WebGL Objects, Targets and Bindings

GL objects

Object	remarks
Buffer
Texture
RenderBuffer
Sampler*
Query*
VertexArray*	container
Framebuffer	container
TransformFeedback*	container

*new in WebGL 2

create<object>(): e.g. createBuffer(), createTexture(), etc
bind<object>(); unbind by binding to null
delete<object>()

Each object may have multple targets. Targets determine what you can do with an object, its specific behaviors. E.g. binding a buffer to gl.ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER enables gl.drawElements().

WebGL functions may depend on objects bound to targets. Binding connects an object with a set of functions.

Functions can be target-free, e.g. gl.drawArrays.

A very incomplete list of dependencies:

	`ARRAY` `_BUFFER`	`COPY` `_READ` `_BUFFER`	`COPY` `_WRITE` `_BUFFER`	`ELEMENT` `_ARRAY` `_BUFFER`	`PIXEL` `_PACK` `_BUFFER`	`PIXEL` `_UNPACK` `_BUFFER`
`bindBuffer`	+	+	+	+	+	+
`bufferData`	+	+	+	+	+	+
`bufferSubData`	+	+	+	+	+	+
`copyBufferSubData`	+	+	+	+	+	+
`getBufferParameter`	+	+	+	+	+	+
`vertexAttribPointer`	+
`drawElements`				+
`drawElementsInstanced`				+
`drawRangeElements`				+
`readPixels`					+
`compressedTexImage2D`						+

and so on, and so on.

WebGL notes

WebGL Objects, Targets and Bindings

GL objects