I am a high school senior in AP physics, AP calc, and AP C++. For the computer science class, we have to enter this local programming competiton called AFCEA. There is a $1500 first place prize, $1000 for second, $500 for third, and $100 for honorable mention. Any program that is pretty decent will get honorable mention, and there weren''t that many applicants last year, probably somewhere around 10-15. This year, half the people there will probably be in my programming class. Anyway, onto my situition/problem/whatever. I want to make a program for this contest that simulates the motion of masses that interact only gravitationally. I want to have the simulation in 3D as well. I would like to do the 3D with OpenGL. In the programming class, however, we only learned about console applications, no win32 stuff. Of the 3 tutorials I''ve read, the NeHe one''s are probably the best. While I understand what nearly all the OpenGL code is doing from the first 6 lessons, I can do little more than guess at what all the windows code is doing. Are there any good online tutorials for learning the windows stuff? Also, how are things handled with OpenGL in terms of rendering the objects? Do you have all the objects within 3D space with given locations independant of the viewing space (which would be really nice/easy for my project), or are the objects positions to be rendered relative to the camera''s position? Am I in over my head, or should I continue to try to learn OpenGL/Win32 code so I can code the entire project, or should I try something a little easier?

Don''t use Win32 if you are new to OpenGL, it is foolish. Why bother learning Win32 and OpenGL at the same time when you can just learn OpenGL and OpenGL only and save yourself some time. You can use a library like GLUT ( http://www.opengl.org/developers/documentation/glut.html ) or SDL( http://www.libsdl.org ) and it will take care of all the windowing issues so you can focus on the OpenGL code. Both of those libraries are cross platform and open source which is very good. There is plenty of information on the net about them as well.

Check out www.opengl.org and the Red Book ( http://fly.srk.fer.hr/~unreal/theredbook/ ) for more information on how OpenGL works.

Nate Miller
http://nate.scuzzy.net

How about a particle system?

There was a nice black-hole simulator at www.slashdot.com once. I''m sure you could search for it, find it, and get some idea from it. I uses glut, which might be nice in you case since you haven''t programmed in windows. Just use it for ideas, no piracy, ok?

quote: in you case

I need more sleep.

I don''t want to write Quake 3. I just want some basic drawing and camera moving stuff. If I looked at a particle sim''s source, I would feel like I am cheating, because all the thinking has already been done for me.

The only problem I had with that tutorial linked to in the first post was the source code, and lack thereof. I had to make at least 5 changes to the source of the first example I looked at to get it to work (adding callbacks, adding #include , changing the data type of main from int to void, changing #include "aux.h" to #include ). Just a lot of stuff I don''t have to worry about with Nehe''s tutorial. The code itself isn''t commented all that well. Some commands talked about in the tutorial don''t have a source accompanied with it so that I can get to familarize myself with it either.

i''d use GLUT too, you can keep your console window and open a window for your opengl scene only

http://www.fatech.com/tech/opengl/glut/index.php3?1 is a good tutorial
(and take a look at Nate''s page too)

also since you''re new to opengl you might want to check out the online version of the OpenGL SuperBible, there''s a link on NeHe''s page, it''s easier then the red book

the step from consoles to win32 and OpenGL at the same time might be a bit overwhelming, you''d better focus on the math stuff and the drawing instead of windows (if time is an issue)

(you''re app will be completely portable to linux too(among others) that might be a good point for the competition)

btw: if you really want to go for win32 then take a look at www.winprog.org/tutorial, there''s no opengl involved however, the superbible explains the opengl specific stuff to windows

good luck