Programmable vs. Fixed-Function Pipeline in Real-Time Computer Graphics

This paper explains the concepts behind the programmable rendering pipeline, as opposed to the fixed-function pipeline, and how the former can help with creating stunning visuals without degrading performance. In order to demonstrate these concepts, a practical implementation of water simulation using OpenGL is presented and relevant experiments are conducted. Additionally, the execution results are compared and the speedup of using the programmable pipeline over the fixed-function pipeline, in the case of water simulation, are given.