OpenGL Project template (Cross-Platform Setup Guide)

This guide walks you through setting up your development environment and compiling this project on Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu/Debian.

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🧰 Prerequisites

• Git
• CMake (3.14+)
• C++ Compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC)
• OpenGL-compatible GPU

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🪟 Windows (MSYS2 + MinGW64)

1. Download and install the appropriate 64-bit version from the MSYS2 website. 

2. Open MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit terminal

Not MSYS, UCRT, or CLANG.

3. Update MSYS2

pacman -Syu
# Restart terminal if prompted
pacman -Su

4. Install tools

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-x86_64-make git

5. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/BurnCan/OpenGLProjectTemplate
cd OpenGLProjectTemplate

6. Build

mkdir build && cd build
cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..
mingw32-make

7. Run

cd bin
./OpenGLApp.exe

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🍏 macOS

1. Install Homebrew using the install script from the Homebrew website

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Post-installation steps When you install Homebrew, it prints some directions for updating your shell’s config. If you don’t follow those directions, Homebrew will not work.

You need to update your shell’s config file (which file exactly depends on your shell, for example ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) to include this:

eval "$(<Homebrew prefix path>/bin/brew shellenv)"

Replace with the directory where Homebrew is installed on your system. You can find Homebrew’s default install location in this FAQ entry.

2. Install tools

brew install cmake git

3. Build

git clone https://github.com/BurnCan/OpenGLProjectTemplate
cd OpenGLProjectTemplate
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

4. Run

cd bin/OpenGLApp.app/Contents/MacOS
./OpenGLApp

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🐧 Ubuntu / Debian Linux

1. Install tools

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential cmake git libgl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev libxi-dev libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev

2. Build

git clone https://github.com/BurnCan/OpenGLProjectTemplate
cd OpenGLProjectTemplate
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

3. Run

cd bin
./YourAppExecutableName

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📦 Optional: Install libraries manually (Windows only)

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-glfw mingw-w64-x86_64-glew mingw-w64-x86_64-glm mingw-w64-x86_64-imgui

If you're using FetchContent in CMake, these are not required.

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📁 Project Structure Example (windows)

OpenGLProjectTemplate/
├── shaders/
├── src/
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── README.md
└── build/
    └── bin/
	├── shaders/
        └── OpenGLApp.exe

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✅ You're good to go!

Happy coding! 🎮