. However, it already includes several useful classes and
is designed so that additional classes can be added easily. It may
also serve as a useful reference, or a HOW-TO for solving common problems.
Guiding Principles
- Unrestrictive license: LGPL
- Clean, documented C++ implementation
- Portable
- Convenient
- Concise
- Useful
- Complete
- Transparent
GLT is available under the terms of the LGPL open-source license.
This allows commercial and non-commercial use. GLT is intended
for a wide variety of applications including (but not specifically) games.
GLT classes are intended to be convenient, concise, useful and
complete. C++ language features such as operator overloading and
automatic constructors and destructors improve the consistancy,
reliability and compactness of code. GLT makes use of, and
complements the standard C++ library including streams, templated
containers and iterators.
GLT programs are portable. All GLT functionality is portable
to other platforms. GLT programs tend not to depend on platform
specific layers for window management, font support, and so on.
While GLT is a wrapper for OpenGL, the library allows
complete access to the underlying APIs, for true flexibility.
GLT programs are self-contained. Libraries are statically linked
whenever possible and resources such as textures compiled into the
executable. Benefits include convenience, ease of installation and
robustness. Avoiding DLL hell is also considered a Good Thing(tm).
Also of interest...
- GLT is not a game engine. Perhaps OGRE is of interest.
- GLT is not a scene graph API. That's what Open Scenegraph is for.
| 
