[Bjorn]

For some time I have been planning to try doing a tile engine using OpenGL. I have looked a bit at how OpenGL can be used and have stumbled upon at least three possibilities for now:

• Using GLUT to create the window and get input, OpenGL for rendering.
  
• Creating the window and handling input through Windows API, OpenGL for rendering.
  
• Using AllegroGL, combining OpenGL and Allegro.
  

The first and the last should be cross-platform, which is a good thing in my opinion. The middle one seems most fit for the purpose however because AllegroGL seems rather unstable and GLUT not meant for games much (according to my current knowledge, it can't even switch to a given fullscreen resolution).

So has anybody been using OpenGL already and what additional libraries did you use for creating the rendering context, getting input, and anything else?

[Rainer Deyke]

I've used SDL with OpenGL, and it works quite well. It only took one day to convert my SDL program to SDL with OpenGL. I would strongly advise you to stay away from GLUT (which is useless for non-toy programs) and the Windows API (which is just plain ugly, and restricts you to a single platform). I have no experience with Allegro.

[Guest]

also have a look at clanlib it offers OGL support and is cross-platform

[Bjorn]

This ClanLib thing looks mighty interesting. I especially like the modular setup and C++ API. It also looks mighty complete in everything it supports. I'll be trying out this lib for sure, hoping it's stable enough.

[Mandrake]

I've used ClanLib....it's really nice. Just haven't had enough time to get oriented with it enough to feel comfortable writing a game with it. Hence, I still use Allegro....but ClanLib is definately stable and good.