LWJGL is a Java library that enables cross-platform access to popular native APIs useful in the development of graphics (OpenGL, Vulkan), audio and parallel computing applications. This access is direct and high-performance, yet also wrapped in a type-safe and user-friendly layer, appropriate for the Java ecosystem.
Loading images from files is outside the scope of the OpenGL specification. It is handled by user-made code or one of the image handling libraries below.
OpenGL Mathematics (GLM) is a header only C mathematics library for graphics software based on the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) specifications. GLM provides classes and functions designed and implemented with the same naming conventions and functionalities than GLSL so that anyone who knows GLSL, can use GLM as well in C. Code Issues Pull requests. C# This Open Toolkit library is a fast, low-level C# wrapper for OpenGL and OpenAL. It can be used standalone or inside a GUI on Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS. Opengl csharp graphics opengl-library csharp-library. NVIDIA provides OpenGL-accelerated Remote Desktop for GeForce. In these days of social distancing, game developers and content creators all over the world are working from home and asking for help using Windows Remote Desktop streaming with the OpenGL tools they use. From OpenGL wiki: 'For most libraries you are familiar with, you simply #include a header file, make sure a library is linked into your project or makefile, and it all works. OpenGL doesn't work that way.' I work on Windows 64 and I need OpenGL to use it in C application. What library I should use?
Single format libraries
- lodepng: Very small library for loading PNG files without any dependencies.
- libpng: The official library for loading PNG files. It is very widely used. Many other libraries use this to handle PNG.
- libspng: An alternative to libpng with a simple C API.
- libjpg: A library for loading JPEG (or JPG) files. As with libpng, other libraries use libjpg to handle JPEG.
- libktx: Library for the KTX file format. The KTX format is closely related to OpenGL, but not used by most tools. LibKTL also has functions to take a loaded KTX image and convert it into an OpenGL texture.
Multi format libraries
OpenGL Image
Last Update: Jan 11, 2014
GLI (OpenGL Image) is a small cross-platform C++ image library able to load DDS textures (DDS9 and DDS10), compressed or uncompressed.
It is licensed under the MIT license.
Unofficial OpenGL SDK
Last Update: August 10, 2012
Unofficial OpenGL SDK has an image loading component called GL Image. This is a C++ library for loading images. It currently supports DDS9 textures (and compression), PNG, JPEG, TGA, BMP, and GIF formats.
It has functions to load images into OpenGL textures, either user-created ones or ones created by the system itself. It supports creating immutable storage for textures as well as those with mutable storage. It even supports direct state access, to minimize state changes when creating them.
It is licensed under the MIT license.
SAIL
Last Update: November 1, 2020
SAIL (Squirrel Abstract Image Library) is a fast C/C++ image decoding library providing simple yet powerful APIs, from one-liners to complex use cases with custom I/O sources.
It does not have functions to load images directly into OpenGL textures.
Supported image formats: APNG, PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF. Work to add more image formats is ongoing.
Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux.
It is released under the MIT license.
DevIL
Last Update: January 1, 2017
DevIL stands for Developers Image Library (it once was called 'OpenIL', but that was trademarked, so they had to change it). It supports many image formats for reading and writing, it supports several compilers and OS (Win, Linux, Mac OSX). The library has a OpenGL-like syntax.
It does have functions to load images directly (more or less) into OpenGL textures, though these are part of 'ilut' and not 'il' proper.
DevIL uses the LGPL license, version 2.1.
FreeImage
Last Update: March 23, 2014
FreeImage is an cross-platform image-loading library, with very wide support for image formats (including some HDR formats like OpenEXR).
It does not have functions to load images directly into OpenGL textures.
It is released under multiple licenses, GPL 2 and 3, as well as their own FreeImage Public License.
GLraw
Last Update: March 28, 2014
GLraw is an utility that converts Qt-supported images into various OpenGL-compatible raw formats. glraw reduces the process of loading textures at run-time to a minimum: A file-content dump into GPU memory.
Image to OpenGL texture conversion can be done either by glraw's command line interface, e.g., within an existing tool-chain, or at run-time with glraw linked as asset library (requires linking Qt). For loading image files, just source copy the minimal Raw-File reader or integrate the dependency free, C++ loader library.
It is licensed under the MIT license.
GLAUX
Opengl Library
DO NOT USE THIS! This is a very old library that should not be used anymore. Most people who encounter GLAUX are people who see the NeHe tutorials which haven't been updated in years. NeHe uses auxDIBImageLoad() in order to read BMP files. GLAUX is no longer available.