<p>Conceptually, a frame is the image you're trying to create, presumably for the purpose of display. It is the product of your entire rendering operation for a specific slice of time.</p>

<p>A "buffer" is the memory <em>for</em> the image you either are trying to create or have already created. Hence the common term: framebuffer. Indeed, the choice of the word "buffer" is because you are typically <em>buffering</em> multiple images. That is, one buffer will currently be in the process of being displayed, while another buffer is being rendered.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-11T01:49:34.977Z
2019-10-11T01:49:34.977Z
Nicol Bolas
<p><a href="https://www.glfw.org/docs/latest/quick.html#quick_swap_buffers" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here</a> I was reading about buffers and found such text: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>When the entire frame has been rendered, the buffers need to be swapped with one another, so the back buffer becomes the front buffer and vice versa.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>And also this </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The swap interval indicates how many frames to wait until swapping the buffers, commonly known as vsync.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The question is: what is a frame? And how does it differ from buffer?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-14T08:05:00.283Z
The "frame" will just refer to the image data while the "buffer" will be the memory used to store it,
Simon F
<opengl>
GLFW | What is a frame?
ibodi
# GLFW | What is a frame?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-10-10)

[Here](https://www.glfw.org/docs/latest/quick.html#quick_swap_buffers) I was reading about buffers and found such text:

> When the entire frame has been rendered, the buffers need to be swapped with one another, so the back buffer becomes the front buffer and vice versa.

And also this

> The swap interval indicates how many frames to wait until swapping the buffers, commonly known as vsync.

The question is: what is a frame? And how does it differ from buffer?

**Tags:** opengl

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The "frame" will just refer to the image data while the "buffer" will be the memory used to store it,  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-10-11. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Conceptually, a frame is the image you're trying to create, presumably for the purpose of display. It is the product of your entire rendering operation for a specific slice of time.

A "buffer" is the memory *for* the image you either are trying to create or have already created. Hence the common term: framebuffer. Indeed, the choice of the word "buffer" is because you are typically *buffering* multiple images. That is, one buffer will currently be in the process of being displayed, while another buffer is being rendered.


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