11
votes

What are the exact differences between OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL 4.1. I'm aware of the fact that OpenGL ES 2.0 is a subset of OpenGL 4.1. But what exactly are the capabilities that are not available in OpenGL ES 2.0.

I would like to start developing a desktop application using the OpenGL ES 2.0 subset alone( Because we have a great learning material in the form of OpenGL ES Programming Guide ) and I would like to know what I would be missing.

1
I was wondering the same, and more specifically the difference between OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL 4.x with a non-compatible context.AzP

1 Answers

6
votes

OpenGLES 2.0 is based on the OpenGL 2.0 spec and does not support the fixed function pipeline. The fixed function pipeline wasn't removed from the OpenGL spec until version 3.1 and then some hardware manufactures refused to remove the fixed function pipeline.

A good place to start is the official OpenGLES page. This will tell you all you need to know relative to the OpenGL 2.0 spec. I'm not sure if there is a comparison between OpenGL 2.0 and 4.1 without looking at all of the intermittent specs.