Setting up OpenGL - it won't work

Question

I just bought a new laptop with windows 8 64bit and I am using Visual Studio 2012. I did the usual procedure with installing a 3d party lib just as I installed them on my previous PCs:

1. Download freeglut, glew, glfw, glut, sdl
2. Copy headers into "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\include"
3. Copy libs into "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\lib"
4. Copy dll's into "C:\Windows\SysWOW64"

Then I downloaded the project I was developing on my other PC (was developed under windows 8 32bit if that's of any importance) and it would'n compile. The compiler threw me the following linking error:

Error 1 error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol __imp__glDrawArrays@12  - about 50 of these 

Error 63 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glClear@4 - again about 50 of these

The project is working perfectly on my old PC.

I did try to make a simple new project: http://pastebin.com/GfEieL6f

Linked the following libraries (Properties->Linker->Input->Additional Dependencies)

opengl32.lib
glut32.lib
glu32.lib

And again it wouldn't compile, again the same linking errors:

Error 1 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glBegin@4 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 2 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glClear@4 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 3 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glClearColor@16 referenced in function _main P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 4 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glColor3f@12 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 5 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glEnd@0 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 6 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glFlush@0 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 7 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glLoadIdentity@0 referenced in function _main P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 8 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glMatrixMode@4 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 9 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glOrtho@48 referenced in function _main P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 10 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glRotatef@16 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

Error 11 error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glVertex3iv@4 referenced in function "void __cdecl drawcube(void)" (?drawcube@@YAXXZ) P:\OpenGL_Setup\OpenGL_Setup\opengl_setup.obj

I don't know if I am missing something, can you give me some ideas ?

PP: I managed to fix the simple program and run it, but I cannot run my old project. Maybe it's a problem because of the platform change ? How can I fix it?

Answer 1

1. Don't add files to the compiler lib directory. Instead add another library search path to your project.

2. You probably downloaded library files that aren't compatible with VC++ 2012 and your project build settings. In native code, you can't mix x86, x64, etc. Static libraries need to match your project bitness, not your OS. And Microsoft also changes/extends the library file format, as well as runtime library components used by the library, so you really should get a library file designed for your version of VC++.