OpenGL ES is the standard API for 2D and 3D graphics on embedded systems, which includes mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs, consoles, and other appliances and vehicles. The API is a well-defined subset of desktop OpenGL.
We have two OpenGL ES Software Development Kits, one for Android OS and one for Linux environments. These SDKs are aimed mainly from beginners to intermediate users, with a guide on how to get your system properly configured and set up, as well as how to build the OpenGL ES 2.0 and the latest OpenGL ES 3.x sample code and run them.
The SDKs contain tutorials and sample code. The tutorials start from the basic concepts, such as introduction to shaders, and setting up the graphics pipeline to render to the display, followed by examples to render basic geometry and add textures and light onto them. The more advanced tutorials talk about our latest Mali features like implementing deferred shading using the tile buffer available through the Shader Pixel Local Storage OpenGL ES extension, as well as samples illustrating the use of AdaptiveScalable Texture Compression (ASTC), and showing the use of the very latest OpenGL ES 3.1 APIs, released in the latest Android Lollipop.
The most important OpenGL ES 3.1 API feature is Compute Shaders, which allow the GPU to be used for general-purpose computing and therefore, the SDK includes a dedicated tutorial to it called introduction to compute shaders. The tutorials refer to sample code, and a detailed summary of the Compute Shader sample code available in the SDK is given in Hans-Kristian’s blog.
ARM Mali-T6xx and ARM Mali-T7xx series support OpenGL ES 3.1, and the latest Android L OS is capable of running OpenGL ES 3.1 applications. At MWC, Samsung launched their Galaxy S6, based on Android L and supporting OpenGL ES 3.1. Other existing devices in the market with support for the latest API are the Nexus10 tablet (It might need upgrading the OS to Android L from here) and the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, upgrading the OS to Android L, too.