What is OpenGL ES?

OpenGL ES (Embedded Systems) is an open source graphics rendering API. The role of a graphics API is to allow a developer to interface with their system’s graphics hardware (GPU) more easily. They are most often used to help with rendering 2D or 3D graphics, typically for video games.

OpenGL ES is intended for low-power and embedded devices such as mobile phones. It is considered a high-level rendering API, meaning low-level operations such as memory management are often abstracted away and do not need to be dealt with directly by the developer. This does make application development significantly more straightforward. However, it also means the developer has less direct control over the performance of their application when compared to using a low-level API such as Vulkan.

Despite this limitation, OpenGL ES is still a fantastic introduction to the basic concepts of graphics programming and therefore has great educational value for developers who are new to this area.