GLARBviewportarray

GLARBviewportarray is an OpenGL extension that provides functionality for managing multiple viewports within a single rendering context. It is part of the ARB (Architecture Review Board) extensions, which are standardized pieces of functionality proposed and approved by the OpenGL ARB to enhance the graphics API's capabilities.

The primary purpose of GLARBviewportarray is to allow applications to define and manipulate multiple viewports simultaneously. This functionality streamlines rendering workflows, particularly in scenarios involving multi-view rendering, such as split-screen gaming, advanced visualization, and virtual reality applications. Each viewport defines a rectangular area in window or framebuffer coordinates where rendering takes place.

This extension introduces the glViewportArray function, which enables setting multiple viewports in a single call by specifying an array of viewport parameters. It typically includes parameters for the index of the viewport, the number of viewports to update, and an array of viewport rectangles. This bulk operation reduces function call overhead and improves performance when managing multiple viewports.

GLARBviewportarray extends the core OpenGL pipeline by allowing more flexible and efficient viewport configuration without significantly complicating the rendering loop. It is supported on platforms and hardware that are compliant with the extension, and its availability depends on the graphics driver and hardware capabilities.

Overall, GLARBviewportarray enhances the versatility of OpenGL by facilitating advanced rendering techniques that require multiple viewports, contributing to more dynamic and powerful graphics applications.