How to take screenshot in OpenGL
Solution 1:
This piece of code captures the OpenGL window and export to a BMP file. You must have FreeImage library to run it.
// Make the BYTE array, factor of 3 because it's RBG.
BYTE* pixels = new BYTE[3 * width * height];
glReadPixels(0, 0, width, height, GL_RGB, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, pixels);
// Convert to FreeImage format & save to file
FIBITMAP* image = FreeImage_ConvertFromRawBits(pixels, width, height, 3 * width, 24, 0x0000FF, 0xFF0000, 0x00FF00, false);
FreeImage_Save(FIF_BMP, image, "C:/test.bmp", 0);
// Free resources
FreeImage_Unload(image);
delete [] pixels;
Solution 2:
glReadPixels will copy the bits into a memory buffer that you supply. You have to manually format the data (to the image format of your choice) and write it to disk after glReadPixels returns.
Solution 3:
Runnable example
Each time you click with the mouse on the window, a tmpX.ppm
file is created with the current screenshot.
You can view this file for example with eog
on Linux, and inspect it with a text editor.
To render without showing a window, see: How to use GLUT/OpenGL to render to a file?
#include <math.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define GL_GLEXT_PROTOTYPES 1
#include <GL/gl.h>
#include <GL/glu.h>
#include <GL/glut.h>
#include <GL/glext.h>
static GLubyte *pixels = NULL;
static const GLenum FORMAT = GL_RGBA;
static const GLuint FORMAT_NBYTES = 4;
static const unsigned int HEIGHT = 500;
static const unsigned int WIDTH = 500;
static unsigned int nscreenshots = 0;
static unsigned int time;
/* Model. */
static double angle = 0;
static double angle_speed = 45;
static void init(void) {
glReadBuffer(GL_BACK);
glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
glPixelStorei(GL_PACK_ALIGNMENT, 1);
glViewport(0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
glLoadIdentity();
glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
pixels = malloc(FORMAT_NBYTES * WIDTH * HEIGHT);
time = glutGet(GLUT_ELAPSED_TIME);
}
static void deinit(void) {
free(pixels);
}
static void create_ppm(char *prefix, int frame_id, unsigned int width, unsigned int height,
unsigned int color_max, unsigned int pixel_nbytes, GLubyte *pixels) {
size_t i, j, k, cur;
enum Constants { max_filename = 256 };
char filename[max_filename];
snprintf(filename, max_filename, "%s%d.ppm", prefix, frame_id);
FILE *f = fopen(filename, "w");
fprintf(f, "P3\n%d %d\n%d\n", width, HEIGHT, 255);
for (i = 0; i < height; i++) {
for (j = 0; j < width; j++) {
cur = pixel_nbytes * ((height - i - 1) * width + j);
fprintf(f, "%3d %3d %3d ", pixels[cur], pixels[cur + 1], pixels[cur + 2]);
}
fprintf(f, "\n");
}
fclose(f);
}
static void draw_scene() {
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
glLoadIdentity();
glRotatef(angle, 0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f);
glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES);
glColor3f(1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);
glVertex3f( 0.0f, 0.5f, 0.0f);
glColor3f(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);
glVertex3f(-0.5f, -0.5f, 0.0f);
glColor3f(0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f);
glVertex3f( 0.5f, -0.5f, 0.0f);
glEnd();
}
static void display(void) {
draw_scene();
glutSwapBuffers();
glReadPixels(0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT, FORMAT, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, pixels);
}
static void idle(void) {
int new_time = glutGet(GLUT_ELAPSED_TIME);
angle += angle_speed * (new_time - time) / 1000.0;
angle = fmod(angle, 360.0);
time = new_time;
glutPostRedisplay();
}
void mouse(int button, int state, int x, int y) {
if (state == GLUT_DOWN) {
puts("screenshot");
create_ppm("tmp", nscreenshots, WIDTH, HEIGHT, 255, FORMAT_NBYTES, pixels);
nscreenshots++;
}
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
GLint glut_display;
glutInit(&argc, argv);
glutInitWindowSize(WIDTH, HEIGHT);
glutInitWindowPosition(100, 100);
glutInitDisplayMode(GLUT_DOUBLE | GLUT_RGBA);
glutCreateWindow(argv[0]);
init();
glutDisplayFunc(display);
glutIdleFunc(idle);
glutMouseFunc(mouse);
atexit(deinit);
glutMainLoop();
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
Compile with:
gcc main.c -lm -lGL -lGLU -lglut
Tested on Ubuntu 15.10, OpenGL 4.5.0 NVIDIA 352.63.
Vulkan
This example just worked: https://github.com/SaschaWillems/Vulkan/blob/b9f0ac91d2adccc3055a904d3a8f6553b10ff6cd/examples/screenshot/screenshot.cpp how to run it: Is it possible to do offscreen rendering without Surface in Vulkan?