Glossary
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This page lists words that are frequently encountered in the context of OpenGL use, in alphabetical order.
- ARB
- OpenGL Architecture Review Board.
- Buffer Object
- An object that represents a linear array of memory, which is stored in the GPU. There are numerous ways to have the GPU access data in a buffer object.
- Drawing Command
- Any OpenGL function of the form gl*Draw*. These are a subset of rendering commands. These functions send vertices through OpenGL to be rendered.
- Context, OpenGL
- A collection of state, memory and resources. Required to do any OpenGL operation.
- GL
- Shorthand for OpenGL.
- GLU
- GL Utility, an OpenGL helper library. Outdated; use other tools instead.
- GLUT
- GL Utility Toolkit. A library for creating OpenGL contexts and windows, as well as other things. Outdated; use FreeGLUT or other window creation systems instead.
- GPU
- Graphics Processing Unit, a piece of hardware for graphics.
- Interface Block
- A group of global definitions in a shader that represent a discrete, named interface, either between shader stages or between a shader and a buffer object.
- Level, Mipmap
- One of the mipmaps within a Texture.
- Layer, Array
- One index within the array of images stored in an array texture.
- OpenGL
- A cross-platform graphics system with an openly available specification.
- OpenGL Context
- The object that represents an instance of OpenGL. Contains all of the global state for OpenGL. Multiple contexts can be created and used.
- OpenGL ES
- OpenGL for Embedded Systems. An OpenGL based specification for systems such as mobile phones.
- OpenGL Shading Language
- The language for writing Shaders in OpenGL.
- Rendering command
- OpenGL rendering commands are any Drawing command, Framebuffer blitting operations, Framebuffer clearing operations, and Compute dispatch operations.
- Shader
- A program, written in the OpenGL Shader Language, intended to run within OpenGL.
- Texture
- An OpenGL object that contains one or more images, all of which are stored in the same Image Format.
- Vendor
- The developer of an OpenGL implementation.