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I first learned about those terms in early DirectX releases (circa 1998). Are there some earlier usages?

cmroanirgo 7y ago
It's where it first came to prominence. The earliest D3D api was immediate mode (meaning, bare metal, talking directly via an api to the hardware). Retained mode is about retaining statefulness and some better abstractions to the underlying needs of the hardware (eg automatic texture resampling, etc). Considering it's an NVidia guy talking: he's been around for a while.
- pavlov 7y ago
  A minor detail, but the very first version of Direct3D was a retained mode API. In 1995 Microsoft acquired a company called RenderMorphics and turned their Reality Lab [1] API into "Direct3D". The first two versions to ship from Microsoft had both retained and immediate mode APIs, but they dropped the RenderMorphics-based API due to lack of adoption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Lab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Lab
Stratoscope 7y ago
Interesting, thanks! That would explain why I and probably many other readers, who have built plenty of GUIs but have not worked specifically with APIs like DirectX, would not be familiar with the term.
rzzzt 7y ago
You probably won't be surprised that OpenGL's classic programming mode is also called immediate mode :) glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); glVertex3f(...); glVertex3f(...); glVertex3f(...); glEnd();
taneq 7y ago
Retained Mode Direct3D is the first and only place I've really heard that term used. After D3D stopped offering Retained Mode I haven't heard anyone use it except for a couple of articles about "immediate mode GUIs". Last time I saw one of those I had to look it up.
tellak 7y ago
The terms are in common use since the 80s at least (no, Microsoft did not invent these terms with D3D). You can prove this in google scholar. In fact for 3D rendering, retained mode was touted as a the new way forward, there was even a standard predating OpenGL called PHIGS, a retained mode system.. OpenGL was the worse is better (also PHIGS had many limitations basically limiting its use to CAD) backlash promoting its immediate mode in the early 90s.

It's where it first came to prominence. The earliest D3D api was immediate mode (meaning, bare metal, talking directly via an api to the hardware). Retained mode is about retaining statefulness and some better abstractions to the underlying needs of the hardware (eg automatic texture resampling, etc). Considering it's an NVidia guy talking: he's been around for a while.

pavlov 7y ago
A minor detail, but the very first version of Direct3D was a retained mode API. In 1995 Microsoft acquired a company called RenderMorphics and turned their Reality Lab [1] API into "Direct3D". The first two versions to ship from Microsoft had both retained and immediate mode APIs, but they dropped the RenderMorphics-based API due to lack of adoption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Lab https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Lab

Stratoscope 7y ago

Interesting, thanks! That would explain why I and probably many other readers, who have built plenty of GUIs but have not worked specifically with APIs like DirectX, would not be familiar with the term.

rzzzt 7y ago

You probably won't be surprised that OpenGL's classic programming mode is also called immediate mode :) glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); glVertex3f(...); glVertex3f(...); glVertex3f(...); glEnd();

taneq 7y ago

Retained Mode Direct3D is the first and only place I've really heard that term used. After D3D stopped offering Retained Mode I haven't heard anyone use it except for a couple of articles about "immediate mode GUIs". Last time I saw one of those I had to look it up.

tellak 7y ago

The terms are in common use since the 80s at least (no, Microsoft did not invent these terms with D3D). You can prove this in google scholar. In fact for 3D rendering, retained mode was touted as a the new way forward, there was even a standard predating OpenGL called PHIGS, a retained mode system.. OpenGL was the worse is better (also PHIGS had many limitations basically limiting its use to CAD) backlash promoting its immediate mode in the early 90s.