Since you came here you probably want to learn the inner workings of computer graphics and do all the stuff the cool kids do by yourself. Doing things by yourself is extremely fun and resourceful and gives you a great understanding of graphics programming. However, there are a few items that need to be taken into consideration before starting your journey.

Prerequisites Since OpenGL is a graphics API and not a platform of its own, it requires a language to operate in and the language of choice is C++, therefore a decent knowledge of the C++ programming language is required for these tutorials. However, I will try to explain most of the concepts used, including advanced C++ topics where required so it is not required to be an expert in C++, but you should be able to write more than just a ’Hello World’ program.

Also, we will be using some math (linear algebra, geometry and trigonometry) along the way and I will try to explain all the required concepts of the math required. However, I’m not a mathematician by heart so even though my explanations might be easy to understand, they will most likely be incomplete. So where necessary I will provide pointers to good resources that explain the material in a more complete fashion. Do not be scared about the mathematical knowledge required before starting your journey into OpenGL; almost all the concepts can be understood with a basic mathematical background and I will try to keep the mathematics to a minimum where possible. Most of the functionality does not even require you to understand all the math as long as you know how to use it.