Should we always prefer OpenGL ES version 2 over version 1.x

Posted by Shivan Dragon on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Shivan Dragon
Published on 2012-08-30T15:27:34Z Indexed on 2012/08/30 15:50 UTC
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OpengGL ES version 2 goes a long way into changing the development paradigm that was established with OpenGL ES 1.x. You have shaders which you can chain together to apply varios effects/transforms to your elements, the projection and transformation matrices work completly different etc. I've seen a lot of online tutorials and blogs that simply say "ditch version 1.x, use version 2, that's the way to go". Even on Android's documentation it sais to "use version 2 as it may prove faster than 1.x".

Now, I've also read a book on OpenGL ES (which was rather good, but I'm not gonna mention here because I don't want to give the impression that I'm trying to make hidden publicity). The guy there treated only OpenGL ES 1.x for 80% of the book, and then at the end only listed the differences in version 2 and said something like "if OpenGL ES 1 does what you need, there's no need to switch to version 2, as it's only gonna over complicate your code. Version 2 was changed a lot to facillitate newer, fancier stuff, but if you don't need it, version 1.x is fine".

My question is then, is the last statement right? Should I always use Open GL ES version 1.x if I don't need version 2 only stuff? I'd sure like to do that, because I find coding in version 1.x A LOT simpler than version 2 but I'm afraid that my apps might get obsolete faster for using an older version.

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