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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-26T11:20:53+00:00

I am developing a tile-based physics game like Falling Sand Game. I am currently

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I am developing a tile-based physics game like Falling Sand Game. I am currently using a Static VBO for the vertices and a Dynamic VBO for the colors associated with each block type. With this type of game the data in the color VBO changes very frequently. (ever block change) Currently I am calling glBufferSubDataARB for each block change. I have found this to work, yet it doesn’t scale well with resolution. (Much slower with each increase in resolution) I was hoping that that I could get double my current playable resolution. (256×256)

Should I call BufferSubData very frequently or BufferData once a frame? Should I drop the VBO and go with vertex array?

What can be done about video cards that do not support VBOs?

(Note: Each block is larger than one pixel)

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    First of all, you should stop using both functions. Buffer objects have been core OpenGL functionality since around 2002; there is no reason to use the extension form of them. You should be using glBufferData and glBufferSubData, not the ARB versions.

    Second, if you want high-performance buffer object streaming, tips can be found on the OpenGL wiki. But in general, calling glBufferSubData many times per frame on the same memory isn’t helpful. It would likely be better to map the buffer and modify it directly.

    To your last question, I would say this: why should you care? As previously stated, buffer objects are old. It’s like asking what you should do for hardware that only support D3D 5.0.

    Ignore it; nobody will care.

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