Wiring Up GL_ARB_debug_output For Valve

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Wiring Up GL_ARB_debug_output For Valve

One of the requests that Valve has long had for Intel and the open-source Linux graphics drivers in general has been supporting GL_ARB_debug_output, an OpenGL extension that assists game/application developers in debugging and optimizing their code. Fortunately, support for this extension is finally being pursued aggressively within Mesa...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTMxMDM

[curaga]

With my dev hat on, getting output on stderr via an env var is infinitely more convenient than starting up a special debug context and wiring up a callback.

@intel folks:

Please say these changes don't break the existing usage and force the much-more-inconvenient method.

[uid313]

How about support in the AMD and the Nouvoue drivers?

[Kayden]

With my dev hat on, getting output on stderr via an env var is infinitely more convenient than starting up a special debug context and wiring up a callback.

@intel folks:

Please say these changes don't break the existing usage and force the much-more-inconvenient method.

Okay, I'll say it: these changes don't break the existing usage and force the much-more-inconvenient method.. :)

In all seriousness, though, INTEL_DEBUG=perf still works after this. With the environment variables set, you get output to stderr like before; in a debug context, you also get output via ARB_debug_output. Obviously, changing applications to use a debug context is a non-starter for driver developers...we don't get to change most applications.

How about support in the AMD and the Nouvoue drivers?

As far as I can tell, all the functionality is in Mesa core, so the developers of those drivers just need to start adding calls to _mesa_gl_debug(). Simple enough.