Initializing OpenGL ES 2 on Android

Initialization of OpenGL on Android is straightforward when compared to Windows. There are two possibilities to create an OpenGL rendering context in the Android NDK: use EGL API (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGL_(API)) from NDK directly, or create a wrapper Java class based on android.opengl.GLSurfaceView. We will choose the second option.

Getting ready

Make yourself familiar with the interface of the GLSurfaceView class at http://developer.android.com/reference/android/opengl/GLSurfaceView.html.

How to do it…

1. We extend the GLSurfaceView class in the following way:

   public class GLView extends GLSurfaceView
   {
     …

2. The init() method selects the RGB_888 pixel format for a frame buffer:

     private void init( int depth, int stencil )
     {
       this.getHolder().setFormat( PixelFormat.RGB_888 );
       setEGLContextFactory( new ContextFactory() );
       setEGLConfigChooser(new ConfigChooser( 8, 8, 8, 0, depth, stencil ) );
       setRenderer( new Renderer() );
     }

3. This inner class...