glReadPixels giving garbage

Hello board,

I’ve been trying to figure out this bug for a couple days now, so any ideas or even inklings are greatly appreciated! It’s a long post, but it’s a pretty stripped down and simple program I’m describing.

Basically, the data I’m getting from glReadPixels() is not what I’m expecting (so the problem could really be anywhere in my program!).  I’ve tried to simplify the program as much as possible to just isolate this problem.

My shaders look like this:

Code:

// Fragment shader
// Every pixel is given arbitrary color vector 0x9F109F10
void main (void)
{
    gl_FragColor = vec4(0.0625, 0.625, 0.0625, 0.625);
};


// Vertex shader
attribute highp vec4 vPosition;

void main(void)
{
    gl_Position = vPosition;
}


I have a VBO that contains the vertex positions so that a square is drawn that covers the entire viewport on every render pass.
Code:

GLfloat vertices[] = { -1.0f, -1.0f, 0.0f,
                             1.0f , -1.0f, 0.0f,
                             1.0f ,  1.0f, 0.0f,
                             -1.0f,  1.0f, 0.0f,
};

// Generate the vertex buffer object (VBO)
glGenBuffers(1, vboPtr);

// Bind the VBO so we can fill it with data
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, *vboPtr);

// Set the buffer's data
unsigned int size = 4 * (sizeof(GLfloat) * 3);
glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, size, vertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW);

// Unbind the buffer
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0);


And drawing the VBO consists of:
Code:

glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
glEnableVertexAttribArray(0);
   
glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0);
   
glBindAttribLocation(program, 0, "vPosition");
   
glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLE_FAN, 0, 4);
glDisableVertexAttribArray(0);
   
glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0);


I'm also using an FBO and doing render-to-texture.

My viewport is set as glViewport(0, 0, IN_WIDTH, IN_WIDTH) where IN_WIDTH is a constant (currently set to 8).

After doing one render pass, I use glReadPixels to inspect the output.
Code:

unsigned int data[IN_WIDTH * IN_WIDTH];
glReadPixels(0, 0, IN_WIDTH, IN_WIDTH, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, data);

// Init data to 0xEE so I can tell if data's been written to
memset(data, 0xEE, sizeof(unsigned int) * IN_WIDTH * IN_WIDTH);

for (idx = 0;  idx < IN_WIDTH * IN_WIDTH; idx++)
{
    printf("output[%d] = %08Xn", idx, data[idx]);
}


The expected output would be this:
output[0] = 9F109F10
output[1] = 9F109F10
...
output[63] = 9F109F10

But the actual output is this:
output[0] = 9F109F10
output[1] = 9F109F10
output[2] = 9F109F10
output[3] = 9F109F10
output[4] = 9F109F10
output[5] = 9F109F10
output[6] = 9F109F10
output[7] = 9F109F10

output[8] = 40BBD000
output[9] = 00001000
output[10] = 40BBE000
output[11] = 00001000
output[12] = 40BBF000
output[13] = 00001000
output[14] = 40BC0000
output[15] = 00001000
output[16] = 40BC1000
output[17] = 00001000
output[18] = 40BC2000
output[19] = 00001000
output[20] = 40BC3000
output[21] = 00001000
output[22] = 40BC4000
output[23] = 00001000
output[24] = 40BC5000
output[25] = 00001000
output[26] = 40BC6000
output[27] = 00001000
output[28] = 40BC7000
output[29] = 00001000
output[30] = 40BC8000
output[31] = 00001000
output[32] = 9F109F10
output[33] = 9F109F10
output[34] = 9F109F10
output[35] = 9F109F10
output[36] = 9F109F10
output[37] = 9F109F10
output[38] = 9F109F10
output[39] = 9F109F10

output[40] = 40D4E000
output[41] = 00021000
output[42] = 40D6F000
output[43] = 00001000
output[44] = 40D70000
output[45] = 00011000
output[46] = 40D81000
output[47] = 00011000
output[48] = 40D92000
output[49] = 00001000
output[50] = 40D93000
output[51] = 00001000
output[52] = 40D94000
output[53] = 00001000
output[54] = 40D95000
output[55] = 00001000
output[56] = 40D96000
output[57] = 00001000
output[58] = 40D97000
output[59] = 00001000
output[60] = 40D98000
output[61] = 00001000
output[62] = 40D99000
output[63] = 00002000

I've bolded the two sections where the output is actually correct.  The rest of it just seems to be garbage. 

Any ideas?

Thank you!

What implementation are you running on? If PC emulation, please also specify the graphics card and drivers.





Surely the memset call is supposed to take place before glReadPixels?


I’m running with an SGX 530 on the OMAP 3530.  If I run the code in PC emulation, everything works fine and I don’t have this problem.

And whoops, the memset actually does take place before glReadPixels. I just messed up when copying that part over.

I wonder if this could have something to do with my EGL setup? When I set everything up, there are no EGL errors and everything seems to run fine (the EGL code is virtually copied verbatim from the example code in the Linux emulation SDK).  But sometimes when I check eglGetError() in the middle of all this OpenGLES stuff, I get the error code EGL_BAD_DISPLAY.  I can’t reproduce this at will, and my code currently isn’t doing it, but sometimes if I just change one little thing or the place where I query the error, it appears.  Again, when I’m initializing all the EGL stuff I don’t get any errors – and I explicitly compare the return value from eglGetDisplay() with EGL_NO_DISPLAY, and it never reports any problems.

Also possibly worth noting: If I disable the FBO, I get these results:
output[0] = FF109E10
output[1] = FF109E10
output[2] = FF109E10
output[3] = FF109E10
output[4] = FF109E10
output[5] = FF109E10
output[6] = FF109E10
output[7] = FF109E10
output[8] = FF109E10
output[9] = FF10A210
output[10] = FF109E10
output[11] = FF10A210
output[12] = FF109E10
output[13] = FF10A210
output[14] = FF109E10
output[15] = FF10A210
output[16] = FF109E10
output[17] = FF109E10
output[18] = FF109E10
output[19] = FF109E10
output[20] = FF109E10
output[21] = FF109E10
output[22] = FF109E10
output[23] = FF109E10
output[24] = FF109E10
output[25] = FF10A210
output[26] = FF109E10
output[27] = FF10A210
output[28] = FF109E10
output[29] = FF10A210
output[30] = FF109E10
output[31] = FF10A210
output[32] = FF109E10
output[33] = FF109E10
output[34] = FF109E10
output[35] = FF109E10
output[36] = FF109E10
output[37] = FF109E10
output[38] = FF109E10
output[39] = FF109E10
output[40] = FF109E10
output[41] = FF10A210
output[42] = FF109E10
output[43] = FF10A210
output[44] = FF109E10
output[45] = FF10A210
output[46] = FF109E10
output[47] = FF10A210
output[48] = FF109E10
output[49] = FF109E10
output[50] = FF109E10
output[51] = FF109E10
output[52] = FF109E10
output[53] = FF109E10
output[54] = FF109E10
output[55] = FF109E10
output[56] = FF109E10
output[57] = FF10A210
output[58] = FF109E10
output[59] = FF10A210
output[60] = FF109E10
output[61] = FF10A210
output[62] = FF109E10
output[63] = FF10A210

They feel kind of correct in that the red and blue components are always right, but the green is off and not consistent.  (I’m using a RGB UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_6_5 configuration, which may explain some of that).

In any case, I’d rather use an FBO anyway.

Thanks!

The values are expected since the hardware uses dithering when rendering to an RGB565 surface (9E and A2 are the two closest values representable in 6 bits per channel, expanded to 8 bits).





The FBO result certainly seems odd. What is the size of the texture you are rendering to?

My texture size is 8 x 8.

Code:

glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA,
                 IN_WIDTH, IN_WIDTH, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, data);


I've tried changing the value of IN_WIDTH, and the problem seems to be the same -- in every case, the first IN_WIDTH bytes returned by glReadPixels() (ie, the first row) are always correct, but then the bizarre stuff follows.

I believe the texture is actually being written to correctly because I've done tests where each render pass does an addition reduction, and I get the correct result in the end.  So I think it's just a problem with reading multiple rows correctly with glReadPixels().

I'm pretty new to this stuff, so I'm not sure how my EGL configuration might affect FBOs. I used the same technique as the sample code in the SDK used for selecting a config.  So, my on-screen rendering is done using the 5-6-5 format (even though I specify GL_RGBA and GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE in the texture definition and in glReadPixels), but does that apply to off-screen rendering?  Could it be a problem that I'm specifying GL_RGBA/GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE which is in conflict with the EGL config?

Thanks for all your help, Georg!

Hi, sorry for the late answer.





j_jiffer wrote:
I've tried changing the value of IN_WIDTH, and the problem seems to be the same -- in every case, the first IN_WIDTH bytes returned by glReadPixels() (ie, the first row) are always correct, but then the bizarre stuff follows.

Can you give us more details, what values did you try, and is there always the same amount of garbage between rows?



Quote:
I'm pretty new to this stuff, so I'm not sure how my EGL configuration might affect FBOs. I used the same technique as the sample code in the SDK used for selecting a config. So, my on-screen rendering is done using the 5-6-5 format (even though I specify GL_RGBA and GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE in the texture definition and in glReadPixels), but does that apply to off-screen rendering? Could it be a problem that I'm specifying GL_RGBA/GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE which is in conflict with the EGL config?

The EGL config does not affect FBOs. After all, when you render to the RGBA8888 texture you get the right result, at least for the first few pixels.



glReadPixels always accepts GL_RGBA/GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, but upconverting RGB565 data to RGBA8888 does nothing to remove dithering that was applied during rendering.