OpenGL® SuperBible, Third Edition

Chapter 16. Buffer Objects: It's Your Video Memory; You Manage It!

by Benjamin Lipchak

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:

How To	Functions You'll Use
Create, bind to, and delete buffer objects	glGenBuffers/glBindBuffer/glDeleteBuffers
Send data into a buffer object indirectly	glBufferData/glBufferSubData
Write data into a buffer object directly	glMapBuffer/glUnmapBuffer

Graphics cards today have nearly as much memory as the rest of the system they're plugged into. The amount of graphics card memory tends to at least be within an order of magnitude, say 25%, of the amount of system memory. That's quite a resource to exploit—or to waste by not making the best use of it.

Video memory has traditionally been used for storing the following:

• Front buffers (what ...