Hi,

I am using Visual Studio 2005 (version 8) on a Windows XP operating system. Whenever I build my solution, it says it “cannot open include file: ‘gl.h’: no such file or directory”. I have put all my include files where they are supposed to be – I think! What should I do to get my program to work? It’s very urgent…

I started off the code like this:

#include <windows.h>
#include <gl.h>
#include <glu.h>
#include <glut.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

I hope to hear from someone soon! Thank you.

please do not mark threads as urgent, they are not urgent for any of the members of this site who kindly donate their time to help others. additionally whilst this subform is operating system agnostic, this is a linux based site, so you aren't best placed to get much of an answer for a very Microsoft centric issue.

ok thank you

Assuming Visual Studio 2005 actually supports OpenGL, you need to fix your include statements ... gl.h is located in a 'GL' sub-folder of the includes folder ... change your code to look like this ...

#include <GL/gl.h>
#include <GL/glu.h>
#include <GL/glut.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

That should help. The next problem you may encounter is GL/glut.h may not be found ... In the past, I've had to download and install a copy of GLUT manually ... try http://freeglut.sourceforge.net/ but beware, it can be a pain in the neck to get it working if you can't find a simple Windows installer. Finally, you need to add the appropriate OpenGL, GLU, and GLUT libraries to your project.

Alternatively, use Linux as your Operating System, and you'll find that OpenGL is MUCH, MUCH easier to use.