Immediate mode (computer graphics)

Not to be confused with direct mode.

Immediate mode rendering is a style for application programming interfaces of graphics libraries, in which client calls directly cause rendering of graphics objects to the display. It does not preclude the use of double-buffering. In contrast to retained mode, lists of objects to be rendered are not saved by the API library. Instead, the application must re-issue all drawing commands required to describe the entire scene each time a new frame is required, regardless of actual changes. This method provides the maximum amount of control and flexibility to the application program.

Although drawing commands have to be re-issued for each new frame, modern systems using this method are generally able to avoid the unnecessary duplication of more memory-intensive display data by referring to that unchanging data (e.g. textures and vertex buffers) in the drawing commands.

See also

• Display list
• Retained mode, usually contrasted with immediate mode
• Scene graph