OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 4.3, Eighth Edition

OpenGL’s Rendering Pipeline

OpenGL implements what’s commonly called a rendering pipeline, which is a sequence of processing stages for converting the data your application provides to OpenGL into a final rendered image. Figure 1.2 shows the OpenGL pipeline associated with Version 4.3. The OpenGL pipeline has evolved considerably since its introduction.

Figure 1.2. The OpenGL pipeline

OpenGL begins with the geometric data you provide (vertices and geometric primitives) and first processes it through a sequence of shader stages: vertex shading, tessellation shading (which itself uses two shaders), and finally geometry shading, before it’s passed ...