When are .dot files created

[tgfrerer]

via: #18 (comment)

While working on le_video, I noticed that a new .dot file is generated in every frame and spamming the output. is this the intended behaviour or did I somehow change the internal system so it thinks it needs to recreate the viz?

[tgfrerer]

What are .dot files?

.dot files contain a visual representation of the current rendergraph. You can convert a .dot file into a PDF using the dot command line utility on a linux machine. There is also a very convenient plug-in for Visual Studio Code which allows you to preview a .dot file directly.

When are .dot files generated?

.dot files are generated for Debug applications by default as soon as the le_renderer detects a change in the Rendergraph.
In some cases, this can lead to .dot files being generated for every frame, e.g. in case there is a ping-pong scenario where the rendergraph oscillates between two (or more) states.

How disable .dot file generation

If you don't want to generate .dot files for a particular app you can add the following line to the app's CMakeLists.txt file (meaning the CMake file which is in the same directory as your app's main.cpp):

add_compile_definitions(DEBUG_GENERATE_DOT_GRAPH=false)

This should sit just above the line setting your application PROJECT_NAME.

[underdoeg]

FYI on linux you can also use graphUI to view the plot files https://github.com/artemanufrij/graphui

[tgfrerer]

Update: as of 0.7.0, dot files are generated whenever the associated LE_SETTING is > 0.

• For queue sync .dot files, the LE_SETTING is: LE_SETTING_GENERATE_QUEUE_SYNC_DOT_FILES
• For rendergraph .dot filer, the LE_SETTING is: LE_SETTING_RENDERGRAPH_GENERATE_DOT_FILES

Whenever a .dot file is generated, the corresponding LE_SETTING is decremented by the backend.

To tell the backend to create a .dot file, do this (for example as a response to a key press):

LE_SETTING( uint32_t, LE_SETTING_GENERATE_QUEUE_SYNC_DOT_FILES, 0 ); // make setting available	
*LE_SETTING_GENERATE_QUEUE_SYNC_DOT_FILES = 1; // set setting to 1

You can set LE_SETTING_GENERATE_QUEUE_SYNC_DOT_FILES to 10 if you want to create .dot files for the next 10 frames.