I'll make up Allegro on Monday (my next day off). My spare time is quite short lately; I only have enough time to poke my head in here and make sure everyone is civil and on-topic. [smile] But yes, any info on the other libs would be nice ...

I'll go ahead and do GLFW and GLUT & co. this weekend. Well, at least we are progressing with this. I guess we can just publish the FAQ with these few libaries to start with and as time goes on, add to it. I just now saw Gor435's suggestion for the Audio API's as well, so those will be added too. I'll also do the OpenAL this weekened. Don't be shy folks, we can use all the help we can!

If you want a little template that you can just fill out with information for a libary, something like this will suffice -
1. What is <Library Name>?
2. Where can I download <Library Name> at?
3. Where can I find instructions to install <Library Name>?
4. Where can I find tutorials and other information on <Library Name>?
5. What are the uses of <Library Name>?
6. One extra thing of choice if desired

Now the goal is just to offer a quick glance of these libraries. Most of the time, if you want indepth information about a library, you can visit its site, so we do not need to go into great detail, just something that people can glance over and see what are some of the things people talk about in this forum. You do not have to even do all those things, just what you think is enough! We can always add more later...

Oh since I'm editing this post so much, sure Joel [wink] I don't think anyone would object. As soon as you get info to put up, you can post it or PM and I'll check back later today and update if it's not already done.

I was wondering if we could add hxRender to the list of available libraries? With version 2, it is fully complete, and fairly stable. I also have documentation for it.

After Drew Benton messaged me I got around to doing a quick Q&A based on the template for OGLWFW.

Quote:
1. What is the OpenGL Window Framework (OGLWFW)?

The OGLWFW is a C++ framework design to allow for the creation and control of windows which are capible of hold an OpenGL rendering context. Windows can be windowed or fullscreen and the framework allows for switching between modes. Methods exist to allow for you to either find a compatible mode for display and OpenGL as well as enumrate all the availble hardware accelerated display modes and retrieve some basic infomation about the OpenGL subsystem installed on the system.
The OGLWFW also take care of extension initalisation via GLee which is compiled in.
Finally, a basic event system exists which allows you to listen for window messages via a functor. This system is expanded as the need arises and often by request.

Currently only a MSVS.Net03/Win32 implimentation exists, however a Linux/X version is in the works.

2. Where can I download OGLWFW at?

The OGLWFW can be downloaded from sourceforge and is released under the zlib licence.

3. Where can I find instructions to install OGLWFW?

No real instructions exist, its a simple case of download, extract and ensure the library and header folders are in your compilers path. On MSVS.Net03 including the oglwfw.hpp automatically links in the correct lib file for the runtime you are using.

4. Where can I find tutorials and other information on OGLWFW?

Examples can be found on the download page at sourceforge.

5. What are the uses of OGLWFW?

Creation and controlling of multiple windows, with some events relating to window operations. It also allows easy access to things such as FSAA, the accumlation buffer and all the OpenGL and display modes on the current machine.
It is also possible to create a window in one thread and the OpenGL context in another to allow for message handing and rendering to accure in seperate threads.

An important note about SDL should be SDL/OpenGL

Its important as it shows how to implement OpenGL easily in non-Windows platforms. This is useful as many tutorials only focus on how to use OpenGL with the Windows API (nehe.gamedev.net)

*sigh*

My next day off is Friday. I'll do the Allegro one then if it's still not done.

*marches off, grumbling about no free time*

Quote: Original post by 23yrold3yrold
*marches off, grumbling about no free time*

Oh I know what you mean! I meant to get some more done last weekend, but stuff came up school wise. Oh well, it's not like GameDev is going to up and disappear before we can put together a FAQ [wink]

I've finally gotten around to Drew's request of writing one for FMOD:

Quote: 1. What is FMOD?

FMOD is a cross platform audio library to let you easily implement audio into your applications and games. It can play almost any sound format you can think of including MP3s, OGGs, Midis, MOD files, WMAs, etc.

2. Where can I download FMOD?

• FMOD's Official Website
  
• FMOD Dev-Pak for Dev-C++ by Rob Loach

3. Where can I find instructions on how to use FMOD?

• FMOD Official Documentation
  
• A Quick Guide to FMOD by Joachim Rohde
  
• FMOD Official Tutorials

4. What are some other uses of FMOD?

FMOD can be used to put sound and music into games, multimedia applications or pretty much anything that requires audio. The main benefit to using FMOD is that it is a cross platform library, allowing you to use it on a wide variety of operating systems. Not only is it very powerful, but it's also very easy to use. Just go through Joachim's quick tutorial and you'll see how easy it really is. FMOD Ex brings a new design to FMOD which makes sound and music data even easier to manage.

5. Are there any other features to FMOD?

FMOD Ex is a branch off of FMOD that gives it a whole set of new features including a .NET interface for development with C# and other .NET language.

Thanks a bunch Rob! Motivation for me to get some stuff done today [smile]

Okay, finally I get to put 5 minutes thought to this. [headshake]

Anyway, it's getting way too big, especially in relation to other forum FAQ's. Plus it's a lot of links to maintain. Here's my Allegro one, which I think is a bit more managable. Instead of having "Library Specific FAQs", maybe just a descriptive blurb and a link the the official download/FAQ/tutorials, and a note in the general forum FAQ to check out that link before asking dumb nub questions. [razz]



Allegro

1. What is Allegro?
Allegro is a game programming library for C/C++ developers distributed freely, supporting the following platforms: DOS, Unix (Linux, FreeBSD, Irix, Solaris, Darwin), Windows, QNX, BeOS and MacOS X. It provides many functions for graphics, sounds, player input (keyboard, mouse and joystick) and timers. It also provides fixed and floating point mathematical functions, 3d functions, file management functions, compressed datafile and a GUI.

The library, tutorials, and documentation can be found at Allegro's website.
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And why am I being thanked in the top post? I didn't do anything until just now. [embarrass]