Experiments with OpenGL on AmigaOS

It has been a while since I did some OpenGL testing with AmigaOS. A while meaning two to three years. I had tested OpenGL in WinUAE running AmigaOS 3.X and it worked fairly well in emulation. Since it had been a while that I last experimented with OpenGL, I decided to give it another go.

Four months ago I downloaded an OpenGL lesson (the Linux version of lessons 5 and 6) from the NeHe OpenGL Tutorials website. I compiled them on Linux Mint and on Haiku. While it compiled on both Linux and Haiku, it wouldn't display the GL_QUAD object on the version of Haiku that I was running. I worked with the Haiku problem and found that the issue was related to a difference in Haiku versions.

Eventually it was AmigaOS' turn. I copied the code for lesson5 to AmiKit 8.5 running AmigaOS 3.X. I downloaded the GCC based Amiga Development Environment (ADE-repack.lha) from Aminet and got it working and compiling.

Once GCC was configured and successfully tested, I compiled NeHe's lesson5 code (Linux version) in AmiKit/AmigaOS 3.X with no modifications other than changing the window title. It compiled and linked fine. When I ran it; however, the results were interesting. It opened a window but the content of the window was blank. The program didn't crash, and I was able to press ESC to end the program as programmed. I'll have to work with it some more to figure out what's causing the OpenGL triangle and quad objects not to render.

I then moved to test the code on AmigaOS 4.1 PPC FE. In the 4.1 version I had to remove the "GLUT_ALPHA" option from the glutInitDisplayMode function as GCC in OS 4.1 didn't recognize it. After removing that option, the code compiled and linked. When I attempted to run the compiled code, it wouldn't run. It wouldn't run because apparently OpenGL isn't setup to run by default as indicated by the Fatal Error received: "Could not create an OpenGL window/context."

My configuration of AmigaOS 4.1 PPC FE is mostly unchanged from the default install. I've added the SDK, Codebench, and some other Apps but no other changes to the system. In time I read that Warp3D is required and it did not come with my version of AmigaOS 4.1 PPC FE. So bummer with coding OpenGL on AmigaOS 4 for me. For now.

I prefer to write code that works on bare minimum configurations. So until OpenGL is available on a base system in AmigaOS 4, I may stick with 2D programming on AmigaOS4 and on AmigaOS 3 so that the software works on both OS versions.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AmigaOS Aros clone on Icaros Desktop version 2.2.5

Image
 Icaros Desktop New Install I had some extra time recently, so I decided to try out the Icaros Desktop  2.2.5, which was released in December 2018. Icaros Desktop is an AmigaOS clone that runs on x86 hardware. Icaros is based upon Aros. Aros in an operating system that can be installed on an x86 computer and it requires no host operating system to run. Most AmigaOS emulators require a host operating system such as Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Aros, however, eliminates the need for a host OS.  OWB web browser running on Icaros Desktop It took maybe 10-15 minutes to install Icaros into a Virtual Machine (Oracle VM Virtual Box, to be precise). During the install I selected to install the Extras as well as the Developer tools. I tested the default web browser, OWB, soon after installation. It handled many website adequately. However, I was unable to compose this article using Icaros because I was unable to login to my blogging website, blogger.com, with OWB. And, ...
Read more

FreeBSD and OpenBSD in Hyper-V - First Attempts

Image
So I wanted to try out the  new FreeBSD 13.1. Rather than installing it onto a physical computer, I decided to try creating a virtual machine in Hyper-V.  Hyper-V is a Microsoft product, and it was all I am able to use in the work environment that I am in. In a previous experiment I was able to create a Linux Mint virtual machine in Hyper-V with no problems.  However, I did encounter problems setting up FreeBSD 13.1 in Hyper-V. I eventually gave-up on getting FreeBSD 13.1 to work in Hyper-V. I tried a few different ideas, but I was never able to get X-Windows to recognize the keyboard. The keyboard worked fine to type in startx, but once X started, the keyboard wouldn't work.  It was a little disappointing not being able to get FreeBSD working in Hyper-V, but alas, some times such things happen. To stay within the BSD family, I decided to try out OpenBSD. I had very little knowledge of OpenBSD, but I decided to get it a try in Hyper-V. Unlike FreeBSD 13.1, X Windows...
Read more

Recent AmigaOS 3.1 Word Processor Experiments

Image
  Recently I have been experimenting with word processing programs under AmigaOS 3. Years ago, back in the 90's, I used my A1200 with Final Writer to create term papers for college. Before I bought my A1200; however, I was using a Gateway 2000 computer running Windows 3.1 on an Intel 386DX/33 processor. For my old Gateway computer, I had landed on a word processor called Breeze. It was a simple, DOS based word processor that was free (shareware), which is the right price for a college student, and did everything that I need. None of my term papers needed graphics or clip art, so a basic word processor was all that I required. I still used Breeze on MSDOS even after I bought my A1200. A year or so after purchasing my A1200, I finally decided on buying Final Writer 5. It did word processing along with graphics, and it worked with my, at that time, high quality Epson dot-matrix printer. Final Writer did quite well for me. Along with my A1200, I was able to cr...
Read more