In the last days I have the opportunity to test three different OpenGL widget: the QGLWidget from the Qt4 library, the QGLViewer and the GLC_lib. Both QGLViewer and the GLC_lib are based on the QGLWidget. Here is my impressions
QGLWidget
Perhaps the simplier. It is a basic OpenGL widget that come with the Qt4 library. It is good enough to make some simple 3d application without too much trouble, but I think that its simplicity is the biggest limit.
QGLViewer
It is the first widget I found when looking for a better widget or library to use. It is nice and well supported, at least under linux. It extend the basic QGLWidget without adding much more. Of course it make easy some operations. A nice widget to use if you need only OpenGL support.
GLC_lib
This seems to be the most complete solution. It expand the QGLWidget and add some more things (like the support for some graphics file format and more). I cannot try it on my Windows machine since it crash, but I was impressed with the test under Linux.
So, what widget to use ? I choose the QGLWidget since the program must run either under Linux and Windows and the targer audience is not so techical (I suppose), so no need for external dependecies o package to install.
The other two failed to work under Windows (my bad probably) , but my software was rather simple on the 3d front, so I have no particular needs.
Having to write a Linux-only software or a much more complex application, I probably choose QGLViewer since it has also the python bindings, but also the GLC_lib is a good choice expecially if you have to use some standard format for 3d file (like .3ds files).
