<!DOCTYPE refentry [ <!ENTITY % mathent SYSTEM "math.ent"> %mathent; ]>

<!-- Converted by db4-upgrade version 1.1 -->

<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" xml:id="glHint">
    <info>
        <copyright>
            <year>1991-2006</year>
            <holder>Silicon Graphics, Inc.</holder>
        </copyright>
        <copyright>
            <year>2010-2013</year>
            <holder>Khronos Group</holder>
        </copyright>
    </info>
    <refmeta>
        <refentrytitle>glHint</refentrytitle>
        <manvolnum>3G</manvolnum>
    </refmeta>
    <refnamediv>
        <refname>glHint</refname>
        <refpurpose>specify implementation-specific hints</refpurpose>
    </refnamediv>
    <refsynopsisdiv><title>C Specification</title>
        <funcsynopsis>
            <funcprototype>
                <funcdef>void <function>glHint</function></funcdef>
                <paramdef>GLenum <parameter>target</parameter></paramdef>
                <paramdef>GLenum <parameter>mode</parameter></paramdef>
            </funcprototype>
        </funcsynopsis>
    </refsynopsisdiv>
    <refsect1 xml:id="parameters"><title>Parameters</title>
        <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
            <term><parameter>target</parameter></term>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    Specifies a symbolic constant indicating the behavior to be controlled.
                    <constant>GL_LINE_SMOOTH_HINT</constant>,
                    <constant>GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH_HINT</constant>,
                    <constant>GL_TEXTURE_COMPRESSION_HINT</constant>, and
                    <constant>GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER_DERIVATIVE_HINT</constant>
                    are accepted.
                </para>
            </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
            <term><parameter>mode</parameter></term>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    Specifies a symbolic constant indicating the desired behavior.
                    <constant>GL_FASTEST</constant>,
                    <constant>GL_NICEST</constant>, and
                    <constant>GL_DONT_CARE</constant> are accepted.
                </para>
            </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        </variablelist>
    </refsect1>
    <refsect1 xml:id="description"><title>Description</title>
        <para>
            Certain aspects of GL behavior,
            when there is room for interpretation,
            can be controlled with hints.
            A hint is specified with two arguments.
            <parameter>target</parameter> is a symbolic
            constant indicating the behavior to be controlled,
            and <parameter>mode</parameter> is another symbolic constant indicating the desired
            behavior. The initial value for each <parameter>target</parameter> is <constant>GL_DONT_CARE</constant>.
            <parameter>mode</parameter> can be one of the following:
        </para>
        <variablelist>
            <varlistentry>
                <term><constant>GL_FASTEST</constant></term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        The most efficient option should be chosen.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term><constant>GL_NICEST</constant></term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        The most correct,
                        or highest quality,
                        option should be chosen.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term><constant>GL_DONT_CARE</constant></term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        No preference.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
        </variablelist>
        <para>
            Though the implementation aspects that can be hinted are well defined,
            the interpretation of the hints depends on the implementation.
            The hint aspects that can be specified with <parameter>target</parameter>,
            along with suggested semantics,
            are as follows:
        </para>
        <variablelist>
            <varlistentry>
                <term><constant>GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER_DERIVATIVE_HINT</constant></term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        Indicates the accuracy of the derivative calculation for the GL shading language fragment processing built-in functions:
                        <constant>dFdx</constant>, <constant>dFdy</constant>, and <constant>fwidth</constant>.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term><constant>GL_LINE_SMOOTH_HINT</constant></term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        Indicates the sampling quality of antialiased lines.
                        If a larger filter function is applied, hinting <constant>GL_NICEST</constant> can
                        result in more pixel fragments being generated during rasterization.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term><constant>GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH_HINT</constant></term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        Indicates the sampling quality of antialiased polygons.
                        Hinting <constant>GL_NICEST</constant> can result in more pixel fragments being generated
                        during rasterization,
                        if a larger filter function is applied.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
            <varlistentry>
                <term><constant>GL_TEXTURE_COMPRESSION_HINT</constant></term>
                <listitem>
                    <para>
                    </para>
                    <para>
                        Indicates the quality and performance of the compressing texture images.
                        Hinting <constant>GL_FASTEST</constant> indicates that texture images should be compressed
                        as quickly as possible, while <constant>GL_NICEST</constant> indicates that texture images
                        should be compressed with as little image quality loss as possible.
                        <constant>GL_NICEST</constant> should be selected if the texture is to be retrieved by
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>glGetCompressedTexImage</refentrytitle></citerefentry> for reuse.
                    </para>
                </listitem>
            </varlistentry>
        </variablelist>
    </refsect1>
    <refsect1 xml:id="notes"><title>Notes</title>
        <para>
            The interpretation of hints depends on the implementation.
            Some implementations ignore <function>glHint</function> settings.
        </para>
    </refsect1>
    <refsect1 xml:id="errors"><title>Errors</title>
        <para>
            <constant>GL_INVALID_ENUM</constant> is generated if either <parameter>target</parameter> or <parameter>mode</parameter> is not
            an accepted value.
        </para>
    </refsect1>
    <refsect1 xml:id="Copyright"><title>Copyright</title>
        <para>
            Copyright <trademark class="copyright"/> 1991-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
            Copyright <trademark class="copyright"/> 2010-2013 Khronos Group.
            This document is licensed under the SGI Free Software B License.
            For details, see
            <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://oss.sgi.com/projects/FreeB/">http://oss.sgi.com/projects/FreeB/</link>.
        </para>
    </refsect1>
</refentry>
