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

Chapter 3. Drawing with OpenGL

Chapter Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Identify all of the rendering primitives available in OpenGL.

• Initialize and populate data buffers for use in rendering geometry.

• Optimize rendering using advanced techniques like instanced rendering.

The primary use of OpenGL is to render graphics into a framebuffer. To accomplish this, complex objects are broken up into primitives—points, lines, and triangles that when drawn at high enough density give the appearance of 2D and 3D objects. OpenGL includes many functions for rendering such primitives. These functions allow you to describe the layout of primitives in memory, how many primitives to render, and what form they take, and even to ...