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JOGL vs OpenGL ES API on Android. Pros and cons

We are trying to port our project from PC to Android. The PC version uses JOGL. Can anyone explain the main benefits of using JOGL in an Android application instead of the OpenGL ES API?

For example, JOGL computers have:

  • In theory, you can use it on any platform.
  • It is more or less integrated with AWT, Swing and SWT.
  • It is also a kind of wrapper, so in theory there are some abstractions that make OpenGL easier to use.

But I don't see the benefits of using this in Android, here are the cons from my point of view:

  • This is a different dependency, the APK size will be larger.
  • Some issues that affect both JOGL and OpenGL ES will take longer to pinpoint and fix.
  • This is not a silver bullet that will not take time to refactor as in Android we have to use the correct templates for Activities, services, etc.
  • JOGL has fewer tutorials and a smaller community that the OpenGL ES API has.

So what's the point of using it in an Android project?

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You can only use JOGL on platforms we support. I confirm that JOGL has good compatibility with AWT, Swing and SWT (not yet with OpenJFX / JavaFX, but we will improve this when Oracle does the necessary things). Yes, there are wonderful abstractions, but you forget a lot of things:

  • JOGL has its own control without AWT. It has better JPEG support than ImageIO and is faster.
  • You can keep the OpenGL context even when your app is paused and placed in the background (when you hit "home") it is inlined
  • You can test your OpenGL-ES code on your computer, even if it doesn't replace tests on a real device.
  • You can use exactly the same OpenGL code on desktop and embedded environments, especially if you are already using GL2ES2
  • You can rely on us if something goes wrong, there are already several commercial games on Google Play.


I admit there is no documentation on JOGL for Android. Sorry, I spent several months writing a tutorial about JogAmp Ardor3D Continuation , and I prefer to leave the task of doing the same for JOGL Android use for someone more experienced with it.

Edit: Sorry for the late answer, but I had a problem with my OpenID. Please post questions about JOGL on our official forum.

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