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Fernando Garcia
Fernando Garcia

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Have you tried learning WebGL/OpenGL technologies? How did it go?

Hey everyone, so I've been recently learning and using WebGL and avoiding using libraries for my little game side projects.

I had always found learning OpenGL (few years ago and using C/C++) really hard and it was until now that I am beginning to see progress using JavaScript (A language that I am way more familiar with).

I'm wondering about your personal experience when trying to tackle this type of technology (low-level graphics libraries).

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stivifortes profile image
Stiven Fortes

I just started studying a bit of Graphic Computer. I want to press forward with OpenGL, but I am having big troubles to set up it. I already checked up on Google, but it's not working. Would you like to help me with that? Maybe by sharing a nice tutorial? Thanks in advance.

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fergarram profile image
Fernando Garcia

It depends, if you are trying to learn WebGL then I highly suggest webglfundamentals.org. But, if you are trying to learn OpenGL with high-level languages like C/C++ then I'm afraid I might not be able to give you any advice since I'm not very familiar with that technology.

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stivifortes profile image
Stiven Fortes

I'm trying OpenGL with c++. But thanks anyway.💪

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maniflames profile image
Maniflames

About a year ago I made a custom shader for threejs and that was my first encounter with GLSL. I wasn't necessarily interested in graphics back then but more in making stuff in threejs look cooler.

I took a look at the book of shaders and figured that it would take a long time before I could build something really awesome by making shaders from scratch so I decided to use additional threejs example libraries instead.

I think the main thing that drove me away from writing shaders directly was the math related to it. I'm now at the start of process to learn more about computer graphics including the math. I'll have to keep in mind that building cool stuff will take time but that it's going to be worth it 🥳

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yinannanyi profile image
Aura

!!!!! i am a grapgic designer, i am so interested in web interaction, and i went through some excellent front developer and realized their label are like three.js and webGL, so i think for me, if i wanna learn it from scratch to build my ...lets say, marvelous portfolio, should i learn three.js?It seems more fun, isn;t it? i am working on css, html and javascript in vscode. would you have any advice?

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maniflames profile image
Maniflames

If your goal is to build a portfolio website I would definitely start out with threejs instead of learning WebGL from scratch. I'm mainly saying this because writing all 3D related code from scratch is significantly more work which could lead to abandonment of the project.

If you have the cash I would but ThreeJS Journey, a very populair course buy a very popular developer with a cool portfolio (Bruno Simon).

If not the ThreeJS crash course for Absolute Beginners by DesignCourse seems like a good start for someone who is familiar with the fundamentals of webdev and wants to dive into 3D.

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yinannanyi profile image
Aura

Thanks a lot!!!! after i build my portfolio frame, i will learn this course, by the way, could i ask you one more question:if i wanna switch my job, three.js can bring some competition for me or not? if i want to find something like web design or app design ?

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maniflames profile image
Maniflames

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is very dependent on where you are located.

ThreeJS is exclusively for the web, so if you want to build apps I suggest looking into popular mobile frameworks/languages. Once you're comfortable with those basics you can branch out to learning more about 3D rendering in that context.

Landing a job however depends on what skills are valued by employers near you. Showing that you are interested in development and learning more always helps but exact requirements for landing a job vary just to much from place to place.

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yinannanyi profile image
Aura

Thank you !~

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fergarram profile image
Fernando Garcia

Thanks for you input! Math has also been a barrier for me when trying to do graphics from scratch, but as you said it will take time lo learn and it is totally worth it