From the speed point of view, which is the best??? Because vertex arrays wants a lot of preproccessing before using them with the right way (sort model''s triangles, according to texture used, etc...), and the need more memory for fast processing, can vertex programs be a solution to this??? I mean, combination of speed and easy usage??? Thanks in advance... and sorry for my english!!! HellRaiZer

If i wanted to use only one of them, which is the best, for speed improvement???

HellRaiZer

Vertex arrays are vertex data.
Vertex programs process vertex data.

Two different things.

quote:Original post by Brother Bob
How do you intend to actually pass the vertices to OpenGL if you only want to use vertex programs? Immediate mode or display lists? But neither is likely to use less memory or require less precalculations than vertex arrays to be used efficiently. A vertex program is useless if you don''t pass vertices to it, and vertex arrays is a pretty good way to pass vertices.

[edited by - Brother Bob on May 5, 2003 9:36:29 AM]

there might be a way, but i doubt he wants a whole procedurally world thats calculated in vertex programs every single frame.. let alone finding a function that will give the right results.. you''d need very skilled mathematicians instead of level designers ,-)

Vertex buffers or vertex arrays come before the vertex program. The buffers feed the vp with verts. You have to have both of them included in your code. The only difference between vb and va is that vb are more efficient for large batches of vertices while va are more efficient for small batches. Having lots of small vb that you create/destroy each frame incurs an overhead probably more so than sending your verts to the gpu thru va. If you don''t have static data then the best is to create one large dynamic vb and stream your verts into it each frame rather than creating/destroying vbs each frame. You should probably sort your polys by texture and stream poly verts into the vb for all dynamic brush objects. Static brushes should go into a static vb, lock once, fill and unlock then render many times. Look for arb vertex buffer object extension as this is what you want to use unless you prefer ihv specific paths.

Hello again... and sorry for the confusion!!!!!

Ok lets rephrase the initial question...

I have some kind of a rendering engine, which is capable of rendering multitextured triangles. The default procedure for rendering a triangle, as you already know, is the following.

// texture binding is assumed...

Begin(TRIANGLES);

MultiTexCoord2fARB(TEXTURE0_ARB, Tex1.UV[0].u, Tex1.UV[0].v);
MultiTexCoord2fARB(TEXTURE1_ARB, Tex2.UV[0].u, Tex2.UV[0].v);
Vertex3f(Vert[0]->x,Vert[0]->y,Vert[0]->z);

MultiTexCoord2fARB(TEXTURE0_ARB, Tex1.UV[1].u, Tex1.UV[1].v);
MultiTexCoord2fARB(TEXTURE1_ARB, Tex2.UV[1].u, Tex2.UV[1].v);
Vertex3f(Vert[1]->x,Vert[1]->y,Vert[1]->z);

MultiTexCoord2fARB(TEXTURE0_ARB, Tex1.UV[2].u, Tex1.UV[2].v);
MultiTexCoord2fARB(TEXTURE1_ARB, Tex2.UV[2].u, Tex2.UV[2].v);
Vertex3f(Vert[2]->x,Vert[2]->y,Vert[2]->z);

End();

Now, there are two options to "optimize" this. As far as i know, at least!!!! I want only ONE of them!!!

Let''s look them independently.

1) Using vertex arrays (DrawArraysEXT, etc.), avoiding the above 11 function calls and doing it with maximum 3 calls. To function calls to setup triangle''s vertex and tex coord lists, and one for drawing the array. The rest of the process is the same as normal. No vertex program so far!!!
All vertex data, passed through vertex arrays, are processed by the default OpenGL pipeline.

2) Using vertex programs, bypassing parts of the default OpenGL pipeline (lighting, etc.), that aren''t used, and speeding up the process!!! Someone replied, "And how do you suppose to pass vertex info to vertex program?". The answer is, using the code above!!! I mean, using Vertex3f, etc. (I haven''t used any vertex program, and i don''t know how to do it, but i think that Vertex3f can work fine with VPs. I think that vertex arrays, aren''t required, in case to use a VP!!! If i''m wrong please correct me! I''d be glad to learn something on the mysterious VP programming!!!)

I know that combining the two procedures, can significantly improve speed, but i asked, which is the best, for using it alone!!!

I hope that made it more clear! I hope...

Thanks again.

HellRaiZer