OpenGL ES Software Renderer / 2300 discussion

[drgoldie]

[Digby]

Are VBOs in OpenGL ES 1.1? They aren't in 1.0 so I'm assuming you're talking about some sort of extension mechanism? If memory serves, in OpenGL there are API extensions and vendor-specific extensions. I hope that VBOs are in the former category to provide less of headache for developers that wanted to use the feature.

Vertex buffers work for skinned characters too. You just need to be able to pass in vertex blending weights and perform transformations on the bones by changing their individual matrices. The vertex data doesn't have to be touched by the application and can remain in dedicated GPU (video) memory. I'm guessing that OpenGL ES doesn't support any of this though (maybe through an extension?).

[hm]

[Dan East]

[hm]

[Dan East]

The software side doesn't need to keep its "a" copy, unless the geometry needs to be unloaded and reloaded multiple times during that "level" (which would be a poor practice). I don't see any reason to keep a copy of b around either. Just as with uploading textures, there is no need to keep a copy on the software side.

ATI already has some extensions that sound very similar to what you describe, however they aren't public yet. I just tried searching for the API names on Google (web + usenet) and still can't find them. I'll drop ATI an email today to see if I can post this API, because it would definitely be in your best interest to support the same extensions as the ATI OpenGL ES driver, instead of creating your own that serves the same purpose.

Dan East

[hm]

[Dan East]