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As an exercise set to myself, I wanted to make a Mesh loader using modern OpenGL.

However, I have to ways of representing the notion of face of a mesh.

Currently, I am using what seems the most natural. A mesh contains a 

std::vector<Triangle>

and a Triangle is simply

struct Triangle
{
    unsigned int Vertices[3];
}

(i.e. each triangle stores the three indices of its vertices). NOTE : a mesh contains others things (such as the vertices and the normals but I didn't include them here for simplicity).

However, OpenGL require a different representation for using EBO : only one static array on indices (implicitly grouped by 3).

What I have come up with is a trade-off between these representations : once the mesh is loaded, I generate a static array of size 

3 * mesh->Faces.size()

but I assume this is not the best option for memory use and redundancy.

So my questions are :

  • If I want to keep my current representation of a mesh (with a vector of faces), how should I set OpenGL to properly render such a mesh ? Is my current solution of generating a new static a good practice ?
  • Assuming I can use the representation I want for my mesh. What would you recommand and why ?
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Actually your current way is fine.

C++ struct layout will let you turn the Triangle* into a int* and store that into the EBO.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks ! And how should I turn properly turn the std::vector<Triangle> to my unsigned int* that OpenGL require ? \$\endgroup\$ – Rivten Mar 29 '16 at 15:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ vector has a data() function that'll return the Triangle* which you can cast to the int*. \$\endgroup\$ – ratchet freak Mar 29 '16 at 15:23

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