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OpenGL is a graphics standard and API which targets the desktop and workstation markets. It is designed to be easy to accelerate with dedicated computer hardware, and hence most implementations give greatly improved performance over traditional software rendering. Currently, OpenGL is used for applications like CAD software and computer games. It is also cross-platform. The OpenGL standard is controlled by the Khronos group, which also controls OpenGL ES.

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Khronos Group (the standards body behind OpenGL) has just announced Vulkan: Vulkan is the new generation, open standard API for high-efficiency access to graphics and compute on modern GPUs. This ...
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I heard that in an OpenGL game what we do to let the player move is not to move the camera but to move the whole world around. For example here is an extract of this tutorial: OpenGL View matrix In ...
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I have been using the OpenGL ES on the iPhone for a while now and basically I feel pretty lost outside to the small set of commands I've seen in examples and adopted as my own. I would love to use ...
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8 revs, 5 users 60%
DFectuoso
74 votes
7 answers
45k views

I stumble upon the search of a good resource to start with OpenGL (3.0 or later) . Well, I found a lot of books but none of them can be considered a good resource! Here two examples: OpenGL ...
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MatterGoal
66 votes
9 answers
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I am starting to learn OpenGL with FreeGLUT using the Superbible and the knowledge I have from my elementary graphics to brush up on my skills. To get more from this experience I want to integrate a ...
Community wiki
6 revs, 2 users 66%
Cristina
55 votes
1 answer
67k views

I don't really understand how to use the in / out keywords in GLSL, and google is being uncharacteristically unhelpful. What ...
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In a GLSL fragment shader I am trying to cast a float into an int. The compiler raises an error: ...
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21k views

After I have a linked program, and thinking about defensive programming, should I delete and detach the shaders used to link this program? If yes, is that going to free any resources? Or do these ...
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53 votes
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In my game there is a Minecraft-like terrain made out of cubes. I generate a vertex buffer from the voxel data and use a texture atlas for looks of different blocks: The problem is that the texture of ...
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I know that it is more efficient than stencil test, but am I right assuming that the same functionality could be achieved using projection transformations with viewport?
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6 answers
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I have been teaching myself the OpenGL library for a while now, and want to start making a game. However, for an easier introduction, I want to start with something 2D, such as a top down Pokemon-...
w4etwetewtwet's user avatar
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49 votes
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In the early days of OpenGL and DirectX, texture sizes were required to be powers of two. This meant interpolation of float values could be done very quickly, using shifting and such. Since OpenGL 2....
Will's user avatar
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46 votes
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To translate a vector by 10 unit in the X direction, why do we have to use a matrix? We can just add 10 to the mat[0][0], and we got the same result too.
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I'm new to 3D OpenGL/DirectX world and I found out that OpenGL 4.1 and GLSL specifications were just released today. A friend of mine gave me the Red Book for OGL v2.1 but, as far as I've read, 3.x ...
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http://www.sdltutorials.com/sdl-opengl-tutorial-basics http://www.opengl-tutorial.org/beginners-tutorials/tutorial-2-the-first-triangle/ These two tutorials use completely different approaches to ...
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1 answer
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I'm trying to replicate the glowing outline effect in the Left 4 Dead game. The effect causes an objects outline to glow, even when the object is occluded. Here is a screenshot of the effect: I'm ...
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42 votes
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Why is every OpenGL call prefixed with a "q" in the Doom 3 source code? Are they custom functions or a different library, and if so, why use that over OpenGL? Any Google search comes up with the Qt ...
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42 votes
5 answers
22k views

Using the following setting for the OpenGL particle effect: SRC: GL_SRC_ALPHA DST: GL_ONE Creates an additive blend, which looks spectacular on a black ...
Aram Kocharyan's user avatar
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40 votes
4 answers
28k views

I've just started out with OpenGL I still haven't really understood what Vertex Array Objects are and how they can be employed. If Vertex Buffer Object are used to store vertex data (such as their ...
user avatar
39 votes
6 answers
30k views

I'm working on a Megaman-like game where I need to change the color of certain pixels at runtime. For reference: in Megaman when you change your selected weapon then main character's palette changes ...
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37 votes
5 answers
54k views

I'm working on a small tile/sprite-based PC game with a team of people, and we're running into performance issues. The last time I used OpenGL was around 2004, so I've been teaching myself how to use ...
Nic's user avatar
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35 votes
7 answers
20k views

I'm writing my own clone of Minecraft (also written in Java). It works great right now. With a viewing distance of 40 meters I can easily hit 60 FPS on my MacBook Pro 8,1. (Intel i5 + Intel HD ...
Martijn Courteaux's user avatar
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34 votes
10 answers
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I am working on a 3D space game using OpenGL and C++ and I am planning to focus on giving the game modern, eye-catching graphics, but the more I think of it the more I realise I don't really know what ...
toficofi's user avatar
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I'm currently beginning to learn OpenGL at school, and I've started making a simple game the other day (on my own, not for school). I'm using freeglut, and am building it in C, so for my game loop I ...
Jeff's user avatar
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33 votes
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I have loaded in a model to my C++ OpenGL game. It is a COLLADA file type that I have loaded, and I setup an animation under blender for the file. The problem is I don't know how to animate the model. ...
Brendan Webster's user avatar
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I want to do full-screen anti-aliasing in OpenGL, and dont want to use the anti-aliasing that is provided by OpenGL itself, since I am building a game and want good effects in it. How should I ...
noddy's user avatar
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32 votes
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Android uses OpenGL ES, what is the difference between it and OpenGL?
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I need to port my game project from Android (written in C, OpenGL ES 2.0, thanks to NDK) to Windows and Linux platforms. Of course I will need to rewrite some platform dependent code, but for now I'm ...
user avatar
31 votes
3 answers
21k views

I was wondering what state is stored in an OpenGL VAO. I've understood that a VAO contains state related to the vertex specifications of buffered vertices (what attributes are in the buffers, and what ...
Jelle van Campen's user avatar
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29 votes
9 answers
6k views

I've been learning graphics programming for some time now using OpenGL and Linux. I'm pretty familiar with most of the concepts, but I would really like to further my knowledge and eventually pursue a ...
adivasile's user avatar
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29 votes
4 answers
12k views

So I'm teaching myself GLSL and am trying to figure out why it's suppose to be faster than the fixed function pipeline. The reason I am having a problem is that from my understanding , the shaders ...
Joey Green's user avatar
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29 votes
1 answer
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I have an OpenGL program, and I'm rendering a terrain mesh. I displace the vertices in the vertex buffer and don't really color them in the fragment shader yet. I'm adding a geometry shader one part ...
Publius's user avatar
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28 votes
2 answers
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I'm developing a game engine, and it's only going to work on modern (Shader model 4+) hardware. I figure that, by the time I'm done with it, that won't be such an unreasonable requirement. My ...
Publius's user avatar
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28 votes
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I am using OpenGL ES 2.0 I have a bunch a quads to be drawn, would love to be able to have to pass only 4 vertices per quad as if I were using GL_QUADS, but basically I just want to know the best way ...
Jonathan's user avatar
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I see the ddx and ddy glsl functions and the hlsl equivalents come up in shader code every now and then. I'm currently using ...
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2 answers
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At minimum, an OpenGL Android game has a UI thread and a Renderer thread created by GLSurfaceView. Renderer.onDrawFrame() ...
kvance's user avatar
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27 votes
3 answers
19k views

Given a fairly static voxel array, what is more efficient: using the CPU to pre-generate a VBO to render the voxel faces (ignoring more advanced forms of rendering like marching cubes for now) or ...
Bjorn Wesen's user avatar
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26 votes
8 answers
14k views

I started watching the Handmade Hero stream, where Casey Muratori creates a game engine without using frameworks or such. Yesterday I got to the part where he showed how an image is drawn onto the ...
user148013's user avatar
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26 votes
9 answers
20k views

What tips or tricks do you have when it comes to making the OpenGL more efficient?
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thyrgle
26 votes
2 answers
8k views

I'm don't have a clear understanding of what precisely is the difference between the camera coordinates and the viewport coordinates. Can anyone please clarify?
Code Vader's user avatar
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26 votes
1 answer
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I'm currently working on my thesis, it is an engine to render terrains of planetary size. I'm still finishing my research and I have encountered a lot of stuff about this subject, the problem is that ...
nosmirck's user avatar
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24 votes
5 answers
14k views

I am just a beginner in 3D games, my preferred platform is Android. I posted a question in some other forum about "What to use: OpenGL or Unity3d?" They all emphasized Unity3D and using its built-in ...
Aman Grover's user avatar
  • 513
24 votes
2 answers
27k views

I understand the main differences between texelFetch and texture, but have some questions about the details: Does ...
Martin Perry's user avatar
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24 votes
7 answers
3k views

I am a budding game programmer trying to get into the industry programming for PS3, Xbox 360. The main problem I see is the need to demonstrate my skills to a potential employer, but without access ...
jcurrie33's user avatar
  • 777
24 votes
1 answer
13k views

Hello Game Development SE! I'm crawling my way through OpenGL with the hopes of creating a simple and very lightweight game engine. I view the project as a learning experience that might make a ...
Cody Smith's user avatar
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24 votes
1 answer
1k views

I've just finished a little Game-Dev project for university and I need to record a video to accompany my submission (just in case they can't get my source to work). Basically my game doesn't work at ...
Lewis Wakeford's user avatar
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23 votes
1 answer
6k views

I have a world made of many cubes (like in Minecraft), they have only color (not texture). I am rendering them using OpenGL 3.3 core profile (GLFW3, GLAD, GLM). I am already have done some ...
galaxy001's user avatar
  • 369
23 votes
5 answers
14k views

I began learning OpenGL recently and am having problems visualizing what matrices are and their role in computer graphics. Given the template of a 4x4 matrix like this: I would assume that each matrix ...
Sad CRUD Developer's user avatar
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23 votes
3 answers
2k views

Do I need to learn C++ to use Open GL?
lampShade's user avatar
  • 367
23 votes
2 answers
23k views

While refreshing my mind on OpenGL ES, I came across glDrawArrays and glDrawElements. I understand how they are used and sort ...
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