Chapter 2. Creating Your First Program
We have already introduced how to install the Kinect device on Windows in the previous chapter, as well as some official examples showing the basic concepts of Kinect programming. In this chapter, we will prepare a simple OpenGL framework for our Kinect-based game using the C++ language. OpenGL is a well-rounded and evolving cross-platform API for rendering 2D and 3D graphics. It supports multiple languages including C/C++, Java, Python, and C#. As we are working on an Augmented Reality (AR) project, which must consist of the view of the real world and some virtual elements, OpenGL will be a good choice here because of its hardware-accelerated features and popularity all over the world.
Tip
As you may know, Microsoft's DirectX is another reliable 2D/3D graphics API that could fit our requirements. But it is only used under Windows currently, and can hardly support languages except C/C++ and C#. You can learn more about DirectX at:
