Question

What I need to do is draw a vertex array that has more than 256 elements. When I have less than that many, and I use GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE in my call to glDrawElements, everything works fine. When I have more than 256 elements, it starts drawing back at the first vertex again (i.e., last element [256 – 255, whatever] connects with first [1, or 0], and further elements don’t get drawn). If I use GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT instead, I get EXC_BAD_ACCESS. What gives?

int indexLim = self.animIndex;

GLushort glIndLim = (GLushort)indexLim;

Vertex localVertices[glIndLim];
GLubyte localIndices[glIndLim];

for(GLushort i=0; i < glIndLim; i++)
{
    x = (float)i;
    y = [[data objectAtIndex:i ] floatValue];

    x = x*xScale + xOffset;
    y = y*yScale + yOffset;

    localVertices[i].Position[0] = x;
    localVertices[i].Position[1] = y;
    localVertices[i].Position[2] = z;
    localVertices[i].Color[0]    = r;
    localVertices[i].Color[1]    = g;
    localVertices[i].Color[2]    = b;
    localVertices[i].Color[3]    = a;
    localIndices[i] = i;
}    

// setupVBOs
GLuint vertexBuffer;
glGenBuffers(1, &vertexBuffer);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vertexBuffer);
glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(localVertices), localVertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW);

GLuint indexBuffer;
glGenBuffers(1, &indexBuffer);
glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, indexBuffer);
glBufferData(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(localIndices), localIndices, GL_STATIC_DRAW);

glVertexAttribPointer(_positionSlot, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, sizeof(Vertex), 0);
glVertexAttribPointer(_colorSlot, 4, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, sizeof(Vertex), (GLvoid*) (sizeof(float) * 3));


//glDrawElements(GL_LINE_STRIP, glIndLim, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0); // Works, but only draws 256 elements
glDrawElements(GL_LINE_STRIP, glIndLim, GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT, 0); // EXC_BAD_ACCESS!!!!

Answer 1

Have you tried defining:

GLubyte localIndices[glIndLim];

as

GLushort localIndices[glIndLim];

?

The reasoning is that if that should represent the index for your vertex, it should admit all possible values for GLushort, otherwise the local index will always be a GLubyte.