2D Vector graphic renderer for OpenGL [duplicate]

Question

I want to use Vector graphics in an OpenGL game. I want to use vector graphics because they can be scaled cheaply without loss of quality.

Of course, the drawing should be hardware accelerated, so I do not want to draw in software to a texture.

Now I am wondering if a library doing this already exists. Is there a library, that can load some vector graphic format and display it using OpenGL?

Answer 1

I would not bother with anything OpenVG, not even with MonkVG, which is probably the most modern, albeit incomplete implementation. The OpenVG committee has folded in 2011 and most if not all implementations are abandonware or at best legacy software.

Since 2011, the state of the art is Mark Kilgard's baby, NV_path_rendering, which is currently only a vendor (Nvidia) extension as you might have guessed already from its name. There are a lot of materials on that:

• https://developer.nvidia.com/nv-path-rendering Nvidia hub, but some material on the landing page is not the most up-to-date
• http://developer.download.nvidia.com/devzone/devcenter/gamegraphics/files/opengl/gpupathrender.pdf Siggraph 2012 paper
• http://on-demand.gputechconf.com/gtc/2014/presentations/S4810-accelerating-vector-graphics-mobile-web.pdf GTC 2014 presentation
• http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/NV/path_rendering.txt official extension doc

NV_path_rendering is now used by Google's Skia library behind the scenes, when available. (Nvidia contributed the code in late 2013 and 2014.)

And to answer a more specific point raised in the comments, you can mix path rendering with other OpenGL (3D) stuff, as demoed at:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVYl4o1rgIs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZBXGLlmg2U

You can of course load SVGs and such https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCrohG6PJQE. They also support the PostScript syntax for paths.

An upstart having even less (or downright no) vendor support or academic glitz is NanoVG, which is currently developed and maintained. (https://github.com/memononen/nanovg) Given the number of 2D libraries over OpenGL that have come and gone over time, you're taking a big bet using something not supported by a major vendor, in my humble opinion.

Answer 2

Take a look at OpenVG.