Question

I’m looking into learning OpenGL ES for making a little graphics engine in Android (and possibly iOS). I’ve only done a little in OpenGL before on Desktop.

I’m not sure whether I should learn OpenGL ES 2.0 or 1.1. When it comes to difficulty, is there a big difference between the two?

I know there’s a few topics out there about the subject, pros and cons between the versions, but I am only looking for input on the difficulty between the two versions.

Thanks

Answer 1

Quite an open question, but here goes:
The main difference between the two is that Gles 2.0 uses shaders, while 1.1/1.0 uses a fixed-function pipeline. This means you will have lots more control on what’s going to show up on the screen in 2.0, but it also means you will have to learn the shading language (glsl).
This difference means that many of the gl methods that exist in 1.0/1.1 are removed from 2.0 (such as glColorPointer, which can be used for setting a vertex color in 1.0 would be set in the shader using a glUniformcall in 2.0).

Another difference is the performance, 2.0 usually gives better performance compared to the earlier versions according to this.

In general, OpenGL ES 2.0 provides faster graphics performance than
the ES 1.0/1.1 APIs. However, the performance difference can vary
depending on the Android device your OpenGL application is running on,
due to differences in the implementation of the OpenGL graphics
pipeline.

Those are the two main points that I can think of. You should read this document, for more explanations and examples from Android, but personally I’d recommend 2.0, even though it might have a slightly higher learning curve, it is worth it.

In the linked android-dev doc they do state

Coding Convenience – The OpenGL ES 1.0/1.1 API provides a fixed
function pipeline and convenience functions which are not available in
the ES 2.0 API. Developers who are new to OpenGL may find coding for
OpenGL ES 1.0/1.1 faster and more convenient.

But this ease of use is not worth it in the end (according to me).