C++ Graphics in Visual Studio 2017

Question

How can graphics functions be used in Visual Studio 2017 (C++) without using a BGI library? What header file is used? I want to use these functions to do things like drawing a circle.

Answer 1

The header file <windows.h> allows you to use Windows API for many functionalities including but not limited to functions that you will use to do graphics by yourself such as SetPixel and GetPixel and many others you can see the code in this repository which contains C++ implementations for various circle drawing algorthims.

Answer 2

You have quite a few options:

• Windows API - Quite difficult to use but runs incredibly fast. This is perhaps the most difficult option due to how complex and no-hand-holding it is.
• MFC - Microsoft's tools for C++ graphics. Not too easy to use but certainly easier than WinAPI. A lot of people don't like using this as it's kind of old and there are better stuff out there.
• OpenGL/Vulkan/DirextX - These three are very similar technologies. They are based around using your graphics card for drawing, using small programs called 'shaders' which can be edited and compiled on the fly. Most games use one of these, and they run pretty fast. DirectX is Windows only, and Vulkan is pretty low-level. I would recommend OpenGL out of these three.
• External library - There are many libraries you can use such as Qt, wxWidgets or SFML. All of these have their own pros and cons, but they all are third party libraries which bridge the gap between commands like 'draw a circle' and the Windows calls that go on under the surface.
• Chromium Embedded Framework - CEF allows you to code the guts of your program in C++, then create the GUI using HTML5 and Javascript. Essentially it's a web browser connected to a C++ backend. Looks really nice but some criticise it for its resource usage, which is much larger than the alternatives.

I would recommend staying away from WinAPI and MFC and either use a third-party library (for simple GUIs) or OpenGL (for complex rendering i.e. games). If you're confident in web programming then you can go for CEF.