BareGL

BareGL is a fast, simple, permissive (MIT licensed), cross-platform OpenGL 4.5+ wrapper written in C++20.

It aims to reduce the boilerplate code required to get your modern OpenGL application up and running while enforcing concepts like RAII and making it significantly easier to create buffers, allocate memory, upload data to the GPU, and update the underlying OpenGL state.

What It's Like

// Creating an OpenGL context
baregl::Context context;
context.Init(true);

// Creating a vertex buffer
baregl::Buffer vb;
vb.Allocate(sizeof(vertices), baregl::types::EAccessSpecifier::STATIC_DRAW);
vb.Upload(vertices);

// Creating an index buffer
baregl::Buffer ib;
ib.Allocate(sizeof(indices), baregl::types::EAccessSpecifier::STATIC_DRAW);
ib.Upload(indices);

// Defining a vertex layout
baregl::VertexArray va;
va.SetLayout(
    std::to_array<baregl::data::VertexAttribute>({
        { baregl::types::EDataType::FLOAT, 3 },
        { baregl::types::EDataType::FLOAT, 2 }
    }), vb, ib
);

// Loading and compiling shaders
baregl::ShaderStage vs(baregl::types::EShaderType::VERTEX);
vs.Upload(vertexShaderCode);
const auto vsCompilationResult = vs.Compile();
assert(vsCompilationResult.success);

baregl::ShaderStage fs(baregl::types::EShaderType::FRAGMENT);
fs.Upload(fragmentShaderCode);
const auto fsCompilationResult = fs.Compile();
assert(fsCompilationResult.success);

// Creating a shader program
baregl::ShaderProgram program;
program.Attach(vs);
program.Attach(fs);
const auto shaderLinkingResult = program.Link();
assert(shaderLinkingResult.success);

// Drawing
context.SetViewport(0, 0, width, height);
context.Clear(true, true, true);
program.Bind();
va.Bind();
context.DrawElements(baregl::types::EPrimitiveMode::TRIANGLES, 3);
va.Unbind();
program.Unbind();

Features

• OpenGL Core 4.5+ (Windows & Linux)
• Modern C++20 code
• Fully documented public headers
• Zero dependencies on OpenGL headers required outside of BareGL (no GL headers are included in public headers)
• Direct State Access (DSA)
• Low overhead
• Easy integration with CMake

Dependencies

BareGL (library)	Examples
glad (included in sources)	glfw & glm (included as submodules)

CMake Configuration

Option	Allowed Values	Description
BAREGL_GENERATE_EXAMPLES	ON / OFF (default)	Generate example projects (require glfw, and glm submodules to be initialized)

Building Examples

Important

Example projects depend on glfw and glm, which are included as Git submodules. Make sure to initialize submodules before generating projects.

Windows:

git clone https://github.com/adriengivry/baregl --recurse-submodules
cd .\baregl
.\gen_proj_win32.bat
.\build\baregl.sln # (optional) open solution in Visual Studio

Linux:

git clone https://github.com/adriengivry/baregl --recurse-submodules
cd ./baregl
./gen_proj_linux.sh

Contributing

All contributions to BareGL are welcome — whether it's reporting bugs, suggesting new features, or submitting code improvements.

Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests (PRs) for review. Every bit of help makes a difference!

For more information on contributing, check out CONTRIBUTING.md.

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License.

License

BareGL is licensed under the MIT License.

You are free to use, modify, and distribute this project with proper attribution. See the license file for more details.