Does Open GL support vertex group referencing?

[blessman11]

hi

Does Open GL support vertex group referencing like Direct X does? This is to say if a vertex array group of position coordinates, texture coordinates and normal coordinates is stored in a "struct" array(or equivalent) could Open GL support a an indice list used to locate a vertex group.

<<E.G.>>


struct VertexType
{D3DXVECTOR3 position;
D3DXVECTOR2 texture;
D3DXVECTOR3 normal;
};

//Vertex group array
VertexType * vertices;

[Ilian Dinev]

Yes, it's called "interleaved attribute arrays", and you don't need special functions to use them. Just reuse the same VBO (same glBindBuffer call) and supply different offset per attribute, while specifying stride.

[BionicBytes]

The simplest way to do what you have described is to use glInterleavedArrays.
This is now considered legacy/depreciated in OpenGL but if you are using compatibility profile then it's perfectly fine.
The great thing about this is its simplity.
GL_V2F, GL_V3F, GL_C4UB_V2F, GL_C4UB_V3F, GL_C3F_V3F, GL_N3F_V3F, GL_C4F_N3F_V3F, GL_T2F_V3F, GL_T4F_V4F, GL_T2F_C4UB_V3F, GL_T2F_C3F_V3F, GL_T2F_N3F_V3F, GL_T2F_C4F_N3F_V3F, and GL_T4F_C4F_N3F_V4F are accepted as data formats - which gives quite a bit of flexibity.

For your needs GL_T2F_N3F_V3F is the one to go for, so a struct like the following would be required:
{
float[2] Texture coords;
float[3] Normal;
float[3] Vertex;
}