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.EnableDebugMessages();

// 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({
    baregl::data::FloatVertexAttribute{ baregl::types::EDataType::FLOAT, 3 },
    baregl::data::FloatVertexAttribute{ 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 & Tests
glad (included in sources)	glfw & glm (downloaded with CMake's FetchContent)

CMake Configuration

Option	Allowed Values	Description
BAREGL_GENERATE_EXAMPLES	ON / OFF (default)	Generate example projects
BAREGL_GENERATE_TESTS	ON / OFF (default)	Generate test project

Building Examples & Running Unit Tests

Windows

git clone https://github.com/adriengivry/baregl
cd baregl
cmake --preset dev
cmake --build --preset dev-all
ctest --preset test-all

Linux

git clone https://github.com/adriengivry/baregl
cd baregl

# Wayland
cmake --preset dev
# X11
cmake --preset dev-no-wayland

cmake --build --preset dev-all
ctest --preset test-all

Tip

Find all available presets with:

cmake --list-presets all

CMake Integration Quick Start

Create a new C++ project with glfw, glm, and baregl in a few seconds with this quick start CMakeLists.txt.

Example project structure:

my-project/
├── CMakeLists.txt
└── src
    └── Main.cpp (e.g. examples/1-triangle/Main.cpp) 

Example CMakeLists.txt content:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(my-project)

set(TARGET_NAME ${PROJECT_NAME})
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

include(FetchContent)

set(GLFW_BUILD_TESTS OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
set(GLFW_BUILD_DOCS  OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
set(GLFW_INSTALL     OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
FetchContent_Declare(glfw GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/glfw/glfw.git GIT_TAG 3.4)

set(GLM_BUILD_TESTS   OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
set(GLM_ENABLE_CXX_20 ON  CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
FetchContent_Declare(glm GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/g-truc/glm.git GIT_TAG 1.0.3)

FetchContent_Declare(baregl GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/adriengivry/baregl.git GIT_TAG origin/main)

FetchContent_MakeAvailable(glfw glm baregl)

file(GLOB_RECURSE SOURCES "src/*.cpp" "src/*.h")
add_executable(${TARGET_NAME} ${SOURCES})

target_link_libraries(my-project PRIVATE glfw glm baregl)

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.