HI, I have some questions. I am trying to learn openGL, so I bought few books, and found this site. Later on I want to learn more in image processings and stuff. Are you guys just studying by yourself like me ? or attending school and taking classes ? ?

im trying my hardest to teach myself. i say trying because i have all these college applications and essays to do. mostly i have been using this site and some other. i havent looked into getting books just yet.

[edited by - adam17 on January 9, 2003 5:38:29 PM]

School does not really teach OpenGL in detail, just the basis.

Even though school is a good start, it''s just nothing more than a start, and I think that all of us have learned "deep" OpenGL thanks to the Internet.

i dont know about other ppl at other places but here in Pakistan, OGL is a dark forest where no one goes in. no Proper courses, no institutions, not much books available easily even.
But it is changing timely with a very very slow speed.
any ways, i started OGL rite from this site. then got many tutorials,e-boks and other stuff to help me.
so it is working fine.

Ahmed: having a mad soul...

there is a mainstream GL + HCI course here for second year students. And use of GL in 3rd and 4th+ year projects is actually surprisingly common I''ve found. Which is all nice, but it''s pretty basic GL when it comes down to it.
as for learning I initially looked into nehe but quickly decided I''d just go about it my own way and do what I wanted to do. I feel I''ve learnt more this way.

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Nehe is good for beginners, and I remember I used it a bit when I started learning. After that though, I went straight to the nvidia developers site. I''ve done all of it on my own though, haven''t learnt anything from any type of education establishment, and thats done me fine.

Death of one is a tragedy, death of a million is just a statistic.

I''m just begining to learn, and last year I took a programming course at my highschool, and it introduced me to some stuff in C++, but most of it I already knew and so it was pretty much worthless. I haven''t began to learn OpenGL, but I''m planning on using Nehe and other tutorials to start. (Courses are very minimal and slow, and are bassically just not worth it... At least in highschool, I''m not sure about college.)

Hey, my school doesn''t even have any programing classes and I have a 433 Celeron processor with an outdated video card, but I''ve managed to get a grip on C++ and OpenGL (of course, it never really ends ). Come to think of it, I don''t own any books on the subject either. Considering that, I''m a firm believer that there is descent documentation out on the web. You have to watch out for the subjects that people just don''t seem to talk about much though. That''s when you come to these boards.

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And the Phoenix shall rise from the ashes...

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I consider myself to be learning GL entirely on my own, even though I''m in university level education, and using GL as the main component of a project. If you do any sort of non-specialist learning (ie, you''re doing ''Computer Science'' or, like me, ''Computing'' (which has none of the fun stuff like big-O and data-structures(!))), then don''t expect to be taught GL, or DirectX or any other particular API. A good college/lecturers will teach how to learn and then solve problems. The biggest problem with todays computers education is that people learn only APIs, or specific languages. There''s a shocking number of people who''ve made it to the workplace and still have no inclination to RTFM or even google for something.

Erm, in short, don''t believe that being in a class is somehow magically easier than learning on your own. All classes do are give a focus, and a lecturer who''ll nag you to do shit.

Learn how to pick things up quickly, and be aware of _how_ you''re learning - it''ll get easier to grok stuff as you go on. Most every question you could want to ask whilst learning a subject has been answered, and if you''ve got a connection to the net and a willingness to learn, you''re sorted.

I go to uni - the closest they''ve taught (and will ever teach) us there is c++ basics. Everything OpenGL related (or, programming-related thereof) I''ve learnt on my own. I''ve actually read only one book on programming - the Kernighan and Ritchie''s Programming in C - true, I haven''t had money for anything else much; everything else I''ve worked out on my own or from other''s code. I guess that''s what I value most as well - the ability to cope with the situation imprompt, not always be prepared ad hoc. Been doing it for 3 years now and it seems I can handle basic and advanced stuff - still a long way from professionalism, though... I guess the more you boggle your mind, the better you start grasping the concepts - no one can really teach you that. Not really. It''s all in the hard work and the time you devote to it, and I personally don''t feel sorry for skipping on the Babysitting In C in some class. So, one man can make a difference, I guess

Crispy