GLFW

Introduction

GLFW is a free, Open Source, multi-platform library for OpenGL, OpenGL ES and Vulkan application development. It provides a simple, platform-independent API for creating windows, contexts and surfaces, reading input, handling events, etc.

Version 3.2 adds support for Vulkan surface creation, window mode switching, window maximization, window input focus control, window size and aspect ratio limits, human-readable key names, window icons, joystick connection events, XInput and DirectInput joystick input, event waiting with timeout, 64-bit integer raw timer, context-less window creation, error-less contexts via GL_KHR_no_error (where available), run-time context creation API selection, Windows 8.1 per-monitor DPI and the CMake config-file package system, adds simpler build-time configuration, improved documentation and fixes for a large number of bugs that together affect all supported platforms.

If you are new to GLFW, you may find the tutorial for GLFW 3 useful. If you have used GLFW 2 in the past, there is a transition guide for moving to the GLFW 3 API.

Compiling GLFW

See the Compiling GLFW guide in the GLFW documentation.

Using GLFW

See the Building programs that use GLFW guide in the GLFW documentation.

Reporting bugs

Bugs are reported to our issue tracker. Please always include the name and version of the OS where the bug occurs and the version of GLFW used. If you have cloned it, include the commit ID used.

If it's a build issue, please also include the build log and the name and version of your development environment.

If it's a context creation issue, please also include the make and model of your graphics card and the version of your driver.

This will help both us and other people experiencing the same bug.

Dependencies

GLFW itself needs only the headers and libraries for your window system. It does not need the headers for any context creation API (WGL, GLX, EGL, NSGL) or rendering API (OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan) to enable support for them.

The examples and test programs depend on a number of tiny libraries. These are located in the deps/ directory.

getopt_port for examples with command-line options
TinyCThread for threaded examples
An OpenGL 3.2 core loader generated by glad for examples using modern OpenGL
linmath.h for linear algebra in examples
Vulkan headers for Vulkan tests

The Vulkan example additionally requires the Vulkan SDK to be installed, or it will not be included in the build.

The documentation is generated with Doxygen. If CMake does not find Doxygen, the documentation will not be generated.

Changelog

Added glfwVulkanSupported, glfwGetRequiredInstanceExtensions, glfwGetInstanceProcAddress, glfwGetPhysicalDevicePresentationSupport and glfwCreateWindowSurface for platform independent Vulkan support
Added glfwSetWindowMonitor for switching between windowed and full screen modes and updating the monitor and desired video mode of full screen windows
Added glfwMaximizeWindow and GLFW_MAXIMIZED for window maximization
Added glfwFocusWindow for giving windows input focus
Added glfwSetWindowSizeLimits and glfwSetWindowAspectRatio for setting absolute and relative window size limits
Added glfwGetKeyName for querying the layout-specific name of printable keys
Added glfwWaitEventsTimeout for waiting for events for a set amount of time
Added glfwSetWindowIcon for setting the icon of a window
Added glfwGetTimerValue and glfwGetTimerFrequency for raw timer access
Added glfwSetJoystickCallback and GLFWjoystickfun for joystick connection and disconnection events
Added GLFW_NO_API for creating window without contexts
Added GLFW_INCLUDE_VULKAN for including the Vulkan header
Added GLFW_CONTEXT_CREATION_API, GLFW_NATIVE_CONTEXT_API and GLFW_EGL_CONTEXT_API for run-time context creation API selection
Added GLFW_CONTEXT_NO_ERROR context hint for GL_KHR_no_error support
Added GLFW_TRUE and GLFW_FALSE as client API independent boolean values
Added icons to examples on Windows and OS X
Relaxed rules for native access header macros
Removed dependency on external OpenGL or OpenGL ES headers
Removed _GLFW_USE_OPENGL, _GLFW_USE_GLESV1, _GLFW_USE_GLESV2, _GLFW_WGL, _GLFW_NSGL, _GLFW_GLX and _GLFW_EGL configuration macros
[Win32] Added support for Windows 8.1 per-monitor DPI
[Win32] Replaced winmm with XInput and DirectInput for joystick input
[Win32] Bugfix: Window creation would segfault if video mode setting required the system to be restarted
[Win32] Bugfix: MinGW import library lacked the lib prefix
[Win32] Bugfix: Monitor connection and disconnection events were not reported when no windows existed
[Win32] Bugfix: Activating or deactivating displays in software did not trigger monitor callback
[Win32] Bugfix: No monitors were listed on headless and VMware guest systems
[Win32] Bugfix: Pressing Ctrl+Pause would report GLFW_KEY_UNKNOWN
[Win32] Bugfix: Window size events would be reported in wrong order when restoring a full screen window
[Cocoa] Made joystick polling more efficient
[Cocoa] Removed support for OS X 10.6
[Cocoa] Bugfix: Full screen windows on secondary monitors were mispositioned
[Cocoa] Bugfix: Connecting a joystick that reports no name would segfault
[Cocoa] Bugfix: Modifier flags cache was not updated when window became key
[Cocoa] Bugfix: Dead key character composition did not work
[Cocoa] Bugfix: The CGL context was not released until the autorelease pool was drained by another function
[X11] Bugfix: Monitor connection and disconnection events were not reported
[X11] Bugfix: Decoding of UTF-8 text from XIM could continue past the end
[X11] Bugfix: An XKB structure was leaked during glfwInit
[X11] Bugfix: XInput2 XI_Motion events interfered with the Steam overlay
[POSIX] Bugfix: An unrelated TLS key could be deleted by glfwTerminate
[Linux] Made joystick polling more efficient
[WGL] Changed extension loading to only be performed once
[WGL] Removed dependency on external WGL headers
[GLX] Added glfwGetGLXWindow to query the GLXWindow of a window
[GLX] Replaced legacy drawable with GLXWindow
[GLX] Removed dependency on external GLX headers
[GLX] Bugfix: NetBSD does not provide libGL.so.1
[EGL] Added _GLFW_USE_EGLPLATFORM_H configuration macro for controlling whether to use an existing EGL/eglplatform.h header
[EGL] Added and documented test for if the context is current on the calling thread during buffer swap
[EGL] Removed dependency on external EGL headers

Contact

The official website for GLFW is glfw.org. There you can find the latest version of GLFW, as well as news, documentation and other information about the project.

If you have questions related to the use of GLFW, we have a support forum, and the IRC channel #glfw on Freenode.

If you have a bug to report, a patch to submit or a feature you'd like to request, please file it in the issue tracker on GitHub.

Finally, if you're interested in helping out with the development of GLFW or porting it to your favorite platform, join us on GitHub or IRC.

Acknowledgements

GLFW exists because people around the world donated their time and lent their skills.

Bobyshev Alexander
artblanc
arturo
Matt Arsenault
Keith Bauer
John Bartholomew
Niklas Behrens
Niklas Bergström
Doug Binks
blanco
Martin Capitanio
Chi-kwan Chan
Lambert Clara
Andrew Corrigan
Noel Cower
Jarrod Davis
Olivier Delannoy
Paul R. Deppe
Michael Dickens
Роман Донченко
Mario Dorn
Jonathan Dummer
Ralph Eastwood
Siavash Eliasi
Michael Fogleman
Gerald Franz
GeO4d
Marcus Geelnard
Eloi Marín Gratacós
Stefan Gustavson
Sylvain Hellegouarch
Matthew Henry
heromyth
Lucas Hinderberger
Paul Holden
IntellectualKitty
Aaron Jacobs
Toni Jovanoski
Arseny Kapoulkine
Osman Keskin
Cameron King
Peter Knut
Christoph Kubisch
Eric Larson
Robin Leffmann
Glenn Lewis
Shane Liesegang
Eyal Lotem
Дмитри Малышев
Martins Mozeiko
Tristam MacDonald
Hans Mackowiak
Zbigniew Mandziejewicz
Kyle McDonald
David Medlock
Bryce Mehring
Jonathan Mercier
Marcel Metz
Jonathan Miller
Kenneth Miller
Bruce Mitchener
Jack Moffitt
Jeff Molofee
Jon Morton
Pierre Moulon
Julian Møller
Kamil Nowakowski
Ozzy
Andri Pálsson
Peoro
Braden Pellett
Arturo J. Pérez
Orson Peters
Emmanuel Gil Peyrot
Cyril Pichard
Pieroman
Jorge Rodriguez
Ed Ropple
Aleksey Rybalkin
Riku Salminen
Brandon Schaefer
Sebastian Schuberth
Matt Sealey
SephiRok
Steve Sexton
Systemcluster
Yoshiki Shibukawa
Dmitri Shuralyov
Daniel Skorupski
Bradley Smith
Julian Squires
Johannes Stein
Justin Stoecker
Elviss Strazdins
Nathan Sweet
TTK-Bandit
Sergey Tikhomirov
A. Tombs
Ioannis Tsakpinis
Samuli Tuomola
urraka
Jari Vetoniemi
Ricardo Vieira
Nicholas Vitovitch
Simon Voordouw
Torsten Walluhn
Patrick Walton
Xo Wang
Jay Weisskopf
Frank Wille
yuriks
Santi Zupancic
Jonas Ådahl
Lasse Öörni
All the unmentioned and anonymous contributors in the GLFW community, for bug reports, patches, feedback, testing and encouragement

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