Is the GL_TRIANGLE_FAN structure simply for coding convenience, or does it internally create a more optimized set of triangles than if each triangle were created separately?
Thanks.
It’s more efficient. Remember that OpenGL just give you primitives. If that would be just for coding convenience, It would come implmented by glu.
Well now I have my questions: Is there any forum of OpenGL in Spanish?
My guess is that most drivers transform them into triangles, or triangle strips at best. But you never know 
With triangle fans, you need only need to specify 1 vertex for each triangle (after the first).
So it mean less data to send and store, and less T&L computations if the card makers made their job correctly.
Originally posted by RGHP:
It’s more efficient. Remember that OpenGL just give you primitives. If that would be just for coding convenience, It would come implmented by glu.
Not necessarily. QUADS are provided as a convenience and other functions like glMultMatrix, glRotate, glTranslate, glScale.
You can just ignore GLU since it’s very out of date.