Question

I can’t figure out how to use the GLKView:snapshot method.

I’m using a GLKView to render some OpenGL stuff. It all works; seems like I have it all set up correctly.

But, when I try to do a snapshot, it fails: I get a null return value, and the following log message:

Error: CGImageCreate: invalid image size: 0 x 0.

Seems like this would mean the view itself is invalid for some reason, but it’s not — everything is working, aside from this.

I’ve looked at a few code samples, and I’m not doing anything different.

So… anyone seen this before? Ideas?

Answer 1

I never figured out the above problem; however, I found an excellent workaround. I found this chunk which just reads the render buffer and saves it to a UIImage. Problem solved!

- (UIImage*)snapshotRenderBuffer {

    // Bind the color renderbuffer used to render the OpenGL ES view
    // If your application only creates a single color renderbuffer which is already bound at this point, 
    // this call is redundant, but it is needed if you're dealing with multiple renderbuffers.
    // Note, replace "_colorRenderbuffer" with the actual name of the renderbuffer object defined in your class.
    glBindRenderbufferOES(GL_RENDERBUFFER_OES, viewRenderbuffer);

    NSInteger dataLength = backingWidth * backingHeight * 4;
    GLubyte *data = (GLubyte*)malloc(dataLength * sizeof(GLubyte));

    // Read pixel data from the framebuffer
    glPixelStorei(GL_PACK_ALIGNMENT, 4);
    glReadPixels(0.0f, 0.0f, backingWidth, backingHeight, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, data);

    // Create a CGImage with the pixel data
    // If your OpenGL ES content is opaque, use kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast to ignore the alpha channel
    // otherwise, use kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast
    CGDataProviderRef ref = CGDataProviderCreateWithData(NULL, data, dataLength, NULL);
    CGColorSpaceRef colorspace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    CGImageRef iref = CGImageCreate(
                                    backingWidth, backingHeight, 8, 32, backingWidth * 4, colorspace, 
                                    kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big | kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast,
                                    ref, NULL, true, kCGRenderingIntentDefault);

    // (sayeth abd)
    // This creates a context with the device pixel dimensions -- not points. 
    // To be compatible with all devices, you're meant to keep everything as points and a scale factor;  but,
    // this gives us a scaled down image for purposes of saving.  So, keep everything in device resolution,
    // and worry about it later...
    UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(CGSizeMake(backingWidth, backingHeight), NO, 0.0f);
    CGContextRef cgcontext = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();
    CGContextSetBlendMode(cgcontext, kCGBlendModeCopy);
    CGContextDrawImage(cgcontext, CGRectMake(0.0, 0.0, backingWidth, backingHeight), iref);

    // Retrieve the UIImage from the current context
    UIImage *image = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();

    UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

    // Clean up
    free(data);

    return image;
}