OpenGL Driver

Overview

The OpenGL display driver is a generic driver that creates textures for embedding LVGL content in other applications. The goal is to create textures that people can embed in other applications. The OpenGL context must be created by the user or they can use GLFW or EGL as backends.

Getting Started with OpenGL

Prerequisites

An OpenGL context must be created before using the OpenGL driver. You can create this using:

Configure OpenGL Driver

  1. Enable the OpenGL driver support in lv_conf.h, by cmake compiler define or by KConfig

    #define LV_USE_OPENGLES  1

Basic Usage

#include "lvgl/lvgl.h"

#define WIDTH 640
#define HEIGHT 480

/* This flush callback works with both FULL and DIRECT render modes*/
static void flush_cb(lv_display_t *disp, const lv_area_t *area, uint8_t *px_map)
{
    if (lv_display_flush_is_last(disp)) {
        const int32_t disp_width = lv_display_get_horizontal_resolution(disp);
        const int32_t disp_height = lv_display_get_vertical_resolution(disp);
        /* The texture occupies the full screen even if `area` is not the full screen which happens with RENDER_MODE_DIRECT */
        lv_area_t full_area;
        lv_area_set(&full_area, 0, 0, disp_width, disp_height);

        /* Get the texture id containing LVGL generated UI */
        unsigned int texture_id = lv_opengles_texture_get_texture_id(disp);
        /* This function will render to the current context */
        lv_opengles_render_texture(texture_id, &full_area, LV_OPA_COVER, disp_width, disp_height, &full_area, false, true);
    }
    lv_display_flush_ready(disp);
}

int main()
{
    /* initialize lvgl */
    lv_init();
    /* Don't forget the tick callback */

    /* NOTE: OpenGL context must be created before this point */

    /* Create a display that flushes to a texture. The OpenGL texture will be created for you */
    lv_display_t * texture = lv_opengles_texture_create(WIDTH, HEIGHT);
    /* If you already have an OpenGL texture ready, you can use it instead:
     * lv_display_t * texture = lv_opengles_texture_create_from_texture_id(WIDTH, HEIGHT, my_texture_id); */

    /* Set the display render mode and flush callback
     * lv_display_set_render_mode(texture, LV_DISPLAY_RENDER_MODE_FULL);
     * lv_display_set_flush_cb(texture, flush_cb); */

    /* get the texture ID for use in your application */
    unsigned int texture_id = lv_opengles_texture_get_texture_id(texture);

    /* create Widgets on the screen */
    lv_demo_widgets();

    while (1)
    {
        uint32_t time_until_next = lv_timer_handler();
        if(time_until_next == LV_NO_TIMER_READY) time_until_next = LV_DEF_REFR_PERIOD;
        lv_delay_ms(time_until_next);
    }

    return 0;
}

OpenGL Texture Caching Renderer

There is a renderer in LVGL which caches software-rendered areas as OpenGL textures. The textures are retrieved from the cache and reused when there is a match. The performance will be drastically improved in most cases.

#define LV_USE_DRAW_OPENGLES 1

Known Limitations

  • Performance will be the same or slightly worse if the drawn areas are never found in the cache due to Widgets with continuously varying colors or shapes. One example is a label whose color is set to a random value every frame, as in the "Multiple labels" scene of the benchmark demo.

  • Layers with transparent pixels and an overall layer transparency will not blend correctly. The effect can be observed in the "Containers with opa_layer" scene of the benchmark demo in the border corners.

  • Layers with rotation are not currently supported. Images with rotation are fine.