What can we use instead of blending in OpenGL ES?

I am doing my iPhone graphics using OpenGL. In one of my projects, I need to use an image, which I need to use as a texture in OpenGL. The .png image is 512 * 512 in size, its background is transparent, and the image has a thick blue line in its center.

When I apply my image to a polygon in OpenGL, the texture appears as if the transparent part in the image is black and the thick blue line is seen as itself. In order to remove the black part, I used blending:

glEnable(GL_BLEND);
glBlendFunc(GL_ONE, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);

Then my black part of the texture in the polygon is removed. Now only the blue band is seen. Thus the problem is solved.

But I want to add many such images and make many objects in OpenGL. I am able to do that, but the frame rate is very low when I add more and more images to objects. But when I comment out blending, the frame rate is normal, but the image开发者_运维技巧s are not seen.

Since I do not have good fps, the graphics are a bit slow and I get a shaky effect.

So:

1) Is there any other method than blending to solve my problem?

2) How can I improve the frame rate of my OpenGL app? What all steps need to be taken in order to implement my graphics properly?

If you want to have transparent parts of an object, the only way is to blend to pixel data for the triangle with what is currently in the buffer (what you are currently doing). Normally, when using solid textures, the new pixel data for a triangle just overwrites what ever was in buffer (as long as it is closers, ie z-buffer). But with transparency, it has start looking at the transparency of that part of the texture, look at what is behind it, all the way back to something solid. Then has combine all of those over lapping layers of transparent stuff till you get the final image.

If all you are wanting your transparency for is something like a simple tree sprite, and removing the 'stuff' form the sides of the trunk etc. Then you may be better of providing more complex geometry that actually defines the shape of the trunk and thus not need to bother with transparency.

Sadly, I don't think there is much you can do to try to speed up your FPS, other then cut down the amount of transparency you are calculating. Maybe even adding some optimization that checks images to see if it can turn of alpha blending for this image or not. Depending on how much you are trying to push through, may save time in the long wrong.