glMultiDrawElements

glMultiDrawElements: man2/glMultiDrawElements.xml

glMultiDrawElements specifies multiple sets of geometric primitives with very few subroutine calls. Instead of calling a GL function to pass each individual vertex, normal, texture coordinate, edge flag, or color, you can prespecify separate arrays of vertices, normals, and so on, and use them to construct a sequence of primitives with a single call to glMultiDrawElements. glMultiDrawElements is identical in operation to glDrawElements except that primcount separate lists of elements are specified. Vertex attributes that are modified by glMultiDrawElements have an unspecified value after glMultiDrawElements returns. For example, if GL_COLOR_ARRAY is enabled, the value of the current color is undefined after glMultiDrawElements executes. Attributes that aren't modified maintain their previous values.

glMultiDrawElements is available only if the GL version is 1.4 or greater. glMultiDrawElements is included in display lists. If glMultiDrawElements is entered into a display list, the necessary array data (determined by the array pointers and enables) is also entered into the display list. Because the array pointers and enables are client-side state, their values affect display lists when the lists are created, not when the lists are executed.