Multiple quads in one vbo

Question

I am working on a minecraft-ish game, and I've been working a little more with vbos. However; when drawing multiple faces in a single vbo I seem to have a little bit of a issue.

Here is my vbo-generation code:

glGenBuffers(1, &VBO);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, verts);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, VBO);
glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, verts * 9 * sizeof(GLfloat), NULL, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
void* ptr = glMapBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, GL_READ_WRITE);

GLfloat*model = (GLfloat*)ptr;
GLfloat*tex = ((GLfloat*)ptr) + verts * 6;
GLfloat*color = ((GLfloat*)ptr) + verts * 3;
int p = 0;
int k = p * 3;

    for (int mcy = 0; mcy < 5; mcy++) {
        for (int mcx = 0; mcx < 5; mcx++) {
        double addonX = mcx*32.0; 
        double addonY = mcy*32.0; 
        int addonx = mcx * 32;
        int addony = mcy * 32;
        if (!(hill.get(addonX, addonY)*400.0 > 100 && hill.get(32 + addonX, addonY)*400.0 > 100 && hill.get(addonX, 32 + addonY)*400.0 > 100 && hill.get(32 + addonX, 32 + addonY)*400.0 > 100)) {
            draw = true;

            int biome1 = BiomeToColor(GetBiome(x, y, addonX, addonY), hill.get(addonX, addonY)*400.0);
            int biome2 = BiomeToColor(GetBiome(x, y, 32 + addonX, addonY), hill.get(32 + addonX, addonY)*400.0);
            int biome3 = BiomeToColor(GetBiome(x, y, addonX, 32 + addonY), hill.get(addonX, 32 + addonY)*400.0);
            int biome4 = BiomeToColor(GetBiome(x, y, 32 + addonX, 32 + addonY), hill.get(32 + addonY, 32 + addonY)*400.0);







            model[k] = addonx+ 32;
            model[k + 1] = addony;
            model[k + 2] = hill.get(addonX + 32, addonY)*400.0;

            color[k] = BiomeColors[biome2].r;
            color[k + 1] = BiomeColors[biome2].g;
            color[k + 2] = BiomeColors[biome2].b;


            p++;
            k = p * 3;



            model[k] = addonx + 32;
            model[k + 1] =  addony + 32;
            model[k + 2] = hill.get(addonX + 32, addonY + 32)*400.0;

            color[k] = BiomeColors[biome4].r;
            color[k + 1] = BiomeColors[biome4].g;
            color[k + 2] = BiomeColors[biome4].b;
            p++;
            k = p * 3;



            model[k] = addonx;
            model[k + 1] = addony + 32;
            model[k + 2] = hill.get(addonX, addonY + 32)*400.0;

            color[k] = BiomeColors[biome3].r;
            color[k + 1] = BiomeColors[biome3].g;
            color[k + 2] = BiomeColors[biome3].b;



            p++;
            k = p * 3;





            model[k] = addony;
            model[k + 1] = addony;
            model[k + 2] = hill.get(addonX, addonY)*400.0;

            color[k] = BiomeColors[biome1].r;
            color[k + 1] = BiomeColors[biome1].g;
            color[k + 2] = BiomeColors[biome1].b;


            p++; 
            k = p * 3;

        }
    }
}
glUnmapBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER);
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0);

And here's the code I use to draw the vbo:

glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, VBO);

    glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, 0);
    glTexCoordPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, (char*)NULL + verts * 6 * sizeof(GLfloat));
    glColorPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 0, (char*)NULL + verts * 3 * sizeof(GLfloat));

    glDrawArrays(GL_QUADS, 0, VBO);
    glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0);

Here's the result I want (using a single quad in every vbo):

unfortunatly I'm still new so you have to click this link :/

And here is the result I get with multiple quads in every vbo:

image

So why do I want to draw multiple quads in a single vbo? One word: performance, if you compare the two images the thing that really pops out (well, except for the bug with the second image) is the framerate counter. I want to make this game into a big thing, so every fps matters to me.

EDIT: Omg, I'm so stupid:

model[k] = addony;

A very simple mistake, but so devistating. Just proves how so small things can brake the game. It all workes now.

Answer 1

glDrawArrays(GL_QUADS, 0, VBO);

There are a few problems with this call:

1. the third parameter of glDrawArrays is the count of the things you are drawing so what you are actually saying is:

Draw Quads from my Buffer at 0 until VBO and then stop.

What you should be saying is:

Draw Quads from my Buffer at 0 until Buffer Length and then stop

so now it looks like this:

glDrawArrays(GL_QUADS, 0, verts);

'VBO' in your code is the ID of the Buffer that you want to use. think about it like a pointer who's number you know or rather a user with an ID.

2. GL_QUADS is not good use GL_TRIANGLES there are many problems with GL_QUADS later especialy on mobile phones and on other platforms making your data in triangles is much much nicer.

You shouldn't be drawing in GL_QUADS for multiple reasons

Why are you not using VAO's? Are you using an older version of OpenGL that doesn't have VAO's? Otherwise I would suggest using VAO here instead of VBO so you dont need to bind pointers for each draw call.

glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, verts);

What you are trying to here is bind a VBO of id: 'verts' to be our current VBO.

'So why do I want to draw multiple quads in a single vbo? One word: performance'

Have you tried to draw multiple quads using instancing? So sending a model matrix for each of the shapes so that you modify their positions and shapes in the shader and not in the buffer. This way you can draw one vbo over and over again just slightly transformed with a single draw call.

Here is a good tutorial on instancing:

http://learnopengl.com/#!Advanced-OpenGL/Instancing

Just out of curiosity but why did you decide to use:

glMapBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, GL_READ_WRITE);

instead of buffering your data in the glBufferData call?

If you need to buffer the data later you can use glBufferSubData

Honestly though I think your performance problems stem from a range of factors.

I would personally use glBufferData instead of map data and when I need to do it during run time and not during loading I would use glBufferSubData.

I would upload the colors to the shader and draw multiples of the SAME VBO again and again with a different model matrix and colors allowing me to instance it.

However you shouldn't need to do that.

What I would recommend is making up the data in triangles and colors and drawing the whole ground as a mesh which you have seemed to tried to do. Your problem was most likely caused by glDrawArrays length being set to that of a VBO.

However in this case I would build a VBO using glBufferData with the size of a chunk then I would use glBufferSubData for each of the quads with colors etc. and once I am done I would draw that multiple times alongside different chunks.

I think it would be of use to you to do more theory of OpenGL.