17. Using Android 3D Graphics with OpenGL ES

The world around us is not two-dimensional but rich with depth. Although the phone display is a flat surface, presenting games and applications with visual depth has long been a way to enhance and add realism to them. For this purpose, developers can use the OpenGL ES implementations provided within the Android SDK.

OpenGL ES is a graphics application programming interface (API) for embedded systems based on the OpenGL desktop standard. It is popular on wireless platforms and is supported on all major mobile phone platforms, including Windows Mobile, Symbian, MeeGo, BREW, Apple iOS, Palm WebOS, and now Android. Android devices support different versions of OpenGL ES depending on the platform version.