Many other functions and rendering primitives were removed in version 1.0 to produce a lightweight interface, including: Attributes were also added to better support the computational abilities of embedded processors, which often lack a floating point unit (FPU). Other significant differences are that the calling semantics for primitive rendering functions were changed in favor of vertex arrays, and fixed-point data types were introduced for vertex coordinates.

One significant difference between OpenGL and OpenGL ES is that OpenGL ES removed the need to bracket OpenGL library calls with glBegin and glEnd. OpenGL ES 1.0 is based on the original OpenGL 1.3 API, with much functionality removed and a little bit added.

OpenGL ES 1.0 was released publicly July 28, 2003. Version 1.0 and 1.1 both have common (CM) and common lite (CL) profiles, the difference being that the common lite profile only supports fixed-point instead of floating point data type support, whereas common supports both. OpenGL ES comes with its own version of shading language (OpenGL ES SL), which is different from OpenGL SL. This means that, for example, an application written for OpenGL ES 1.0 should be easily portable to the desktop OpenGL 1.3 as the OpenGL ES is a stripped-down version of the API, the reverse may or may not be true, depending on the particular features used. OpenGL ES 1.0 is drawn up against the OpenGL 1.3 specification, OpenGL ES 1.1 is defined relative to the OpenGL 1.5 specification and OpenGL ES 2.0 is defined relative to the OpenGL 2.0 specification. Several versions of the OpenGL ES specification now exist. Vulkan, a next-generation API from Khronos, is made for simpler high performance drivers for mobile and desktop devices. OpenGL ES is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group. The GLU library and the original GLUT are not available for OpenGL ES, freeglut however, supports it.

The API is cross-language and multi-platform. OpenGL ES is the 'most widely deployed 3D graphics API in history'. It is designed for embedded systems like smartphones, tablet computers, video game consoles and PDAs. OpenGL for Embedded Systems ( OpenGL ES or GLES) is a subset of the OpenGL computer graphics rendering application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics such as those used by video games, typically hardware-accelerated using a graphics processing unit (GPU).

Opengl es 2.0 shader 3d object