VS 2012 Build/Shader trouble

Question

I'm fairly new to Visual studios and C++ as well. I've been trying to get the Sierpinski Gasket example from Interactive Computer Graphics A Top-Down Approach with OpenGL by Ed Angels, specifically the Chapter 2 Example 1 Visual C++ Project, and I've ran into to some problems that I can't seem to solve or find a solution to. The problem I have is when I run it in VS2012 the window immediately closes with error something along the lines of it couldn't find vshader21.glsl. When I run it from the 6E Test.exe in the debug folder it opens fine, creates a window but it doesn't show any of the triangles, just a blank white box. I have downloaded the latest versions of GLEW and freeglut and I'm positive I put everything in the right place.

The example project includes: Angel.h, vec.h, mat.h, CheckError.h, example1.cpp, InitShader.cpp, vshader21.glsl, and fshader21.glsl

I believe the error is coming from the example1.cpp with the line GLuint program = InitShader( "vshader21.glsl", "fshader21.glsl" ); not finding the files ut i have added both the .glsl to the debug folder and changed the path to go to the debug folder in the Working Directory of the project properties. Any Suggestions or solutions as to how i can fix this?

#include "Angel.h"

const int NumPoints = 5000;

void
init( void )
{

    vec2 points[NumPoints];

    // Specifiy the vertices for a triangle
    vec2 vertices[3] = {
        vec2( -1.0, -1.0 ), vec2( 0.0, 1.0 ), vec2( 1.0, -1.0 )
    };

    // Select an arbitrary initial point inside of the triangle
    points[0] = vec2( 0.25, 0.50 );

    // compute and store N-1 new points
    for ( int i = 1; i < NumPoints; ++i ) {
        int j = rand() % 3;   // pick a vertex at random

        // Compute the point halfway between the selected vertex
        //   and the previous point
        points[i] = ( points[i - 1] + vertices[j] ) / 2.0;
    }

    // Create a vertex array object
    GLuint vao;
    glGenVertexArrays( 1, &vao );
    glBindVertexArray( vao );

    // Create and initialize a buffer object
    GLuint buffer;
    glGenBuffers( 1, &buffer );
    glBindBuffer( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, buffer );
    glBufferData( GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(points), points, GL_STATIC_DRAW );

    // Load shaders and use the resulting shader program
    GLuint program = InitShader( "vshader21.glsl", "fshader21.glsl" );
    glUseProgram( program );

    // Initialize the vertex position attribute from the vertex shader
    GLuint loc = glGetAttribLocation( program, "vPosition" );
    glEnableVertexAttribArray( loc );
    glVertexAttribPointer( loc, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0,
                           BUFFER_OFFSET(0) );

    glClearColor( 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 ); // white background
}

void
display( void )
{
    glClear( GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT );     // clear the window
    glDrawArrays( GL_POINTS, 0, NumPoints );    // draw the points
    glFlush();
}

void
keyboard( unsigned char key, int x, int y )
{
    switch ( key ) {
    case 033:
        exit( EXIT_SUCCESS );
        break;
    }
}

int
main( int argc, char **argv )
{

    glutInit(&argc, argv);
    glutInitDisplayMode( GLUT_RGBA );
    glutInitWindowSize( 512, 512 );

    // If you are using freeglut, the next two lines will check if 
    // the code is truly 3.2. Otherwise, comment them out

     glutInitContextVersion( 3, 1 );
     glutInitContextProfile( GLUT_CORE_PROFILE );

    glutCreateWindow( "Sierpinski Gasket" );

    glewInit();

    init();

    glutDisplayFunc( display );
    glutKeyboardFunc( keyboard );

    glutMainLoop();
    return 0;
}

UPDATE this is what it tells me when I press F5 to run it. my version of GLEW is 1.10.0 and freeglut is 2.8.1-1

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Users\Robert\Documents\6E test\Debug\6E test.exe'. Symbols loaded.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\kernel32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\KernelBase.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Users\Robert\Documents\6E test\Debug\freeglut.dll'. Module was built without symbols.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\user32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\gdi32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\lpk.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\usp10.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file. '6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msvcrt.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file. '6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\advapi32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file. '6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\sechost.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\rpcrt4.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\sspicli.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cryptbase.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\opengl32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\glu32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ddraw.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\dciman32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\setupapi.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cfgmgr32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\oleaut32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ole32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\devobj.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\dwmapi.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\winmm.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Users\Robert\Documents\6E test\Debug\glew32.dll'. Module was built without symbols.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msvcp110d.dll'. Symbols loaded.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msvcr110d.dll'. Symbols loaded.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\imm32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msctf.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\nvinit.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\uxtheme.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ig7icd32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\version.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Unloaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\version.dll'

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ole32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Unloaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ole32.dll'

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ole32.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Unloaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ole32.dll'

'6E test.exe' (Win32): Loaded 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\clbcatq.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

The program '[6244] 6E test.exe' has exited with code 1 (0x1).

Answer 1

You cannot use single-buffered windowed drawing in newer versions of Microsoft Windows, with Desktop Composition enabled. Even after you get your shader loading mechanism working correctly, you are going to run into a much bigger issue, where the ouput is not visible. In fact judging by your problem description I think you already are encountering this issue.

Please have a look at this question for a more detailed explanation of the problem and the solution.