Microsoft Visual Studio is a popular application development tool. In the process of familiarizing yourself with the environment, it is important to learn how to correctly connect the libraries necessary for working on a project to expand the possibilities of writing code and the functionality of the software product as a whole.
Loading the library
Download the archive with the files of the required library to connect them. It is advisable to download the files necessary for writing the program code from the official websites of the developers. So, to connect OpenGL, you can go to the GLUT section (The Open GL Utility Toolkit package, which allows you to develop applications using this graphical technology) and download the latest version of the project from the creators' resource. Extract the resulting archive to a separate folder. Before installing, it is advisable to read the instructions for using the library, which can also be archived or posted on the official website.
Installation
Copy the DLL files to Start - My Computer - Local C: Drive - Windows - System32. So, in the archive of the OpenGL library there are two documents glut.dll and glut32.dll, which must be moved to this directory.
Move the documents that have the.h extension to the folder where you have Visual Studio installed. Most often, the program is located in the "Local drive C:" directory - Program Files - Microsoft Visual Studio - VC - Include (or Lib, depending on the version of Visual Studio). After that, open your project window and right-click in the central part of the application, then select Properties. Switch the Configuration setting to All Configurations by changing the Active (Debug) parameter.
Go to the Linker - Input section and use the Additional Dependencies parameter. Enter the names of the files that were copied to the directory with the LIB extension (for example, opengl32.lib) and click "OK" to apply the settings, and then Apply in the previous options window. The library has been connected to Microsoft Visual Studio and it can be used to write code.
Some libraries are offered in the form of ready-made self-extracting solutions that can significantly speed up the process of writing code. If the library is offered in this format, installation will be much easier. You just need to unzip the package of the software solution and run the script with the SLN extension in Visual Studio 2010 or 2012. Then go to the Source.c tab and start writing your own code. To compile and run the current new project, press the F5 button, as in the case of self-created projects.
