OpenGL: Best rendering method for terrain which texture coordinates changes in real time?

Question

I need to render in real time rendered animations for my terrain textures; what is the best rendering method for doing this? the animation is done by adjusting the texture coordinates.

I have a pre-built array for all of the animation frames texture coordinates, is there some way to make animations faster to render if you let opengl know all the animation frames or smthing?

Also the terrain polygon positions may change in almost real time... It's not a heightmap. and i would like to render only a part of the terrain at once with for loop or something.

Currently im using display lists, and updating them is very slow... but rendering them is fastest what i tried so far.

Answer 1

Display lists and other non-GPU methods will always be slow. You should try reading on Vertex Buffer Objects/Arrays.

Already even this NeHe tutorial, will give you a significant speed boost.

Generally a speed comparison would be :

direct calls < display lists < vertex arrays < vertex buffer objects

The second jump in speed (DL's vs. VA's) however is BIG.