Hi I'm doing a research project in visualization and need to draw some 3D objects using a N900 and OpenGL ES 2.0.

The 3D-drawing code is already written in .c. It works fine on the AMD OpenGL ES 2.0 emulator for Windows, the X-code iphone/ipad simulator and on a real Iphone and Ipad device (again ES 2.0).

Now this needs to be ported to the N900 for user testing (we have three of these devices for the project). I've tried Qt Creator on a Win XP SP3, and Scratchbox on a Virtual ubuntu installation, but in both developer environments I'm getting hammered with compilation errors related to the OpenGL header files. In Qt Creator I can build example Qt apps, and in scratchbox I can build a hello world console app and run them on the phone.. But I can't get the OpenGL ES code to build.

I've followed the wiki page for opengl es but it is not helping - the information confuses me, and I'm getting lost in all the layers of virtual machines in virtual machines and where to install what... (I haven't managed to get ANY gl es examples working.)

I downloaded the powervr SDK for maemo/debian, but I was not successful with it.. I thought I would ask here before having another go with it.

So my questions:

Which developer environment should I focus on? Qt Creator or Scratchbox? Do I even need the powervx sdk? Should I use something else?

As I've come to understand it, it is not possible to run ES 2.0 code in Qt Creator N900 simulator?

And the ubuntu virtual machine must need some extra things installed to get a ES 2.0 emulator working right? Will that work in a virtual ubuntu installation?

Will I need to install something on the N900 as well, if/when I get the OpenGL ES 2.0 code to compile?

Is there a working OpenGL ES 2.0 project for the N900? (one that is not accessible from the opengl wiki)

Thanks in advance

The beginnings of developement using OpenGL ES for Maemo is quite painful. It would be really beneficial if you could share the code. If you cannot share then please try to be more specific about problems you are experiencing (paste the exact error messages to have the community something to get started with).

Actually I managed to dig up my old DJGPP makefile skills and got the PowerVR sdk examples compiled inside scratchbox, moved the binary to the n900 and got a triangle..

Once I got that running I could make a small hack and move some of the c code inside and whola(!!!) got some parts of the visualization going!..

But seems I must deploy to the n900 only.. running inside xephyr complains about eglsurface not initialized gah.. dunno if I can get that working

And yes I agree.. it is painful...

Actually what larm is asking for is very clear and does not require source code. I'm glad he was able to find another way of getting things done but I'm sure there must be some easy way of doing this.

In a standard Qt IDE installation the opengl header files are not there. If you use them in your code you will get compiling errors saying they can't be found. Even if you add the following line to the header file:

QT += opengl

So there must be something additional that is needed to allow for opengl development using the Qt IDE. I'm using Ubuntu for development.

I've had a lot of success running OpenGL on the N900. The main drawback, was getting VBOs running, the QT OpenGL ES2 only support direct upload of arrays. To take that jump I use the Nokia Qt3D system, which will be released officially with version 4.8. They've set up their own headers for OpenGL ES 1 or 2. It's not ready for prime time but getting close. Download it from Gitorious at http://git.gitorious.org/qt-labs/qt3d.git. To download, you have to first download and install a GIT platform and then at a command prompt type: git clone http://git.gitorious.org/qt-labs/qt3d.git and that'll put it on your computer. You can then compile it with Qt Creator with version 4.7X and then it's ready to use. Then you compile your program in Fremantle by selecting it in Qt Creator and then your program will download and install automatically to your N900 through the USB port if you've installed the Mad system on the N900.