OpenGL ES - benefits for end user?

What are the benefits of OpenGL ES for an end user? How does it compare to normal OpenGL 2.0 performance wise?

Does it bring any benefits to normal desktop pc users or is it only for mobile devices?

ES means embedded systems.
It is present on mobile devices.

Basically, GL ES is a simplified version of GL.

Hi all :slight_smile:

OpenGL ES is also used for DXX-rebirth an OpenGL ES conversion for Descent 1 & II for new and old gen operating systems.

More about DXX-rebirth here :slight_smile:
http://www.dxx-rebirth.com

It simplifies the rendering which DXX-rebirth used bofre which was a scan line based version of OpenGL. OpenGL ES simplified the ways of rendering the games also making it possible to run faster on older based systems.

So it can benefit the end user, I myself am not a programmer but I am a beta tester of the DXX-Rebirth project, OpenGL ES has proved to run smoother on older setups, it runs by the OpenGL 1.2 specification afaik.

GL ES 1x and GL ES 2x are very different. Which one are you talking about ?

I’m not sure what “setups” you are talking about. GL ES is not available on the desktop. It has its own specification and there are several versions of it. There is GL ES 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 and also multiple specifications.

There is something called WebGL which is GL ES 2.0 for webbrowsers. I suppose this means desktop browsers as well. So, probably you are thinking of WebGL.

Of course it is.

> ls /usr/include/GLES2
gl2ext.h gl2.h gl2platform.h
> ls /usr/include/GLES
egl.h glext.h gl.h glplatform.h

Philipp

Edit:
P.S.: eglinfo output

EGL initialized to version 1.4
EGL_VENDOR: Mesa Project
EGL_VERSION: 1.4 (Gallium)
EGL_CLIENT_APIS: OpenGL OpenGL_ES OpenGL_ES2 OpenVG
EGL_EXTENSIONS: EGL_KHR_image_base EGL_KHR_reusable_sync EGL_KHR_fence_sync EGL_KHR_surfaceless_gles1 EGL_KHR_surfaceless_gles2 EGL_KHR_surfaceless_opengl
GL_EXTENSIONS: GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_texture_type_2_10_10_10_REV GL_OES_depth24 GL_OES_depth_texture GL_OES_EGL_image GL_OES_element_index_uint GL_OES_fbo_render_mipmap GL_OES_mapbuffer GL_OES_packed_depth_stencil GL_OES_rgb8_rgba8 GL_OES_standard_derivatives GL_OES_stencil8 GL_OES_texture_npot

160 EGLConfigs:
[…]

DXX-rebirth uses OpenGL ES 1.1 in version 0.57 you can read more about it here :wink:
http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/news/dxx-rebirth-v0-57-released/

DXX-rebirth is for Apple Macintosh, Linux and Micrsoft bases OS’es :slight_smile: I beta test for Microsoft Win2K Pro, WinXP Pro x86 and Win 7 Pro x64.

OpenGL ES is new for our project.

That is interesting. If it is a true driver and not a wrapper on standard OpenGL, then kudos to Mesa Project Gallium team.

just a few more questions.

you said that openGL ES is the more simplify version of openGL,but from which version of openGL?

the new functions that are being add,are there being added first to the openGL,to openGL ES or in parallel?

and the last one,in order someone to understand openGL ES has to “know” the openGL(the regular one)?

thanks in advance

GL ES 1.1 is similar to GL 1.5. They have removed selection mode, feedback mode, immediate mode, limited the responsibility of glTexImage2D, no cubemaps, and probably other things. Read the specification and compare them.

GL ES 2.0 is quite different as well. They remove fixed fuction completetly. Everything must be done with shaders.

the new functions that are being add,are there being added first to the openGL,to openGL ES or in parallel?

GL and GL ES do not target the same hardware.
GL is for desktop GPUs.
GL ES is for mobile PDA cellphones.
Also, the extensions on GL ES are quite different than extensions on GL.

Yes, they both get updated when a new generation of GPUs come out.

and the last one, in order someone to understand openGL ES has to “know” the openGL(the regular one)?

No. Visit th GL ES pages if that is your goal. Download the stuff and study their SDK and specifications. (khronos.org)

Thanks for the replies! So when KDE added OpenGL ES support and I have a new GPU (ati 6850), will it benefit me as an end user and improve the desktops performance?

What can’t ES do that normal OpenGL can do? Can it do everything that OpenGL can but the api is more simplified or was some functionality sacrificed in order to gain performance?

OpenGL ES isn’t faster or better than desktop GL. They added ES support to KDE mainly for WebGL implementations, since WebGL is ES exposed to Javascript.

It will benefit you in that WebGL websites will likely work a bit better. Possibly.

I already answered that.

As for performance, I didn’t answer because you need proof. You need the exact same program written and compiled by the exact same compiler. I’ll let someone else handle that question.