WGLpbuffer

WGLpbuffer is an offscreen rendering surface provided by Windows OpenGL (WGL) extensions. It enables rendering to a pixel buffer that exists independently of any visible window, allowing applications to render images, textures, or perform image processing without creating a windowed context.

Pbuffers are created with the WGL pbuffer extension, typically wglCreatePbufferARB (or wglCreatePbufferEXT), using an attribute list to specify width, height, and a compatible pixel format. A device context for the pbuffer is obtained via wglGetPbufferDCARB/EXT, and a GL rendering context can be made current with that DC, usually sharing data with another context if needed.

Once current, GL commands render to the pbuffer's color, depth, and stencil buffers (storage depends on the specified pixel format). Some extensions allow binding the pbuffer's buffers to textures for render-to-texture workflows. Pbuffers are largely superseded by framebuffer objects for modern offscreen rendering and may have limited support on newer drivers.

PBuffers are destroyed with wglDestroyPbufferARB/EXT; the associated DC must be released with wglReleasePbufferDCARB/EXT. Proper error handling is required to verify extension support and successful creation.

See also: OpenGL framebuffer objects, WGL_ARB_pbuffer, WGL_EXT_pbuffer, WGL_ARB_pixel_format.