feat: add take-screenshots flake app for headless capture

Expose a `nix run .#take-screenshots` app that runs a binary inside an
Xvfb display with lavapipe software Vulkan and captures PNG snapshots
via ImageMagick. Useful for smoke-testing the Bevy renderer in
environments without a GPU (CI, sandboxed shells, agents).

Usage:
  nix run .#take-screenshots -- EXE NUM DELAY_START PAUSE_INBETWEEN [OUTPUT_DIR]

The script picks the first free :N >= 99, locates the lavapipe ICD via
pkgs.mesa with a fallback to /run/opengl-driver (NixOS), reuses the
dev shell's runtimeLibs in LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and traps EXIT for cleanup.

README updated with usage and a worked example.
This commit is contained in:
Harald Hoyer 2026-05-06 21:01:14 +02:00
parent 68e3051f77
commit c6dcf9d728
2 changed files with 122 additions and 0 deletions

View file

@ -34,3 +34,28 @@ nix develop --command bash -c "cargo build"
2. Clone the repository.
3. Navigate to the project directory.
4. Run the game using the command: `nix develop --command bash -c "cargo run"`
## Headless Screenshots
The flake exposes a `take-screenshots` app that launches a binary inside an
Xvfb display backed by lavapipe (software Vulkan), waits, and captures one or
more PNG screenshots. Useful for smoke-testing rendering without a real GPU.
```
nix run .#take-screenshots -- EXE NUM DELAY_START PAUSE_INBETWEEN [OUTPUT_DIR]
```
* `EXE` — path to the executable to launch
* `NUM` — number of screenshots to take
* `DELAY_START` — seconds to wait after launch before the first shot
* `PAUSE_INBETWEEN` — seconds between consecutive shots
* `OUTPUT_DIR` — where to write `shot-NNN.png` files (default: current directory)
Example, capturing three frames of the game one second apart after a six-second
warm-up (Bevy + software Vulkan needs roughly that long to render its first
frame):
```
cargo build
nix run .#take-screenshots -- ./target/debug/bglga 3 6 1 ./shots
```

View file

@ -29,6 +29,98 @@
vulkan-loader
glfw
];
takeScreenshots = pkgs.writeShellApplication {
name = "take-screenshots";
runtimeInputs = with pkgs; [
xorg-server
imagemagick
coreutils
];
text = ''
set -euo pipefail
if [ "$#" -lt 4 ]; then
cat >&2 <<'USAGE'
Usage: take-screenshots EXE NUM DELAY_START PAUSE_INBETWEEN [OUTPUT_DIR]
EXE path to executable to launch
NUM number of screenshots to take
DELAY_START seconds to wait after launching EXE before first shot
PAUSE_INBETWEEN seconds between consecutive shots
OUTPUT_DIR output directory (default: current directory)
USAGE
exit 1
fi
EXE=$1
NUM=$2
DELAY_START=$3
PAUSE=$4
OUTDIR=''${5:-.}
mkdir -p "$OUTDIR"
# Locate lavapipe (software Vulkan) ICD; needed because Xvfb has no GPU.
LVP_ICD=
for c in \
"${pkgs.mesa}/share/vulkan/icd.d/lvp_icd.x86_64.json" \
/run/opengl-driver/share/vulkan/icd.d/lvp_icd.x86_64.json
do
if [ -f "$c" ]; then LVP_ICD=$c; break; fi
done
if [ -z "$LVP_ICD" ]; then
echo "take-screenshots: could not locate lavapipe Vulkan ICD" >&2
exit 1
fi
# Pick a free X display.
DISPLAY_NUM=99
while [ -e "/tmp/.X$DISPLAY_NUM-lock" ] || [ -e "/tmp/.X11-unix/X$DISPLAY_NUM" ]; do
DISPLAY_NUM=$((DISPLAY_NUM + 1))
done
Xvfb ":$DISPLAY_NUM" -screen 0 800x900x24 \
+extension GLX +extension RANDR +render -ac &
XVFB_PID=$!
GAME_PID=
cleanup() {
if [ -n "$GAME_PID" ]; then
kill "$GAME_PID" 2>/dev/null || true
wait "$GAME_PID" 2>/dev/null || true
fi
kill "$XVFB_PID" 2>/dev/null || true
wait "$XVFB_PID" 2>/dev/null || true
rm -f "/tmp/.X$DISPLAY_NUM-lock"
}
trap cleanup EXIT
sleep 0.5
export DISPLAY=":$DISPLAY_NUM"
export VK_ICD_FILENAMES=$LVP_ICD
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${pkgs.lib.makeLibraryPath runtimeLibs}''${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}"
"$EXE" &
GAME_PID=$!
sleep "$DELAY_START"
for i in $(seq 1 "$NUM"); do
if ! kill -0 "$GAME_PID" 2>/dev/null; then
echo "take-screenshots: process exited before screenshot $i" >&2
exit 1
fi
out=$(printf "%s/shot-%03d.png" "$OUTDIR" "$i")
import -window root "$out"
echo "$out"
if [ "$i" -lt "$NUM" ]; then
sleep "$PAUSE"
fi
done
'';
};
in
{
devShells.default = pkgs.mkShell {
@ -49,6 +141,11 @@
LD_LIBRARY_PATH = pkgs.lib.makeLibraryPath runtimeLibs;
};
apps.take-screenshots = {
type = "app";
program = "${takeScreenshots}/bin/take-screenshots";
};
}
);
}