OpenGL ES 3.0 was publicly released in August 2012. It brings the mobile 3D graphics to the next level. This release was focused to provide 3D-enriched features and enhanced the portability across diverse mobiles, embedded operating systems, and platforms. OpenGL ES 3.0 is fully backward compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0. This enables the applications to grow the graphics capabilities and visual features incrementally. OpenGL ES 3.0 also introduces a new version of GL Shading Language (GLSL) 3.0. The GLSL is used for programing shaders. The new shading language has also extended the capabilities in many directions, which you will learn in the next section.
This chapter will be helpful in understanding the new features introduced in OpenGL ES 3.0 and GL shading language 3.0. This book uses OpenGL ES 3.0 in conjunction with GLSL 3.0 for all its recipes.
The new features of OpenGL ES 3.0 can be broadly divided into the following five categories:
Geometry: These features focus on the vertex...