arch-wiki-md-repo/wiki/_content/english/VOGL.md

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Related articles

*   [Step-by-step debugging guide](/index.php/Step-by-step_debugging_guide "Step-by-step debugging guide")
*   [Debug - Getting Traces](/index.php/Debug_-_Getting_Traces "Debug - Getting Traces")

[VOGL](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/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.

## Contents

*   [1 Installation](#Installation)
*   [2 Capturing a tracefile](#Capturing_a_tracefile)
*   [3 Trimming the tracefile](#Trimming_the_tracefile)
*   [4 Replaying the tracefile](#Replaying_the_tracefile)
*   [5 Inspecting the tracefile](#Inspecting_the_tracefile)
*   [6 Limitations](#Limitations)

## Installation

The development version [vogl-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/vogl-git/) is available on the [AUR](/index.php/AUR "AUR").

To capture and debug 32-Bit applications you need libvogltrace32.so, voglreplay32 and vogleditor32 from [lib32-vogl-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/lib32-vogl-git/).

## 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](http://ogl-samples.g-truc.net/) or from [OpenGL SuperBible](http://www.openglsuperbible.com/).

## 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

Read about the limitations on this [blog post.](http://richg42.blogspot.it/2014/03/current-vogl-limitations.html)