How do you install GLUT and OpenGL in Visual Studio 2012?

I just installed Visual Studio 2012 today, and I was wondering how can you install GLUT and OpenGL on the platform?

Solution 1:

OpenGL should be present already - it will probably be Freeglut / GLUT that is missing.

GLUT is very dated now and not actively supported - so you should certainly be using Freeglut instead. You won't have to change your code at all, and a few additional features become available.

You'll find pre-packaged sets of files from here: http://freeglut.sourceforge.net/index.php#download If you don't see the "lib" folder, it's because you didn't download the pre-packaged set. "Martin Payne's Windows binaries" is posted at above link and works on Windows 8.1 with Visual Studio 2013 at the time of this writing.

When you download these you'll find that the Freeglut folder has three subfolders: - bin folder: this contains the dll files for runtime - include: the header files for compilation - lib: contains library files for compilation/linking

Installation instructions usually suggest moving these files into the visual studio folder and the Windows system folder: It is best to avoid doing this as it makes your project less portable, and makes it much more difficult if you ever need to change which version of the library you are using (old projects might suddenly stop working, etc.)

Instead (apologies for any inconsistencies, I'm basing these instructions on VS2010)... - put the freeglut folder somewhere else, e.g. C:\dev - Open your project in Visual Studio - Open project properties - There should be a tab for VC++ Directories, here you should add the appropriate include and lib folders, e.g.: C:\dev\freeglut\include and C:\dev\freeglut\lib - (Almost) Final step is to ensure that the opengl lib file is actually linked during compilation. Still in project properties, expand the linker menu, and open the input tab. For Additional Dependencies add opengl32.lib (you would assume that this would be linked automatically just by adding the include GL/gl.h to your project, but for some reason this doesn't seem to be the case)

At this stage your project should compile OK. To actually run it, you also need to copy the freeglut.dll files into your project folder

Solution 2:

This is GLUT installation instruction. Not free glut

First download this 118 KB GLUT package from Here

Extract the downloaded ZIP file and make sure you find the following

glut.h

glut32.lib

glut32.dll

If you have a 32 bits operating system, place glut32.dll to C:\Windows\System32\, if your operating system is 64 bits, place it to 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\' (to your system directory)

Place glut.h C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12\VC\include\GL\ (NOTE: 12 here refers to your VS version it may be 8 or 10)

If you do not find VC and following directories.. go on create it.

Place glut32.lib to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12\VC\lib\

Now, open visual Studio and

Under Visual C++, select Empty Project(or your already existing project)
Go to Project -> Properties. Select 'All Configuration' from Configuration dropdown menu on top left corner
Select Linker -> Input
Now right click on "Additional Dependence" found on Right panel and click Edit

now type

opengl32.lib

glu32.lib

glut32.lib

(NOTE: Each .lib in new line)

That's it... You have successfully installed OpenGL.. Go on and run your program.

Same installation instructions aplies to freeglut files with the header files in the GL folder, lib in the lib folder, and dll in the System32 folder.

Solution 3:

OpenGL is bundled with Visual Studio. You just need to install GLUT package (freeglut would be fine), which can be found in NuGet.

Open your solution, click TOOLS->NuGet Package Manager->Package Manager Console to open a NuGet console, type Install-Package freeglut.

For VS 2013, use nupengl.core package instead.

It's 2020 now. Use VCPKG.

Solution 4:

For Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Community GLUT installation -

Download the header, dll's and lib files fro glutdlls37beta (linked in here)
Paste glut.h in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\{14.11.25503}\include\GL Create the GL folder if not present already. The {thing} may differ.
Paste glut.lib in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\{14.11.25503}\lib\x64. Paste glut32.lib in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\{14.11.25503}\lib\x86. The {thing} may differ.
Paste glut32.dll in C:\Windows\System32. Paste glut.dll and glut32.dll in C:\Windows\SysWOW64.
Follow Vishwanath gowda k's answer next. Go to Project -> Properties(All Configuration option)->Linker -> Input -> Additional Dependencies->edit(down arrow on the right end) Type-> opengl32.lib glu32.lib glut32.lib Hit Ok->apply.

Solution 5:

For an easy and appropriate way of doing this, first download a prepackaged release of freeglut from here. Then read its Readme.txt.

I copied some important parts of that package here:

... Create a folder on your PC which is readable by all users, for example “C:\Program Files\Common Files\MSVC\freeglut\” on a typical Windows system. Copy the “lib\” and “include\” folders from this zip archive to that location ... freeglut DLL can be placed in the same folder as your application...

... Open up the project properties, and select “All Configurations” (this is necessary to ensure our changes are applied for both debug and release builds). Open up the “general” section under “C/C++”, and configure the “include\” folder you created above as an “Additional Include Directory”. If you have more than one GLUT package which contains a “glut.h” file, it’s important to ensure that the freeglut include folder appears above all other GLUT include folders ... Open up the “general” section under “Linker”, and configure the “lib\” folder you created above as an “Additional Library Directory”...