GLGETBUFFERPOINTERV(3G)

💅 GLGETBUFFERPOINTERV — the 3G girlies are back at it

okay so bestie, picture this: you mapped a buffer, the driver handed you a whole pointer, and now you're like "wait… what was that pointer again??" 😭 That's literally the entire plot of this page. glGetBufferPointerv and glGetNamedBufferPointerv hand you back the pointer to a mapped buffer object's data store. No cap, that's it. 🎀

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✨ C SPECIFICATION ✨

void glGetBufferPointerv(GLenum target, GLenum pname, GLvoid ** params);

void glGetNamedBufferPointerv(GLuint buffer, GLenum pname,
                              void **params);

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🌸 PARAMETERS 🌸

• target — the target the buffer object is bound to for glGetBufferPointerv. It must be one of the buffer binding targets from this little table of ours (yes I turned the table into a list, the vibes demanded it 💅):
  • GL_ARRAY_BUFFER — vertex attributes
  • GL_ATOMIC_COUNTER_BUFFER — atomic counter storage
  • GL_COPY_READ_BUFFER — buffer copy source
  • GL_COPY_WRITE_BUFFER — buffer copy destination
  • GL_DISPATCH_INDIRECT_BUFFER — indirect compute dispatch commands
  • GL_DRAW_INDIRECT_BUFFER — indirect command arguments
  • GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER — vertex array indices
  • GL_PIXEL_PACK_BUFFER — pixel read target
  • GL_PIXEL_UNPACK_BUFFER — texture data source
  • GL_QUERY_BUFFER — query result buffer
  • GL_SHADER_STORAGE_BUFFER — read-write storage for shaders
  • GL_TEXTURE_BUFFER — texture data buffer
  • GL_TRANSFORM_FEEDBACK_BUFFER — transform feedback buffer
  • GL_UNIFORM_BUFFER — uniform block storage
• buffer — the name of the buffer object for glGetNamedBufferPointerv. (the "named" one, she's the DSA sister 🦋)
• pname — the name of the pointer you want returned. It must be GL_BUFFER_MAP_POINTER. like, there is no other option, she's the only one at the party 💀
• params — where the pointer value specified by pname comes back to you 🫶

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

glGetBufferPointerv and glGetNamedBufferPointerv return the buffer pointer pname, which must be GL_BUFFER_MAP_POINTER. The single buffer map pointer comes back in params.

And here's the part where you go "wait, NULL??" — a NULL pointer is returned in two situations, and I need you to actually read them bestie:

• if the buffer object's data store is not currently mapped, or
• if the requesting context did not map the buffer object's data store, and the implementation is unable to support mappings on multiple clients.

so yeah, NULL is not always a you-problem, sometimes the driver just said "not today" 🙈

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🦋 NOTES 🦋

• If an error is generated, no change is made to the contents of params. (she protects your pointer, queen behavior 🔥)
• The initial value for the pointer is NULL.
• The GL_ATOMIC_COUNTER_BUFFER target is available only if the GL version is 4.2 or greater.
• The GL_DISPATCH_INDIRECT_BUFFER and GL_SHADER_STORAGE_BUFFER targets are available only if the GL version is 4.3 or greater.
• The GL_QUERY_BUFFER target is available only if the GL version is 4.4 or greater.

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💀 ERRORS 💀

• GL_INVALID_ENUM is generated by glGetBufferPointerv if target is not one of the accepted buffer targets, or if pname is not GL_BUFFER_MAP_POINTER.
• GL_INVALID_OPERATION is generated by glGetBufferPointerv if zero is bound to target. (zero is literally nobody, do not bind her 😭)
• GL_INVALID_OPERATION is generated by glGetNamedBufferPointerv if buffer is not the name of an existing buffer object.

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🌈 VERSION SUPPORT 🌈

the whole OpenGL version lineup is 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5 — and here's who showed up to which 💖

• glGetBufferPointerv — ✔ for every single one: 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5. she's been here since day one and she never left, iconic ⭐
• glGetNamedBufferPointerv — - for 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and ✔ only for 4.5. she's a late bloomer and we love her for it 🧚

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• glBindBuffer()
• glMapBuffer()

go read those next, iykyk 💜

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

Copyright © 2005 Addison-Wesley. Copyright © 2011-2014 Khronos Group.

This material may be distributed subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v 1.0, 8 June 1999. http://opencontent.org/openpub/.

Copyright © 2005 Sams Publishing Copyright © 2011-2014 Khronos Group

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okay that's the whole page, mwah 🍓 sign-off time: this one came from [FIXME: source], stamped 08/09/2021, and it lives under the name GLGETBUFFERPOINTERV(3G) — go map something and slay, bestie 💅✨