Member Avatar for lewashby

I've been reading 'Learn C++ By making Games' and it uses the SDL library. The problem is the book has poor code examples, a lot of them don't even show the #include <libraries> instead jump straight to the main() function. So I just ordered the book 'Linux Graphics Programming with SVGAlib' believing it might be fun to work with only to discover that it's code is C, not C++ which is what I'm trying to learn. What's a good graphics library I could use with C++ on my Linux system, note that Windows compatibility is not important.

I know I probably need to be working on my php skills if I ever intend to have a job in IT but I just don't enjoy it, so I usually tinker with learning C++ towards simple game making on my Linux system.

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Member Avatar for mike_2000_17

It depends on what level you want to code at.

For graphic user interface (GUI), I recommend Qt. There are plenty of tutorials out there (and it's cross-platform too).

For 3D graphics, I would recommend Coin3D (an open-source implementation of OpenInventor, which is a high-level OOP API on top of OpenGL, with nice tutorials). You can also integrate it to Qt using SoQt. You could also use OpenGL directly, but that can be a bit complicated.

For a more complete 3D game, you can use Ogre3D.

As far as I know, these are all the most popular graphics libraries in Linux. And they're in C++, of course, that goes without saying.

Member Avatar for JasonHippy

Another alternative to SDL is SFML - Small Fast Media Library. It's in C++ and is extremely simple to use!

commented: It looks nice, and there are python bindings! +14
Member Avatar for lewashby

Thanks mike_2000_17 I was thinking of starting with simple 2d graphics and animation for now rather than GUI or 3D programming. JasonHippy thanks, I'll give SFML a look.
This stuff seems pretty hard to break into.

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