Interface GL

The basic interface to OpenGL, providing access to core functionality up through the OpenGL 2.0 specification as well as all vendor extensions.

While the APIs for vendor extensions are unconditionally exposed, the underlying functions may not be present. The method isFunctionAvailable(String) should be used to query the availability of any non-core function before it is used for the first time; for example, gl.isFunctionAvailable("glProgramStringARB"). On certain platforms (Windows in particular), the most "core" functionality is only OpenGL 1.1, so in theory any routines first exposed in OpenGL 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4, 1.5, or 2.0 as well as vendor extensions should all be queried. Calling an unavailable function will cause a GLException to be raised. isExtensionAvailable(String) may also be used to determine whether a specific extension is available before calling the routines or using the functionality it exposes: for example, gl.isExtensionAvailable("GL_ARB_vertex_program");. However, in this case it is up to the end user to know which routines or functionality are associated with which OpenGL extensions. It may also be used to test for the availability of a particular version of OpenGL: for example, gl.isExtensionAvailable("GL_VERSION_1_5");.

Exceptions to the window system extension naming rules:

• The memory allocators for the NVidia vertex_array_range (VAR) extension, in particular wglAllocateMemoryNV / glXAllocateMemoryNV and associated routines. glAllocateMemoryNV(int,float,float,float) has been provided for window system-independent access to VAR. isFunctionAvailable(String) will translate an argument of "glAllocateMemoryNV" or "glFreeMemoryNV" into the appropriate window system-specific name.
• WGL_ARB_pbuffer, WGL_ARB_pixel_format, and other platform-specific pbuffer functionality; the availability of pbuffers can be queried on Windows, X11 and Mac OS X platforms by querying isExtensionAvailable(String) with an argument of "GL_ARB_pbuffer" or "GL_ARB_pixel_format".