Develop Reference

What is the proper way to enable and disable GLES20 atributes?

Firsty what am I creating: 2d tile based rpg game.
What I am currently doing I will post here, and comment some spots that I am not sure if I am using them correctly.
In GlSurfaceViewRenderer:
#Override
public void onSurfaceCreated(GL10 gl, EGLConfig config) {
//I enable some attributes
//Don't know if its needed in GLES20, there isnt GL20.GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT attribute at all
GLES20.glHint(GL10.GL_PERSPECTIVE_CORRECTION_HINT, GL10.GL_FASTEST);
//next I don't really know if I need them all:
GLES20.glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1);
GLES20.glClearDepthf(1.0f);
GLES20.glDisable(GLES20.GL_CULL_FACE);// No culling of back faces
GLES20.glDisable(GLES20.GL_DEPTH_TEST);
GLES20.glEnable(GLES20.GL_TEXTURE_2D);
GLES20.glDisable(GLES20.GL_DITHER);
GLES20.glDisable(GL10.GL_LIGHTING);
GLES20.glClear(GLES20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GLES20.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
// for transperent pixels
GLES20.glEnable(GLES20.GL_BLEND);
GLES20.glBlendFunc(GLES20.GL_ONE, GLES20.GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
//Load shaders: (1 vertex and fragment shader I hope is enouph)
iProgId = Utils.LoadProgram(vertexShaderCode, fragmentShaderCode);
GLES20.glUseProgram(iProgId);
// get handle to vertex shader's vPosition member
mPositionHandle = GLES20.glGetAttribLocation(iProgId, "vPosition");
// get handle to textures shader's a_TexCoordinate member
mTextureCoordinateHandle = GLES20.glGetAttribLocation(iProgId, "a_TexCoordinate");
// get handle to transformation matrix
mMVPMatrixHandle = GLES20.glGetUniformLocation(iProgId, "uMVPMatrix");
//Now in here not sure: some people enable arrays in every draw frame, I do it once:
// Enable a handle to the triangle vertices
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(mPositionHandle);
// Enable a handle to the texture vertices
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(mTextureCoordinateHandle);
}
#Override
public void onSurfaceChanged(GL10 gl, int width, int height) {
GLES20.glViewport(0, 0, width, height);
Matrix.frustumM(mProjMatrix, 0, ratio, -ratio, 1, -1, 1, 10000);
//.... and other
}
#Override
public void onDrawFrame(GL10 gl) {
GLES20.glClear(GLES20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
//set camera position
Matrix.setLookAtM(...);
Matrix.multiplyMM(...);
//begin drawing:
for(Sprite spr : Sprite_list){
spr.draw(){
//whats happening in draw:
//First setting the location of the sprite:
Matrix.setIdentityM(...x & y...);
Matrix.translateM(...);
Matrix.setIdentityM(...);
Matrix.multiplyMM(...);
//Some developers enables vertex attrib arrays here and then disables at the end of this drawing method. But I enable it in on surface created and don't disable it, maybe it's faster this way, not sure.
// Prepare the triangle coordinate data
GLES20.glVertexAttribPointer(GLRenderer.mPositionHandle, DIMENSION, GLES20.GL_FLOAT, false, vertexStride, vertexBuffer);
// Prepare the triangle coordinate data
GLES20.glVertexAttribPointer(GLRenderer.mTextureCoordinateHandle, DIMENSION, GLES20.GL_FLOAT, false, vertexStride, textureBuffer);
GLES20.glBindTexture(GLES20.GL_TEXTURE_2D, textID);
GLES20.glUniformMatrix4fv(GLRenderer.mMVPMatrixHandle, 1, false, GLRenderer.mMVPMatrix, 0);
GLES20.glDrawArrays(GLES20.GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, 4);
}
}
}
And everything works, for now, but I really not sure if I am doing any mistakes here, can someone elaborate?

The code itself does not necessarily do anything incorrect from what I can see.
Apart from GLES20.glDisable(GL10.GL_LIGHTING); as it's not a feature available in ES2.
Although the code is very limited to what it will be able to do. Reason is that you're uploading most of the rendering states in surfaceCreated, not when you actually might need them/change renderstates.
For example:
//Now in here not sure: some people enable arrays in every draw frame, I do it once:
// Enable a handle to the triangle vertices
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(mPositionHandle);
// Enable a handle to the texture vertices
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(mTextureCoordinateHandle);
It's perfectly fine to just enable the attribute arrays at one place, however if you would like to utilize a different shader program for a particular piece of geometry in your scene, this would become quite problematic.
Consider this, if you would want to change program, you need to potentially Enable/Disable the particular attributes for that program. You would also need to bind the program (glUseProgram)
Therefore as you referenced yourself in the code comment, that others normally enable/disable these during rendering is for that specific reason.
However it's not just for attribute streams but also all types of renderstates like changing program, enabling Cullmode, blending and so forth.
Now one shouldn't go crazy and just upload and change all of these before every draw call, as changing states are expensive.
One will try to batch all the draw calls that will use the same type of renderstates and resources such as textures/programs and so forth together to minimize number of renderstates changes.
So in your renderloop you would then render the sorted scene of renderable objects, then upload any renderstate that might need to change or been invalidated.

How to draw Open GL Elements more efficienty

I've posted my drawing method which is called each frame.
I change the vertices each frame to move the object (which is basically a sprite/textured quad).
As you can see I was initially creating an array each frame, but I have changed this now and I create the array initially and just update it every frame, however I'm wondering if I can do anything more to improve the efficiency? (Although I'm getting about 90fps the sprite does not move smoothly all the time, every now and then it just pauses for a split second). I can't see garbage collector running but I'm guessing it's due to allocation).
As I add more sprites/quads the jerkiness gets worse, but event at 100+ quads, although the smoothness has all but gone, my frame rate is still around 60fps so I can't understand what is slowing this down?
I've also added a screencap from Allocation Tracker
Any help would be appreciated.
public void drawTest(float x, float y, float[] mvpMatrix){
//Convert Co-ordinates
//Left
xPlotLeft = (-MyGLRenderer.ratio)+((x)*MyGLRenderer.coordStepAmountWidth);
//Top
yPlotTop = +1-((y)*MyGLRenderer.coordStepAmountHeight);
//Right
xPlotRight = xPlotLeft+((quadWidth)*MyGLRenderer.coordStepAmountWidth);
//Bottom
yPlotBottom = yPlotTop-((quadHeight)*MyGLRenderer.coordStepAmountHeight);
// Following has been changed as per below. I am now declaring the array initially and just updating it every frame.
// float[] vertices = {
//Top Left
// xPlotLeft,yPlotTop,0, 0,0,
//Top Right
// xPlotRight,yPlotTop,0, 1,0,
//Bottom Left
// xPlotLeft,yPlotBottom,0, 0,1,
//Bottom Right
// xPlotRight,yPlotBottom,0, 1,1
// };
vertices[0]=xPlotLeft;
vertices[1]=yPlotTop;
vertices[2]=0;
vertices[3]=0;
vertices[4]=0;
vertices[5]=xPlotRight;
vertices[6]=yPlotTop;
vertices[7]=0;
vertices[8]=1;
vertices[9]=0;
vertices[10]=xPlotLeft;
vertices[11]=yPlotBottom;
vertices[12]=0;
vertices[13]=0;
vertices[14]=1;
vertices[15]=xPlotRight;
vertices[16]=yPlotBottom;
vertices[17]=0;
vertices[18]=1;
vertices[19]=1;
vertexBuf = ByteBuffer.allocateDirect(vertices.length * 4).order(ByteOrder.nativeOrder()).asFloatBuffer();
vertexBuf.put(vertices).position(0);
//GLES20.glActiveTexture(GLES20.GL_TEXTURE0);
//Bind texture
GLES20.glBindTexture(GLES20.GL_TEXTURE_2D, texID);
//Use program
GLES20.glUseProgram(iProgId);
// Combine the rotation matrix with the projection and camera view
Matrix.multiplyMM(mvpMatrix2, 0, mvpMatrix, 0, mRotationMatrix, 0);
// get handle to shape's transformation matrix
mMVPMatrixHandle = GLES20.glGetUniformLocation(iProgId, "uMVPMatrix");
// Apply the projection and view transformation
GLES20.glUniformMatrix4fv(mMVPMatrixHandle, 1, false, mvpMatrix2, 0);
//Set starting position for vertices (0 for position)
vertexBuf.position(0);
//Specify attributes for vertex
GLES20.glVertexAttribPointer(iPosition, 3, GLES20.GL_FLOAT, false, 5 * 4, vertexBuf);
//Enable attribute for position
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(iPosition);
//Set starting position for vertices (3 for texture)
vertexBuf.position(3);
//Specify attributes for vertex
GLES20.glVertexAttribPointer(iTexCoords, 2, GLES20.GL_FLOAT, false, 5 * 4, vertexBuf);
//Enable attribute for texture
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(iTexCoords);
//Enable Alpha blending and set blending function
GLES20.glEnable(GLES20.GL_BLEND);
GLES20.glBlendFunc(GLES20.GL_ONE, GLES20.GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
//Draw
GLES20.glDrawArrays(GLES20.GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, 4);
//Disable Alpha blending
GLES20.glDisable(GLES20.GL_BLEND);
}

ByteBuffer.allocateDirect() allocates a new buffer in memory every frame, you can create an initial buffer and overwrite the contents instead. Just use rewind() or position(0) before put().
To improve matters further, use a VBO (vertex buffer object, there are many tutorials online, and several questions on SO on this topic) and glBufferSubData to update the buffer.

OpenGL Pass texture to next rendering

I am very new to OpenGL, and I am trying to create a 2 pass shader. Basically, it has two frame buffers and two shader programs. It runs the first pass as usual, and then I need to take the resulting texture and pass it as an input to the second shader. How is this done? I cannot seem to see how you take a resulting texture and use it as an input to the next texture?
Here is some code: This code assumes I have setup the second filter program, and some attributes and uniforms in the program correctly
#Override
public void onDraw(final int textureId, final FloatBuffer cubeBuffer,final FloatBuffer textureBuffer){
//this draws the first pass (this is tested and working)
super.onDraw(textureId, cubeBuffer, textureBuffer);
//change the program
GLES20.glUseProgram(secondFilterProgram);
//clear the old colors
GLES20.glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1);
GLES20.glClear(GLES20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
GLES20.glActiveTexture(GLES20.GL_TEXTURE3); //change the texture
GLES20.glBindTexture(GLES20.GL_TEXTURE_2D, secondFilterOutputTexture[0]);
GLES20.glUniform1i(secondFilterInputTextureUniform, 3);
cubeBuffer.position(0);
GLES20.glVertexAttribPointer(secondFilterPositionAttribute, 2, GLES20.GL_FLOAT, false, 0, cubeBuffer);
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(secondFilterPositionAttribute);
textureBuffer.position(0);
GLES20.glVertexAttribPointer(secondFilterTextureCoordinateAttribute, 2, GLES20.GL_FLOAT, false, 0, textureBuffer);
GLES20.glEnableVertexAttribArray(secondFilterTextureCoordinateAttribute); //same as line from init
GLES20.glDrawArrays(GLES20.GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP, 0, 4);
GLES20.glDisableVertexAttribArray(secondFilterPositionAttribute);
GLES20.glDisableVertexAttribArray(secondFilterTextureCoordinateAttribute);
GLES20.glBindTexture(GLES20.GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0);
GLES20.glBindFramebuffer(GLES20.GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0);
}
I feel like I am missing a piece of the puzzle here. Again, I am very new to OpenGL, so any help, even conceptually is appreciated

What you want to achieve is called Render to Texture
A small tutorial how to do this with android can be found here:
http://blog.shayanjaved.com/2011/05/13/android-opengl-es-2-0-render-to-texture/

Is Google's Android OpenGL tutorial teaching incorrect linear algebra?

After helping another user with a question regarding the Responding to Touch Events Android tutorial, I downloaded the source code, and was quite baffled by what I saw. The tutorial seems to not be able to decide whether it wants to use row vectors or column vectors, and it looks all mixed up to me.
On the Android Matrix page, they claim that their convention is column-vector/column-major, which is typical of OpenGL.
Am I right, or is there something I am missing? Here are the relevant bits of it:
Start out by creating a MVPMatrix by multiplying mProjMatrix * mVMatrix. So far so good.
// Set the camera position (View matrix)
Matrix.setLookAtM(mVMatrix, 0, 0, 0, -3, 0f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);
// Calculate the projection and view transformation
Matrix.multiplyMM(mMVPMatrix, 0, mProjMatrix, 0, mVMatrix, 0)
Next they are appending a rotation to the left hand side of the MVPMatrix? This seems a little weird.
// Create a rotation for the triangle
Matrix.setRotateM(mRotationMatrix, 0, mAngle, 0, 0, -1.0f);
// Combine the rotation matrix with the projection and camera view
Matrix.multiplyMM(mMVPMatrix, 0, mRotationMatrix, 0, mMVPMatrix, 0)
Uploading in non-transposed order.
GLES20.glUniformMatrix4fv(mMVPMatrixHandle, 1, false, mvpMatrix, 0);
Finally in their shader, a vector*matrix multiplication?
// the matrix must be included as a modifier of gl_Position
" gl_Position = vPosition * uMVPMatrix;"
Adding this all together, we get:
gl_Position = vPosition * mRotation * mProjection * mView;
Which is not correct by any stretch of my imagination. Is there any explanation that I'm not seeing as to what's going on here?

As the guy who wrote that OpenGL tutorial, I can confirm that the example code is incorrect. Specifically, the order of the factors in the shader code should be reversed:
" gl_Position = uMVPMatrix * vPosition;"
As to the application of the rotation matrix, the order of the factors should also be reversed so that the rotation is the last factor. The rule of thumb is that matrices are applied in right-to-left order, and the rotation is applied first (it's the the "M" part of "MVP"), so it needs to be the rightmost operand. Furthermore, you should use a scratch matrix for this calculation, as recommended by Ian Ni-Lewis (see his more complete answer, below):
float[] scratch = new float[16];
// Combine the rotation matrix with the projection and camera view
Matrix.multiplyMM(scratch, 0, mMVPMatrix, 0, mRotationMatrix, 0);
Thanks for calling attention to this problem. I'll get the training class and sample code fixed as soon as I can.
Edit: This issue has now been corrected in the downloadable sample code and the OpenGL ES training class, including comments on the correct order of the factors. Thanks for the feedback, folks!

The tutorial is incorrect, but many of the mistakes either cancel each other out or are not obvious in this very limited context (fixed camera centered at (0,0), rotation around Z only). The rotation is backwards, but otherwise it kind of looks right. (To see why it's wrong, try a less trivial camera: set the eye and lookAt to y=1, for instance.)
One of the things that made this very hard to debug is that the Matrix methods don't do any alias detection on their inputs. The tutorial code makes it seem like you can call Matrix.multiplyMM with the same matrix used as both an input and the result. This isn't true. But because the implementation multiplies a column at a time, it's far less obvious that something is wrong if the right hand side is reused (as in the current code, where mMVPMatrix is the rhs and the result) than if the left hand side is reused. Each column on the left is read before the corresponding column in the result is written, so the output will be correct even if the LHS is overwritten. But if the right-hand side is the same as the result, then its first column will be overwritten before it's finished being read.
So the tutorial code is at a sort of local maximum: it seems like it works, and if you change any one thing, it breaks spectacularly. Which leads one to believe that wrong as it looks, it might just be correct. ;-)
Anyway, here's some replacement code that gets what I think is the intended result.
Java code:
#Override
public void onDrawFrame(GL10 unused) {
float[] scratch = new float[16];
// Draw background color
GLES20.glClear(GLES20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
// Set the camera position (View matrix)
Matrix.setLookAtM(mVMatrix, 0, 0, 0, -3, 0f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);
// Calculate the projection and view transformation
Matrix.multiplyMM(mMVPMatrix, 0, mProjMatrix, 0, mVMatrix, 0);
// Draw square
mSquare.draw(mMVPMatrix);
// Create a rotation for the triangle
Matrix.setRotateM(mRotationMatrix, 0, mAngle, 0, 0, 1.0f);
// Combine the rotation matrix with the projection and camera view
Matrix.multiplyMM(scratch, 0, mMVPMatrix, 0, mRotationMatrix, 0);
// Draw triangle
mTriangle.draw(scratch);
}
Shader code:
gl_Position = uMVPMatrix * vPosition;
NB: these fixes make the projection correct, but they also reverse the direction of rotation. That's because the original code applied the transformations in the wrong order. Think of it this way: instead of rotating the object clockwise, it was rotating the camera counterclockwise. When you fix the order of operations so that the rotation is applied to the object instead of the camera, then the object starts going counterclockwise. It's not the matrix that's wrong; it's the angle that was used to create the matrix.
So to get the 'correct' result, you also need to flip the sign of mAngle.

I solved this problem as follows:
#Override
public void onDrawFrame(GL10 unused) {
GLES20.glClear(GLES20.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
Matrix.setLookAtM(mViewMatrix, 0, 0, 0, -1f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);
Matrix.setRotateM(mModelMatrix, 0, mAngle, 0, 0, 1.0f);
Matrix.translateM(mModelMatrix, 0, 0.4f, 0.0f, 0);
mSquare.draw(mProjMatrix,mViewMatrix,mModelMatrix);
}
#Override
public void onSurfaceChanged(GL10 unused, int width, int height) {
...
Matrix.frustumM(mProjMatrix, 0, -ratio, ratio, -1, 1, 1, 99);
}
class Square {
private final String vertexShaderCode =
"uniform mat4 uPMatrix; \n" +
"uniform mat4 uVMatrix; \n" +
"uniform mat4 uMMatrix; \n" +
"attribute vec4 vPosition; \n" +
"void main() { \n" +
" gl_Position = uPMatrix * uVMatrix * uMMatrix * vPosition; \n" +
"} \n";
...
public void draw(float[] mpMatrix,float[] mvMatrix,float[]mmMatrix) {
...
mPMatrixHandle = GLES20.glGetUniformLocation(mProgram, "uPMatrix");
mVMatrixHandle = GLES20.glGetUniformLocation(mProgram, "uVMatrix");
mMMatrixHandle = GLES20.glGetUniformLocation(mProgram, "uMMatrix");
GLES20.glUniformMatrix4fv(mPMatrixHandle, 1, false, mpMatrix, 0);
GLES20.glUniformMatrix4fv(mVMatrixHandle, 1, false, mvMatrix, 0);
GLES20.glUniformMatrix4fv(mMMatrixHandle, 1, false, mmMatrix, 0);
...
}
}

I’m working on the same issue and that’s what I found:
I believe that Joe’s sample is CORRECT,
including
the order of the factors in the shader code:
gl_Position = vPosition * uMVPMatrix;
To verify it just try to rotate the triangle with reversed factors order,
it will stretch the triangle to vanishing point at 90 degrees.
The real problem seems to be in setLookAtM function.
In Joe’s sample parameters are:
Matrix.setLookAtM(mVMatrix, 0,
0f, 0f,-3f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 1f, 0f );
which is perfectly logical as well.
However, the resulting view matrix looks weird to me:
-1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 -1 0
0 0 -3 1
As we can see, this matrix will invert X coordinate,
since the first member is –1,
which will lead to left/right flip on the screen.
It will also reverse Z-order, but let's focus on X coordinate here.
I think that setLookAtM function is also working correctly.
However, since Matrix class is NOT a part of OpenGL,
it can use some other coordinates system,
for example - regular screen coordinates with Y axis pointing down.
This is just a guess, I didn’t really verify that.
Possible solutions:
We can build desirable view matrix manually,
the code is:
Matrix.setIdentityM(mVMatrix,0);
mVMatrix[14] = -3f;
OR
we can try to trick setLookAtM function by giving it
reversed camera coordinates:
0, 0, +3 (instead of –3).
Matrix.setLookAtM(mVMatrix, 0,
0f, 0f, 3f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 0f, 1f, 0f );
The resulting view matrix will be:
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 -3 1
That’s exactly what we need.
Now camera behaves as expected,
and sample works correctly.

No other suggestions worked for me using the current updated Android example code except for the following when trying to move the triangle.
The following link contains the answer. Took over a day to locate it. Posting here to help others as I seen this post many times. OpenGL ES Android Matrix Transformations

opengl es position after glRotatef and glTranslatef

i'am new in OpenGL ES. Can you helps me to calculate world coordinates of cube after rotate and translate. For example:
first i rotate cube:
gl.glRotatef(90, 1, 0, 0);
than change his position
gl.glTranslatef(10, 0, 0);
How can i calculate his "new" world coordinates? I read about glGetFloatv(GL_MODELVIEW_MATRIX , matrix) but not understand it. Maybe someone can provide sample code.
EDIT:
I found solution. Android code
float[] matrix = new float[] {
1,0,0,0,
0,1,0,0,
0,0,1,0,
0,0,0,1,
};
Matrix.rotateM(matrix, 0, rx, 1, 0, 0);
Matrix.rotateM(matrix, 0, ry, 0, 1, 0);
Matrix.rotateM(matrix, 0, rz, 0, 0, 1);
Matrix.translateM(matrix, 0, x, y, z);
x = matrix[12];
y = matrix[13];
z = matrix[14];
Thanks for answers.

Although you have an answer for the part you want, in terms of the rest of your question, you'd do something like (please forgive me if I make any Java errors, I'm not really an Android person):
float[] matrix = new float[16];
gl.glGetFloatv(GL_MODELVIEW_MATRIX, matrix);
// check out matrix[12], matrix[13] and matrix[14] now for the world location
// that (0, 0, 0) [, 1)] would be mapped to
That getFloatv just reads back the current value of the modelview matrix into the float buffer specified. In OpenGL 4x4 matrices are specified so that index 0 is the top left, index 3 is the lowest number in the first column and 12 is the number furthest to the right in the first row. That's usually referred to as column-major layout, though the OpenGL FAQ isn't entirely happy with the term.