Is Angengine GLES2 slower than GLES1?

Question

As the title states, which is faster, GLES1 or GLES2.

I have two devices, one device only supports GLES1 and the other supports GLES2. I've read in forums that GLES1 is supposed to be slower on GLES2 devices since it is emulated, but I've read comments contrary to this statement as well.

So as of the latest andengine version of GLES2, is it truly faster than GLES1?

Answer 1

Why don't you just test it? As you have access to both devices it should be fairly easy to test.

Answer 2

There is a benchmark in each version of the Andengine Examples app. Plus, speed is only one consideration of which version to use. And there are operations you can do in GLES2 that are costly, that are not available in GLES1. Its a bit of apples to oranges. But you should use GLES2 because their speed is comparable, but their feature set is not. GLES2 is far better, with a richer API and more features as well as continuing improvement and support, whereas GLES1 is not actively developed.

Here is a link to performacne test done comparing GLES1 and GLES2 onthe andengine forums: http://www.andengine.org/forums/project-development-blogs/andengine-performance-test-gles2-why-avoid-using-it-t7621.html

The results are over a year old, and many improvements have already happened on GLES2 since then. And you're unlikely to need 1500 objects on screen simultaneously with movement and rotation.

The initial results were pretty stark for GLES1 vs 2: My Results: GLES2: Galaxy S 1) 10.5 fps 2) 20.8 fps 3) 10.5 fps @ 1500 Objects with movement and rotation

GLES1: Galaxy S 1) 10.6 fps 2) 44.4 fps 3) 45.5 fps @ 1500 Objects with movement and rotation