This project utilizes modern tools to simplify the setup process and ensure consistent builds across development environments. We use vcpkg as our primary package manager to handle external libraries.

To streamline the installation of all necessary libraries (GLFW, GLM, and GLAD), simply use the provided setup script.

1. Run the Setup Script: Locate and double-click the setup.bat file in the root of the repository.
2. Wait: The script will automatically clone vcpkg, bootstrap it, and then install all required dependencies for the project.

This method is highly recommended to ensure you have the correct versions and build configurations.

If you prefer to manage dependencies yourself, you can manually install the required libraries using vcpkg or by following the instructions on their respective project websites:

# Example vcpkg command (assuming vcpkg is bootstrapped and in your PATH)
vcpkg install glfw3 glm glad --triplet x64-windows

For platform-specific installation guides, please refer to the official documentation for GLFW, GLM, and GLAD.

This repository contains the source code for an OpenGL application that visualizes a Solar System using modern C++ and various helper libraries for 3D graphics rendering. The project is structured around object-oriented principles to manage components like the camera, shaders, textures, and the celestial bodies themselves.

The project is configured for Visual Studio on Windows, using the C++ package manager vcpkg to manage external dependencies.

• Visual Studio (The project uses a .sln file and .vcxproj files).
• Git (for cloning vcpkg).

To streamline the installation of all necessary libraries, simply run the provided batch file.

1. Run the Setup Script: Locate and double-click the setup.bat file in the repository's root directory.
2. Wait: The script automatically clones vcpkg, bootstraps it, and installs the required dependencies: GLFW, GLM, and GLAD.

If you prefer to manage dependencies manually, you can use the following command (assuming vcpkg is bootstrapped and in your PATH) to install the necessary libraries for a 64-bit Windows build:

vcpkg install glfw3 glm glad --triplet x64-windows

For platform-specific installation guides, you can refer to the official documentation for GLFW, GLM, and GLAD.

The codebase is built on OpenGL fundamentals, using several custom C++ classes to abstract common rendering concepts.

The project separates header declarations (Include/) from implementation files (src/) for modularity.

The core object is the Sphere class, which represents a planet or star:

• Procedural Geometry: The sphere's geometry is generated on the GPU within the vertex shader (Sphere.vert) based on uniform inputs like stacks and slices, making it highly scalable.
• Properties: It manages the sphere's radius, center position, and rotation properties, which are used to update the world transformation matrix.
• Factory Pattern: The SphereFactory suggests the use of a design pattern to easily instantiate different celestial objects (create_planet).

The project uses several classes to abstract standard OpenGL concepts:

The shaders are central to the visualization:

• Sphere.vert (Vertex Shader): This shader procedurally generates vertex positions for the sphere geometry using stacks and slices variables, and calculates texture coordinates (textCoord).
• Sphere.frag (Fragment Shader): A simple shader that samples a uniform texture (sphereTexture) based on the interpolated texture coordinates (textCoord) to color the sphere's surface.

// Sphere.frag snippet
void main() {
    // Colors the fragment based on the texture at the calculated coordinate
    FragColor = texture(sphereTexture, textCoord);
}