* retrace OpenGL calls from a file;
-* visualize trace files, and inspect state.
+* inspect OpenGL state at any call while retracing;
+
+* visualize and edit trace files.
Basic usage
===========
-Linux
------
+Linux and Mac OS X
+------------------
Run the application you want to trace as
- LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/glxtrace.so /path/to/application
+ /path/to/apitrace trace /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
View the trace with
- /path/to/tracedump application.trace | less -R
+ /path/to/apitrace dump --color application.trace | less -R
Replay the trace with
/path/to/qapitrace application.trace
+Windows
+-------
+
+* Copy `opengl32.dll`, `d3d8.dll`, or `d3d9.dll` from build/wrappers directory
+ to the directory with the application you want to trace.
+
+* Run the application.
+
+* View the trace with
+
+ \path\to\apitrace dump application.trace
+
+* Replay the trace with
+
+ \path\to\glretrace application.trace
+
+
+Advanced command line usage
+===========================
+
+
+Tracing manually
+----------------
+
+### Linux ###
+
+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
same name as GL entrypoints, living in a shared object that wasn't linked with
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.
+### 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
page for more details about these environment flags.
-Windows
--------
-
-* Copy `opengl32.dll`, `d3d8.dll`, or `d3d9.dll` from build/wrappers directory
- to the directory with the application you want to trace.
-
-* Run the application.
-
-* View the trace with
+Emitting annotations to the trace from GL applications
+------------------------------------------------------
- \path\to\tracedump application.trace
+You can emit string and frame annotations 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)
+GL extensions.
-* Replay the trace with
+**apitrace** will advertise and intercept these GL extensions independently of
+the GL implementation. So all you have to do is to use these extensions when
+available.
- \path\to\glretrace application.trace
+For example, if you use [GLEW](http://glew.sourceforge.net/) to dynamically
+detect and use GL extensions, you could easily accomplish this by doing:
+ void foo() {
+
+ if (GLEW_GREMEDY_string_marker) {
+ glStringMarkerGREMEDY(0, __FUNCTION__ ": enter");
+ }
+
+ ...
+
+ if (GLEW_GREMEDY_string_marker) {
+ glStringMarkerGREMEDY(0, __FUNCTION__ ": leave");
+ }
+
+ }
-Advanced command line usage
-===========================
+This has the added advantage of working equally well with gDEBugger.
Dump GL state at a particular call
Advanced usage for OpenGL implementors
======================================
-There are several avanced usage examples meant for OpenGL implementors.
+There are several advanced usage examples meant for OpenGL implementors.
Regression testing
------------------
-These are the steps to create a regression testsuite around apitrace:
+These are the steps to create a regression test-suite around **apitrace**:
* obtain a trace
The `--gl-renderer` option will also cause a commit to be skipped if the
`GL_RENDERER` is unexpected (e.g., when a software renderer or another GL
-driver is unintentianlly loaded due to missing symbol in the DRI driver, or
+driver is unintentionally loaded due to missing symbol in the DRI driver, or
another runtime fault).
very inefficient for big traces with many draw calls.
A faster approach is to run both the bad and a good GL driver side-by-side.
-The latter can be either a preivously known good build of the GL driver, or a
+The latter can be either a previously known good build of the GL driver, or a
reference software renderer.
This can be achieved with retracediff.py script, which invokes glretrace with
projects / apitrace / blobdiff