OpenGL Programming on Mac OS X: Architecture, Performance, and Integration

Chapter 11. Performance

Overview

Performance-tuning your OpenGL application for OS X may well be the most satisfying part of your project. No other platform can compare with OS X’s great set of performance tools, especially for OpenGL-based applications. Because OpenGL is a first-class citizen on OS X, the implementation and tools have been given years of scrutiny and improvements to make your optimization process, dare we say, enjoyable.

Because the implementers of OpenGL—and, indeed, other 3D graphics APIs—face the same performance challenges, the strategy for writing an application that performs well using those APIs is often the same or at very least similar. When it comes down to it, you are trying to get vertices and pixels from the address ...