What is "immediate mode"

n. (context computer graphics English) A mode in which the application is directly responsible for rendering graphics to the display, contrasting with retained 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, or in which the data to describe rendering primitives is inserted frame by frame directly into a command list (in the case of ), without the use of extensive indirection to retained resources. 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.