Use the glDrawBuffer and glReadBuffer functions in Qt

I would like to use the glDrawBuffer and glReadBuffer functions in Qt using Qt Creator. I tried to do this:

glDrawBuffer(GL_NONE);
glReadBuffer(GL_NONE);

This code would not compile, it gave me linking errors like this one:

main.obj:-1: error: LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__glDrawBuffer@4 referenced in function "public: void __thiscall Simple3DWidget::OpenGLWindow::render(void)" (?render@OpenGLWindow@Simple3DWidget@@QAEXXZ)

This error basically means that the functions were declared in an included header file but not correctly linked.

After searching for this issue on the web, I found out that I have to use the QOpenGLFunctions_3_1 class. I tried both these codes:

QOpenGLFunctions_3_1 m_openGL31Functions;
m_openGL31Functions.glDrawBuffer(GL_NONE);
m_openGL31Functions.glReadBuffer(GL_NONE);

and:

QOpenGLFunctions_3_1().glDrawBuffer(GL_NONE);
QOpenGLFunctions_3_1().glReadBuffer(GL_NONE);

Both these codes compile correctly, but when I run the program, in both cases, the program crashed and gave me the following error:

Access violation reading location 0x00000090

The strange thing is that I usually get this error when I assign the wrong value to a pointer, but none of these codes contain pointers (or maybe the functions contain pointers which generate this error, in which case there could be a bug in Qt's QOpenGLFunctions_3_1 class?).

What is the correct way of using the glDrawBuffer and glReadBuffer functions in Qt?

This error basically means that the functions were declared in an included header file but not correctly linked.

Correct. You have to link against OpenGL. opengl32.lib on Windows, libGL.so on *nix/Linux, -framework OpenGL on MacOS.

but none of these codes contain pointers (or maybe the functions contain pointers which generate this error, in which case there could be a bug in Qt's QOpenGLFunctions_3_1 class?).

Yes, they do. The OpenGL interface for anything that goes beyond a certain version is loaded at runtime into function pointers. This is what the QOpenGLFunctions class does. Before properly loading these pointers, they are invalid – in fact, depending on the OpenGL version your're using some may be valid and others not; that's why Qt puts the OpenGL version into the class name.

Answer the following questions:

• Does the program create a OpenGL context to use?
• Is the QOpenGLFunctions_… instance initialized with the context being made active on the calling thread?
• Did initialization of the QOpenGLFunctions_… instance succeed?

If you'd answered any of these questions with "no" or "I don't know", that's where your problem is.