What is learnopengl?

joeydevries/learnopengl — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 12,439C++Audience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((LearnOpenGL))
    What It Is
      Book code samples
      Chapter by chapter
      C++ and OpenGL
    Build Setup
      CMake build
      Windows prebuilt libs
      Linux and macOS
    Topics Covered
      Shaders
      Textures
      Lighting
      3D rendering
    Audience
      Graphics learners
      C++ developers
    Related
      Glitter project
      Rust port

mindmap root((LearnOpenGL)) What It Is Book code samples Chapter by chapter C++ and OpenGL Build Setup CMake build Windows prebuilt libs Linux and macOS Topics Covered Shaders Textures Lighting 3D rendering Audience Graphics learners C++ developers Related Glitter project Rust port

Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Run working code alongside each Learn OpenGL book chapter to reinforce graphics programming concepts

USE CASE 2

Study specific OpenGL topics like shaders, textures, or lighting by reading isolated per-chapter examples

USE CASE 3

Use the included CMake setup as a template for starting your own C++ OpenGL project

USE CASE 4

Experiment with individual chapters without managing all dependencies using the Glitter companion project

What is it built with?

C++CMakeOpenGL

How does it compare?

	joeydevries/learnopengl	alinshans/mytinystl	snapchat/keydb
Stars	12,439	12,438	12,475
Language	C++	C++	C++
Setup difficulty	moderate	moderate	moderate
Complexity	3/5	3/5	3/5
Audience	developer	developer	ops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

On Linux and macOS, required libraries must be installed via a package manager before CMake can build the project.

So what is it?

This repository contains the code samples that accompany the Learn OpenGL book and its companion website at learnopengl.com. OpenGL is a programming interface for rendering 2D and 3D graphics, used in games, simulations, and visualizations. The repository is organized by chapter so that readers can follow along with the book while having the working code beside them. The project is written in C++ and uses CMake to handle building across different operating systems. On Windows, the necessary libraries are pre-compiled and included in the repository so that setup requires only running the CMake script and generating a project file. On Linux and macOS, the libraries need to be installed first through a package manager, and then the standard CMake build steps apply. Instructions for all three platforms are provided in the README. For people who find the library setup process difficult, there is a separate project called Glitter, mentioned in the README, that bundles everything needed to run a single LearnOpenGL chapter into one simple starting point. This can make it easier to experiment with individual examples without managing all the dependencies manually. The repository is purely a learning resource. It does not provide a library to install or an application to run on its own. Each chapter's code demonstrates a specific concept in graphics programming. A community-maintained port of the same examples in the Rust language is also linked from the README.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I am following the LearnOpenGL chapter on lighting, help me understand why my normals look wrong in this C++ and OpenGL code

Prompt 2

Using the LearnOpenGL CMake project structure, help me add a new chapter directory that compiles on Windows

Prompt 3

Based on the LearnOpenGL texture chapter, show me how to load a PNG file and apply it to a quad in OpenGL with C++

Prompt 4

Help me debug why my LearnOpenGL shadow mapping example renders all black on Linux with GLFW and GLAD

Frequently asked questions