Create a fake OpenGL context for sake of loading extensions

Question

I've been playing with Derelict3&glfw to use OpenGL in D according to this, if I want to use extensions, I need to create a context first, and this is done by creating a window with glfw and set it as the current context. After the context is created and set, I need to use DerelictGL3.reload() to load all the extensions.

Now, I want to do all the preparations before I create the window. One of those preparations is to load and compile all the shader programs. But this required the shader extension, which required Derelict3GL.reload(), which refuses to run without a context...

So, I've used this hackish hack:

auto tmpWindow=glfwCreateWindow(1,1,"",null,null);
glfwMakeContextCurrent(tmpWindow);
DerelictGL3.reload();
glfwDestroyWindow(tmpWindow);

This works - I can now load and compile the shader programs and only then open the real window. But this seems a bit too hackish to me. Is there a proper way to fake a context, or to load the extensions without a context?

Answer 1

Is there a proper way to fake a context, or to load the extensions without a context?

That depends on the plattform:

With Windows: Doing it through the intermediary window (that doesn't have to be mapped visibly on the screen) is the only way to load extensions reliably on Windows.

With X11/GLX: Extension function pointer can be loaded immediately using glXGetProcAddress ad the extension functions are part of the GLX client library and common to all contexts. However an actual OpenGL context may not support all of the functions that can be validly obtained with glXProcAddress.