OpenGL OpenGL Extensions and Modern OpenGL

Question 1

What is the purpose of the OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library (GLEW)?

Accepted Answer

Loads and exposes OpenGL extension function pointers at runtime

Answer

GLEW queries the driver at startup for supported extensions and loads function pointers so they can be called by the application.

Question 2

What OpenGL version introduced Direct State Access (DSA) as a core feature?

Accepted Answer

OpenGL 4.5

Answer

Direct State Access became part of the OpenGL core specification in version 4.5, removing the need to bind objects before modifying them.

Question 3

Which OpenGL feature allows shaders to read and write arbitrary locations in a buffer (like a GPU-side array)?

Accepted Answer

Shader Storage Buffer Objects (SSBO)

Answer

SSBOs (GL_SHADER_STORAGE_BUFFER) support arbitrary-length, read/write access from shaders, unlike the read-only UBO.

Question 4

What does the OpenGL compute shader stage provide that other shader stages do not?

Accepted Answer

General-purpose GPU computation outside the fixed graphics pipeline

Answer

Compute shaders run independently of the vertex/fragment pipeline, enabling GPGPU tasks like physics, image processing, and AI inference.

Question 5

How does an application check whether a specific OpenGL extension is supported?

Accepted Answer

Check the string returned by glGetString(GL_EXTENSIONS) or use glGetStringi

Answer

glGetStringi(GL_EXTENSIONS, i) iterates supported extension strings; checking for the extension name confirms availability.

OpenGL Practice Test