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- Step-by-step debugging guide
- Debugging/Getting traces

VOGL is a tool created by Valve Software and RAD Game Tools for OpenGL debugging. It is able to capture, replay and inspect OpenGL call tracefiles.

## Installation

The development version is available as vogl-gitAUR.

## Capturing a tracefile

To obtain a tracefile, run the following command.

    $ VOGL_CMD_LINE="--vogl_debug --vogl_dump_stats --vogl_tracefile /tmp/vogltrace.bin" LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libvogltrace64.so command

Where `command` is the command to launch your OpenGL application. Your tracefile will be created in your `/tmp` directory.

Warning: These files get big very fast. 1–2 minutes result in about 1GB of captured calls.

VOGL ships with various OpenGL samples that can be used for testing in its sources. These are not part of the package but they can be built manually. You can also grab the latest OpenGL samples from the OpenGL Samples Pack or from OpenGL SuperBible.

## Trimming the tracefile

If you want to create a smaller tracefile from your captured trace containing X amount of frames starting at frame Y, use

    $ voglreplay64 original_trace.bin --trim_file trimmed_trace.bin --trim_len X --trim_frame Y

## Replaying the tracefile

To replay your trace, launch the voglreplayer from within your vogl directory:

    $ voglreplay64 /tmp/vogltrace.bin

To get verbose debugging output for your trace:

    $ voglreplay64 --debug --verbose vogltrace.bin

To get GL call and extension statistics:

    $ voglreplay64 --info vogltrace.bin

## Inspecting the tracefile

Launch the vogleditor binary and open the `tracefile.bin` with the File - Open Trace menu.

    $ vogleditor64

## Limitations

See https://richg42.blogspot.it/2014/03/current-vogl-limitations.html.

Categories:

- Development
- Graphics