GLHINT(3G)

📦
version 1.1 · 7 versions
, in centos-stream 9

✨ NAME ✨

okay bestie, this is glHint from the 3G manual — the function whose whole job is specify implementation-specific hints 💅✨. it's giving “please take a suggestion” energy, and we love that for us.

💖 C SPECIFICATION 💖

void glHint(GLenum target, GLenum mode);

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

  • target — specifies a symbolic constant indicating the behavior to be controlled. GL_LINE_SMOOTH_HINT, GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH_HINT, GL_TEXTURE_COMPRESSION_HINT, and GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER_DERIVATIVE_HINT are accepted.
  • mode — specifies a symbolic constant indicating the desired behavior. GL_FASTEST, GL_NICEST, and GL_DONT_CARE are accepted.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

certain aspects of GL behavior, when there is room for interpretation, can be controlled with hints. a hint is specified with two arguments. target is a symbolic constant indicating the behavior to be controlled, and mode is another symbolic constant indicating the desired behavior. the initial value for each target is GL_DONT_CARE. mode can be one of the following:

  • GL_FASTEST — the most efficient option should be chosen. speed queen behavior, no cap.
  • GL_NICEST — the most correct, or highest quality, option should be chosen. quality over everything, periodt.
  • GL_DONT_CARE — no preference. literally “idk, you pick,” bestie.

though the implementation aspects that can be hinted are well defined, the interpretation of the hints depends on the implementation. the hint aspects that can be specified with target, along with suggested semantics, are as follows:

  • GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER_DERIVATIVE_HINT — indicates the accuracy of the derivative calculation for the GL shading language fragment processing built-in functions: dFdx, dFdy, and fwidth.
  • GL_LINE_SMOOTH_HINT — indicates the sampling quality of antialiased lines. if a larger filter function is applied, hinting GL_NICEST can result in more pixel fragments being generated during rasterization.
  • GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH_HINT — indicates the sampling quality of antialiased polygons. hinting GL_NICEST can result in more pixel fragments being generated during rasterization, if a larger filter function is applied.
  • GL_TEXTURE_COMPRESSION_HINT — indicates the quality and performance of the compressing texture images. hinting GL_FASTEST indicates that texture images should be compressed as quickly as possible, while GL_NICEST indicates that texture images should be compressed with as little image quality loss as possible. GL_NICEST should be selected if the texture is to be retrieved by glGetCompressedTexImage() for reuse.

🌸 NOTES 🌸

the interpretation of hints depends on the implementation. some implementations ignore glHint settings. so yeah, bestie, it’s a hint, not a legally binding contract 😭💀.

🔥 ERRORS 🔥

GL_INVALID_ENUM is generated if either target or mode is not an accepted value.

👑 VERSION SUPPORT 👑

the original grid says Function / Feature Name: glHint, and it’s ✔ across every OpenGL Version listed here: 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5. iconic, honestly ✨.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

okay so this section exists on the page, but there are literally no cross-references listed in it. that’s the whole tea 🫶.

Copyright © 1991-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc. Copyright © 2010-2014 Khronos Group. This document is licensed under the SGI Free Software B License. For details, see http://oss.sgi.com/projects/FreeB/.

Copyright © 1991-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc. Copyright © 2010-2014 Khronos Group

💖 and that’s the whole GLHINT(3G) page, bestie — source: [FIXME: source], version: GLHINT(3G), date: 08/09/2021. mwah 💋✨

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