**apitrace** consists of a set of tools to:
-* trace OpenGL, D3D9, D3D8, D3D7, and DDRAW APIs calls to a file;
+* trace OpenGL, OpenGL ES, D3D9, D3D8, D3D7, and DDRAW APIs calls to a file;
-* retrace OpenGL calls from a file;
+* retrace OpenGL and OpenGL ES calls from a file;
* inspect OpenGL state at any call while retracing;
* visualize and edit trace files.
-Basic usage
-===========
+Obtaining **apitrace**
+======================
+
+To obtain apitrace either [download the latest
+binaries](https://github.com/apitrace/apitrace/downloads) for your platform if
+available, or follow the instructions in INSTALL.markdown to build it yourself.
+On 64bits Linux and Windows platforms you'll need apitrace binaries that match
+the architecture (32bits or 64bits) of the application being traced.
-Linux
------
+Basic usage
+===========
Run the application you want to trace as
- LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/glxtrace.so /path/to/application
+ apitrace trace --api API /path/to/application [args...]
and it will generate a trace named `application.trace` in the current
-directory. You can specify the written trace filename by setting the
-`TRACE_FILE` environment variable before running.
+directory. You can specify the written trace filename by passing the
+`--output` command line option.
+
+Problems while tracing (e.g, if the application uses calls/parameters
+unsupported by apitrace) will be reported via stderr output on Unices. On
+Windows you'll need to run
+[DebugView](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647) to view
+these messages.
+
+Follow the "Tracing manually" instructions below if you cannot obtain a trace.
View the trace with
- /path/to/tracedump --color application.trace | less -R
+ apitrace dump application.trace
-Replay the trace with
+Replay an OpenGL trace with
- /path/to/glretrace application.trace
+ glretrace application.trace
Pass the `-sb` option to use a single buffered visual. Pass `--help` to
glretrace for more options.
+
+Basic GUI usage
+===============
+
Start the GUI as
- /path/to/qapitrace application.trace
+ qapitrace application.trace
+
+You can also tell the GUI to go directly to a specific call
+
+ qapitrace application.trace 12345
+
+
+Advanced command line usage
+===========================
+
+
+Call sets
+---------
+
+Several tools take `CALLSET` arguments, e.g:
+
+ apitrace dump --calls CALLSET foo.trace
+ glretrace -S CALLSET foo.trace
+
+The call syntax is very flexible. Here are a few examples:
+
+ * `4` one call
+
+ * `1,2,4,5` set of calls
+
+ * `"1 2 4 5"` set of calls (commas are optional and can be replaced with whitespace)
+
+ * `1-100/2` calls 1, 3, 5, ..., 99
+
+ * `1-1000/draw` all draw calls between 1 and 1000
+
+ * `1-1000/fbo` all fbo changes between calls 1 and 1000
+
+ * `frame` all calls at end of frames
+
+ * `@foo.txt` read call numbers from `foo.txt`, using the same syntax as above
+
+
+
+Tracing manually
+----------------
+### Linux ###
+
+On 64 bits systems, you'll need to determine ether the application is 64 bits
+or 32 bits. This can be done by doing
+
+ file /path/to/application
+
+But beware of wrapper shell scripts -- what matters is the architecture of the
+main process.
+
+Run the application you want to trace as
+
+ LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers/glxtrace.so /path/to/application
+
+and it will generate a trace named `application.trace` in the current
+directory. You can specify the written trace filename by setting the
+`TRACE_FILE` environment variable before running.
The `LD_PRELOAD` mechanism should work with most applications. There are some
applications, e.g., Unigine Heaven, which global function pointers with the
to trace by using `glxtrace.so` as an ordinary `libGL.so` and injecting into
`LD_LIBRARY_PATH`:
- ln -s glxtrace.so libGL.so
- ln -s glxtrace.so libGL.so.1
- ln -s glxtrace.so libGL.so.1.2
- export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/directory/where/glxtrace/is:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+ ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so
+ ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so.1
+ ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so.1.2
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export TRACE_LIBGL=/path/to/real/libGL.so.1
/path/to/application
See the `ld.so` man page for more information about `LD_PRELOAD` and
`LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment flags.
+To trace the application inside gdb, invoke gdb as:
+ gdb --ex 'set exec-wrapper env LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/glxtrace.so' --args /path/to/application
-Mac OS X
---------
+### Mac OS X ###
-Usage on Mac OS X is similar to Linux above, except for the tracing procedure,
-which is instead:
+Run the application you want to trace as
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers /path/to/application
`DYLD_FORCE_FLAT_NAMESPACE=1` which breaks most applications. See the `dyld` man
page for more details about these environment flags.
+### Windows ###
-Windows
--------
+When tracing third-party applications, you can identify the target
+application's main executable, either by:
-* Copy `opengl32.dll`, `d3d8.dll`, or `d3d9.dll` from build/wrappers directory
- to the directory with the application you want to trace.
+* right clicking on the application's icon in the _Start Menu_, choose
+ _Properties_, and see the _Target_ field;
-* Run the application.
+* or by starting the application, run Windows Task Manager (taskmgr.exe), right
+ click on the application name in the _Applications_ tab, choose _Go To Process_,
+ note the highlighted _Image Name_, and search it on `C:\Program Files` or
+ `C:\Program Files (x86)`.
-* View the trace with
+On 64 bits Windows, you'll need to determine ether the application is a 64 bits
+or 32 bits. 32 bits applications will have a `*32` suffix in the _Image Name_
+column of the _Processes_ tab of _Windows Task Manager_ window.
- \path\to\tracedump application.trace
+Copy the appropriate `opengl32.dll`, `d3d8.dll`, or `d3d9.dll` from the
+wrappers directory to the directory with the application you want to trace.
+Then run the application as usual.
-* Replay the trace with
-
- \path\to\glretrace application.trace
-
-
-Advanced command line usage
-===========================
+You can specify the written trace filename by setting the `TRACE_FILE`
+environment variable before running.
-Emitting annotations to the trace from GL applications
-------------------------------------------------------
+Emitting annotations to the trace
+---------------------------------
-You can emit string and frame annotations through the
+From OpenGL applications you can embed annotations in the trace file through the
[`GL_GREMEDY_string_marker`](http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/GREMEDY/string_marker.txt)
and
[`GL_GREMEDY_frame_terminator`](http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/GREMEDY/frame_terminator.txt)
This has the added advantage of working equally well with gDEBugger.
+From OpenGL ES applications you can embed annotations in the trace file through the
+[`GL_EXT_debug_marker`](http://www.khronos.org/registry/gles/extensions/EXT/EXT_debug_marker.txt)
+extension.
+
+
+For Direct3D applications you can follow the same procedure used for
+[instrumenting an application for PIX](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/query/ee417250)
+
+
Dump GL state at a particular call
----------------------------------
You can get a dump of the bound GL state at call 12345 by doing:
- /path/to/glretrace -D 12345 application.trace > 12345.json
+ glretrace -D 12345 application.trace > 12345.json
This is precisely the mechanism the GUI obtains its own state.
-You can compare two state dumps with the jsondiff.py script:
+You can compare two state dumps by doing:
- ./scripts/jsondiff.py 12345.json 67890.json
+ apitrace diff-state 12345.json 67890.json
Comparing two traces side by side
---------------------------------
- ./scripts/tracediff.sh trace1.trace trace2.trace
+ apitrace diff trace1.trace trace2.trace
This works only on Unices, and it will truncate the traces due to performance
limitations.
You can make a video of the output by doing
- /path/to/glretrace -s - application.trace \
+ glretrace -s - application.trace \
| ffmpeg -r 30 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm -i pipe: -vcodec mpeg4 -y output.mp4
+Triming a trace
+---------------
+
+You can make a smaller trace by doing:
+
+ apitrace trim --callset 100-1000 -o trimed.trace applicated.trace
+
+If you need precise control over which calls to trim you can specify the
+individual call numbers a plaintext file, as described in the 'Call sets'
+section above.
+
+
Advanced usage for OpenGL implementors
======================================
* obtain a trace
-* obtain reference snapshots, by doing:
-
- mkdir /path/to/snapshots/
- /path/to/glretrace -s /path/to/reference/snapshots/ application.trace
+* obtain reference snapshots, by doing on a reference system:
- on reference system.
+ mkdir /path/to/reference/snapshots/
+ glretrace -s /path/to/reference/snapshots/ application.trace
* prune the snapshots which are not interesting
* to do a regression test, do:
- /path/to/glretrace -c /path/to/reference/snapshots/ application.trace
+ glretrace -c /path/to/reference/snapshots/ application.trace
- Alternatively, for a HTML summary, use the snapdiff script:
+ Alternatively, for a HTML summary, use `apitrace diff-images`:
- /path/to/glretrace -s /path/to/current/snapshots/ application.trace
- ./scripts/snapdiff.py --output summary.html /path/to/reference/snapshots/ /path/to/current/snapshots/
+ glretrace -s /path/to/test/snapshots/ application.trace
+ apitrace diff-images --output summary.html /path/to/reference/snapshots/ /path/to/test/snapshots/
Automated git-bisection
This can be achieved with retracediff.py script, which invokes glretrace with
different environments, allowing to choose the desired GL driver by
-manipulating variables such as `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` or `LIBGL_DRIVERS_DIR`.
+manipulating variables such as `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`, `LIBGL_DRIVERS_DIR`, or
+`TRACE_LIBGL`.
-For example:
+For example, on Linux:
./scripts/retracediff.py \
--ref-env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/reference/GL/implementation \
- -r ./glretrace \
+ --retrace /path/to/glretrace \
--diff-prefix=/path/to/output/diffs \
application.trace
+Or on Windows:
+
+ python scripts\retracediff.py --retrace \path\to\glretrace.exe --ref-env TRACE_LIBGL=\path\to\reference\opengl32.dll application.trace
Links
* [D3DSpy](http://doc.51windows.net/Directx9_SDK/?url=/directx9_sdk/graphics/programmingguide/TutorialsAndSamplesAndToolsAndTips/Tools/D3DSpy.htm): the predecessor of PIX
+* [NVIDIA PerfKit](http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-perfkit)
+
* [AMD GPU PerfStudio](http://developer.amd.com/gpu/PerfStudio/pages/APITraceWindow.aspx)
+* [Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers](http://www.intel.com/software/gpa/)
+
OpenGL
------
* [tracy](https://gitorious.org/tracy): OpenGL ES and OpenVG trace, retrace, and state inspection
+* [WebGL-Inspector](http://benvanik.github.com/WebGL-Inspector/)
+
Closed-source:
-* [gDEBugger](http://www.gremedy.com/products.php)
+* [gDEBugger](http://www.gremedy.com/products.php) and [AMD gDEBugger](http://developer.amd.com/tools/gDEBugger/Pages/default.aspx)
* [glslDevil](http://cumbia.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/glsldevil/index.html)