3.6.1. Introduction

J721E device is enabled with 3D graphics accelerator based on the Rogue 8XE series from Imagination Technologies Inc. It enables the support of 3D graphics rendering using OpenGL® ES API’s. The OpenGL® ES API’s up to and including version 3.2 are supported by the hardware.

The OpenGL® ES and EGL® libraries are packaged with the Processor SDK Linux Automotive and are used by graphics stacks such as Wayland/Weston. The drivers run on an ARM core and programs the firmware running inside a GPU core with rendering commands submitted by the user applications.

The rest of this page will cover the following topics:

  • Software architecture of Graphics
  • Instructions on how to run graphics demos
  • Instructions on how to run DSS application
  • Instructions on how launch Weston
  • Instructions on how to run PVR tools

3.6.2. Software Architecture

The picture below shows the software architecture of Graphics in Processor SDK Linux Automotive.

../../../_images/Graphic_software_stacks_psdk202.png

3.6.3. Graphics Demos

Along with the graphics driver and userspace libraries, the SDK also includes example applications. Some of the demos are based on the IMG Native_SDK examples.

The following demos are available to run under the Wayland windowing system.

target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESDeferredShading
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESGaussianBlur
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESImageBasedLighting
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESIntroducingPVRCamera
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESIntroducingPVRUtils
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESIntroducingUIRenderer
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESNavigation2D
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESNavigation3D
target # /usr/bin/SGX/demos/Wayland/OpenGLESParticleSystem

3.6.4. Display

TI SoC’s are equipped with Display SubSystem (DSS) hardware to provide hardware acceleration for alpha blending of overlays and color conversion. The DSS hardware is exposed to the software drm API available through libdrm module. Through this drm interface, a user space program can perform mode setting of the display.

The drm module models the display hardware as a series of abstract hardware blocks and manages them through the API. The blocks are:

  • CRTC[1]: represents a scanout engine that generates video timing signal from the data pointed to by the scanout buffer
  • Connector: represents where the video timing signal is sent across to the display
  • Encoder: transforms the video timing signal from CRTC to a format that is suitable for sending across the connector
  • Plane: represents the overlay buffer that a CRTC can be fed with

A utility application modetest can be used to get the list of available drm blocks. All the information available for the device can be displayed by using it.

3.6.4.1. Finding Connector ID

Run the below modetest command:

target # modetest -M tidss -c

Look for the display device for which the connector ID is required - such as HDMI, LCD etc.

Connectors:
id      encoder status          type    size (mm)       modes   encoders
4       3       connected       HDMI-A  480x270         20      3
  modes:
        name refresh (Hz) hdisp hss hse htot vdisp vss vse vtot)
  1920x1080 60 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1089 1125 flags: phsync, pvsync; type: preferred, driver
...
16      15      connected       unknown 0x0             1       15
  modes:
        name refresh (Hz) hdisp hss hse htot vdisp vss vse vtot)
  800x480 60 800 1010 1040 1056 480 502 515 525 flags: nhsync, nvsync; type: preferred, driver

The modes displayed are the various resolutions supported by the connected display.

3.6.4.2. Finding Plane ID

To find the Plane ID, run the modetest command:

target # modetest -M tidss -p

which should show something like below:

Planes:
id      crtc    fb      CRTC x,y        x,y     gamma size
19      0       0       0,0             0,0     0
 formats: RG16 RX12 XR12 RA12 AR12 XR15 AR15 RG24 RX24 XR24 RA24 AR24 NV12 YUYV UYVY
 props:
 ...
20      0       0       0,0             0,0     0
 formats: RG16 RX12 XR12 RA12 AR12 XR15 AR15 RG24 RX24 XR24 RA24 AR24 NV12 YUYV UYVY
 props:
 ...

3.6.5. Wayland/Weston

The supported Wayland/Weston version brings in the multiple display support in extended desktop mode and the ability to drag-and-drop windows from one display to the other.

To launch Weston, do the following:

On the target console:

target # unset WAYLAND_DISPLAY

On the default display:

target # weston --tty=1 --connector=<default connector-id>

On the secondary display:

target # weston --tty=1 --connector=<secondary connector-id>

On all connected displays (LCD and HDMI):

target # weston --tty=1

By default, the screensaver timeout is configured to 300 seconds. The user can change the screensaver timeout using a command line option:

--idle-time=<number of seconds>

For example, to set timeout of 10 minutes and Weston configured to display on all connectors, use the below command:

weston --tty=1 --idle-time=600

To disable the screen timeout and to configure Weston to display on all connectors, use the below command:

weston --tty=1 --idle-time=0

If you face any issues with the above procedure, please refer GLSDK_FAQs#Unable_to_run_Weston_on_the_GLSDK_release for troubling shooting tips.

The filesystem comes with a preconfigured weston.ini file which will be located in

/etc/weston.ini

Running Weston clients

Weston client examples can run from the command line on a serial port console or an SSH console. After launching Weston, the user should be able to use the keyboard and the mouse for various controls.
# /usr/bin/weston-flower
# /usr/bin/weston-clickdot
# /usr/bin/weston-cliptest
# /usr/bin/weston-dnd
# /usr/bin/weston-editor
# /usr/bin/weston-eventdemo
# /usr/bin/weston-image /usr/share/weston/terminal.png
# /usr/bin/weston-resizor
# /usr/bin/weston-simple-egl
# /usr/bin/weston-simple-shm
# /usr/bin/weston-simple-touch
# /usr/bin/weston-smoke
# /usr/bin/weston-info
# /usr/bin/weston-terminal

Running multimedia with Wayland sink

The GStreamer video sink for Wayland is the waylandsink. To use this video-sink for video playback:

target # gst-launch-1.0 playbin uri=file://<path-to-file-name> video-sink=waylandsink

Exiting Weston

Terminate all Weston clients before exiting Weston. If you have invoked Weston from the serial console, exit Weston by pressing Ctrl-C.

It is also possible to invoke Weston from the native console, exit Weston by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace.

3.6.6. Using the PowerVR Tools

The suite of PowerVR Tools is designed to enable rapid graphics application development. It targets a range of areas including asset exporting and optimization, PC emulation, prototyping environments, on-line and off-line performance analysis tools and many more. Please refer to PowerVR-SDK for additional details on the tools and detailed documentation.

The target file system includes a subset of PowerVR tools such as PVRScope and PVRTrace recorder libraries from Imagination PowerVR SDK to profile and trace SGX activities. In addition, it also includes PVRPerfServerDeveloper tool.

3.6.6.1. PVRTune

The PVRTune utility is a real-time GPU performance analysis tool. It captures hardware timing data and counters which facilitate the identification of performance bottlenecks. PVRPerfServerDeveloper should be used along with the PVRTune running on the PC to gather data on the SGX loading and activity threads. You can invoke the tool with the below command:

target # /opt/img-powervr-sdk/PVRHub/PVRPerfServer/PVRPerfServerDeveloper

3.6.6.2. PVRTrace

The PVRTrace is an OpenGL® ES API recording and analysis utility. PVRTrace GUI provides off-line tools to inspect captured data, identify redundant calls, highlight costly shaders and many more. The default filesystem contains helper scripts to obtain the PVRTrace of the graphics application. This trace can then be played back on the PC using the PVRTrace Utility.

To start tracing, use the below commands as reference:

target # cp /opt/img-powervr-sdk/PVRHub/Scripts/start_tracing.sh ~/.
target # ./start_tracing.sh <log-filename> <application-to-be-traced>

Example:

target # ./start_tracing.sh westonapp weston-simple-egl

The above command will do the following:

  1. Setup the required environment for the tracing
  2. Create a directory under the current working directory called pvrtrace
  3. Launch the application specified by the user
  4. Start tracing the PVR Interactions while recording the traces to a file under the current directory

To end the tracing, the user can invoke the Ctrl-C and the trace file path will be displayed.

The trace file can then be transferred to a PC, and we can visualize the application using the host side PVRTrace utility. Please refer PowerVR-SDK for more details.

Footnotes

[1]CRTC stands for cathode-ray tube controller, a throw back to the old cathode-ray tubes TV’s which had a controller that generated video timings based on the data it is being fed by a buffer.