How to use current version of opengl in cygwin?

Question

I have been using OpenGL with cygwin for several months to program some 3D applications. Now I want to try to write some more advanced methods using things like vertex buffer objects. However, I noticed that I ran into an obstacle: when I use glGetString(GL_VERSION) in my program, it spits out 1.4.

I will compile my program with these flags: -lGL -lglut -lGLU -lGLEW and include these headers: freeglut.h glew.h I selected a link to the X11 libraries and windows, as described here . My current OpenGL programs are built and can run (because so far I have used older functions - pre-OpenGL 1.4).

I have a new desktop computer with an ATI FirePro V4800 (FireGL) graphics card that can support up to OpenGL 4.1. I installed the latest drivers and passed the tests provided by the program: OpenGL Extensions Viewer. In addition, the program shows that all extensions up to and including 4.1 are available for my video card.

Below is a brief mention that says cygwin may want to use old DLLs (those that do not support shaders, etc.). Is this a cygwin problem? Will cygwin just not recognize my latest drivers and offer me cool stuff in OpenGL 4.1? Or am I not linking to the correct libraries?

UPDATE

After I found out how Cygwin X Server works, I decided that I should switch to my own freeglut library libraries. I grabbed the precompiled binaries found here and put the files in the appropriate directories to link them. After recompilation, I can use all the options found in OpenGL, as my video card allows (4.1).

Answer 1

When using the Cygwin X server, run it with the -wgl option (current versions do this automatically), then

 export LIBGL_USE_WGL=1 

On the machine I am going with, I get:

 $ glxinfo | grep OpenGL OpenGL vendor string: Intel OpenGL renderer string: Intel(R) HD Graphics 2500 OpenGL version string: 4.0.0 - Build 9.17.10.3062 OpenGL shading language version string: 4.00 - Build 9.17.10.3062 [...] 

Reset environment variable:

 $ glxinfo | grep OpenGL OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc. OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 256 bits) OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.5 OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30 [...]