opengl - Performance of GL_POINTS on modern hardware -

is there difference in performance between drawing scene full triangles (gl_triangles) instead of drawing vertices (gl_points), on modern hardware?

where gl_points initialized this:

glpointsize(1.0); gldisable(gl_point_smooth); 

i have low-end graphics card (9600gt) , drawing vertices-only can bring 2x fps increase on sceneries. not sure if applies on more recent gpus.

2x fps increase on

you lose 98% of picture , 2x fps increase. that's not impressive. if take account should able render 300..500 fps on decent hardware (with vsync disabled , minor optimizations), that's not worth it.

is there difference in performance between drawing scene full triangles (gl_triangles) instead of drawing vertices (gl_points), on modern hardware?

well, if scene has lot of alpha-blending , "heavy" pixel shaders, then, obviously, displaying scene point cloud speed things up, because there's less pixels fill.

on other hand, kind of "optimization" useless practical task. mean, if you're using blending , shaders, wouldn't want display scene pointlist in first place, unless you're doing kind of debug render (using glpolygonmode), , in case of debug render, you'll turn shaders off (because shaded/lit point hard see) , disable lighting.

even if you're using point sprites particles or something, i'd stick triangles - give more control , not have maximum size limit (compared point sprites).

i can display more objects?

if want more objects, should try optimzie things elsewhere first. if stop trying draw invisible objects (outside of field of view, etc), that'll start can improve performance.

you have mesh far away camera. 1 million triangles , know in view. @ density ratio, triangles can't bigger pixel,

when triangles smaller pixel, , there many of them, mesh start looking garbage , turns pixelated mess of points. ugly. same effect when disable mippimapping , texture filters , render checkboard pattern. using points instead of triangles might aggravate effect.

: if have 1mil triangle mesh visible, need different kind of optimization. reduce number of triangles (level of detail, dynamic tesselation or solution can simplify geometry on fly), use bump mapping(maybe parallax mapping) simulate geometry details aren't here, or turn static background or sprite. that'll work better. trying render using points make ugly.