Drawing Maps with OpenGL
summary
Mapbox moves map rendering from CPU to GPU using mapbox-gl-native (C++) and mapbox-gl-js; OpenGL only draws lines and triangles so lines become six-triangle strips with two outer quads for anti-aliasing, polygons get deterministic triangulation via a custom tessellator (mapbox/cidal), text uses Valve-style signed distance fields in a glyph atlas with stepped thresholds (0–191 / 192–255) to produce scalable halos, blurs use offscreen renderbuffers and Gaussian passes, and an experimental Node headless renderer produces tiles for non‑WebGL clients.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:22What is OpenGL
- 1:50Primitives
- 2:07Geo Lines
- 2:37Triangles
- 3:58Text
- 4:23FreeType
- 4:33FreeType Overview
- 5:20Scientists and Fields
- 6:04TwoStep Interpolation
- 6:57Text in OpenGL
- 7:32Polygons
- 8:35Vitals
- 9:05Blurs
- 10:54Hardware Compatibility
- 19:00Editor
- 19:26Digital Globe
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