So I am wanting to start playing with OpenGL with a view to implement some game ideas I have had for a long time now, but I noticed there are several versions of OpenGL.
I ideally would like to support older computers too, so I was wondering if OpenGL 2.1 would be the best version to use. OpenGL 4 doesn’t even work on my desktop machine :O
The type of minimum spec for the game would be DX9 era graphics cards, so basically most modern computers would run it (even the low end onboard graphics). I would be looking at JOGL for implementation as I know Java the best (have done Java3D in the past) and I would like to deploy to all 3 major OSs.
With this in mind what kind of books would you suggest to me? Would it be pointless getting a OpenGL 3 or 4 book as I have read that there are big changes? Should I settle for an older book on 2.1 instead?
OpenGL 2.1 might be the best. as a comparison it has relatively the same compatibility as DirectX 9c, which is the latest Windows xp can get, and i know there are a lot of XP boxes out there. some of my friends still prefer xp.
Graphic cards that don’t support these APIs at this point of time might very well be very obsolete.
If a user cannot run your game using 2.1 you might have to suggest the user to buy a newer computer. you might even want to use OpenGL 3.0, if you adopt this thinking.
In my opinion, i would try learning 2.1 first and getting some practice, and after that, start using 3.x and eventually 4.x. Big game companies usually dont care about compatibility and have the user buy new hardware.