meta-gl

What is meta-gl?

meta-gl is a low-level, procedural C++ library that wraps the OpenGL ES API. It does not own GPU resources, does not create windows, and does not manage contexts. Its single purpose is to make raw OpenGL calls safer by replacing untyped GLenum integer parameters with enum class types that are impossible to mix accidentally.

Every public function in the metagl namespace maps one-to-one to a raw gl* call. There is no abstraction layer, no virtual dispatch, no heap allocation. The compiler can inline everything; the binary output is identical to hand-written GL code.

Key Features

Layering

meta-gl is the bottom layer of a two-level graphics library stack:

// Host application provides GL context + GetProcAddress
easy-gl         // OOP/RAII resource classes (namespace easygl)
    └── meta-gl  // Procedural safe API     (namespace metagl)
            └── actual OpenGL ES driver

• meta-gl — procedural, no resource ownership, safe enums, std::span.
• easy-gl — OOP/RAII wrappers built on top of meta-gl. easy-gl depends on meta-gl, never the reverse.

Quick Start

// 1. Add to your CMakeLists.txt:
add_subdirectory(../meta-gl meta-gl)
target_link_libraries(my-target PRIVATE meta-gl::meta-gl)

// 2. Initialize once after context creation:
#include <metagl/metagl.hpp>

bool ok = metagl::Initialize(SDL_GL_GetProcAddress);
if (!ok) { /* handle failure */ }

// 3. Call wrapper functions in the metagl namespace:
metagl::glClearColor(0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f, 1.0f);
metagl::glClear(metagl::ClearBufferBit::Color | metagl::ClearBufferBit::Depth);

GLuint shader = metagl::glCreateShader(metagl::ShaderType::Vertex);
metagl::glBindBuffer(metagl::BufferTarget::Array, vbo);

Public Headers

Supported Targets