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LearnOpenGL

Course Beginner

Joey de Vries

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Description

Joey de Vries' online tutorial series for modern core-profile OpenGL, hosted at learnopengl.com. It teaches graphics programming from first principles through C++ examples targeting OpenGL 3.3+ as a stable baseline for later versions.

Chapters progress from window creation, triangles, shaders, textures, transforms, cameras, and lighting through model loading, blending, framebuffers, depth and stencil, geometry and tessellation shaders, compute, and a PBR section. A later walkthrough builds a small 2D game tying concepts together.

The site explains why core profile matters versus deprecated immediate mode, and assumes working C++ plus basic linear algebra with pointers to learncpp.com and external math resources where needed. Code samples accompany each section.

All web chapters remain free; a revised print edition and free PDF aggregate the same content for offline reading. de Vries notes print purchase supports the project while keeping the website open.

Widely regarded as the most recommended starting tutorial for modern OpenGL and general real-time graphics fundamentals; frequently paired with university courses and cited as the first stop before API-specific Vulkan or D3D12 material.