{"slug": "renderdoc", "name": "RenderDoc", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 3.391, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2025-12-08", "latest": "2026-07-23", "why": "RenderDoc (or another frame debugger if you have one) is a nice tool as well.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 3, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "RenderDoc (or another frame debugger if you have one) is a nice tool as well.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "renderdoc.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://renderdoc.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["RenderDoc"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 784402736, "item_id": 49025171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025171", "by": "cyber_kinetist", "date": "2026-07-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's night and day if you know how to use it", "excerpt": "I think the dark side of OpenGL for beginning graphics programming is that debugging can be really frustrating! I really think learnopengl.com should have a mandatory section for how to use RenderDoc (https://renderdoc.org/) - it's night and day if you know how to use it. DX11 suffers from the problem that there aren't that much high quality material comparable to learnopengl.com - I really don't like RasterTek which", "context": "", "use_case": "graphics debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL"}, {"id": 748249504, "item_id": 46765594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46765594", "by": "flohofwoe", "date": "2026-01-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "RenderDoc on Linux appears to work fine for X11 apps via XWayland", "excerpt": "I don't know sorry. For debugging GL I usually switch to Windows with RenderDoc (or some current NVIDIA tool - does Nsight still exist?). RenderDoc on Linux appears to work fine for X11 apps via XWayland btw (just testing here via the sokol-samples with the sokol-gfx GL backend: https://github.com/floooh/sokol-samples, just another reason to not have a native Wayland backend but instead rely on the XWayland shim I gu", "context": "", "use_case": "graphics debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "DDD was a great debugger \u2013 what would a modern equivalent look like today?"}, {"id": 743128640, "item_id": 46445540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46445540", "by": "ahartmetz", "date": "2025-12-31", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "RenderDoc (or another frame debugger if you have one) is a nice tool as well.", "excerpt": "QSG_VISUALIZE=overdraw, and the other options described here help with rendering performance well: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtquick-visualcanvas-scenegraph-renderer.html For another perspective and more details, RenderDoc (or another frame debugger if you have one) is a nice tool as well. Also don't use Rectangle { color: \"transparent\" }, use Item {}. An Item has geometry, but doesn't render anything. A transparent Rec", "context": "", "use_case": "Frame debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Developing a Beautiful and Performant Block Editor in Qt C++ and QML"}, {"id": 739261249, "item_id": 46203828, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203828", "by": "59nadir", "date": "2025-12-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "use RenderDoc to help you out", "excerpt": "> To the point where I recommend people who are dabbling in GPU work grab a Mac (Apple Silicon often required) since it's such a better learning and experimentation environment. I don't know, buying a ridiculously overpriced computer with the least relevant OS on it just to debug graphics code written in an API not usable anywhere else doesn't seem like a good idea to me. For anyone who seriously does want to get int", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AMD GPU Debugger"}, {"id": 739226353, "item_id": 46201647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46201647", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2025-12-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "At least nowadays there is RenderDoc.", "excerpt": "Yes, Pix. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/pix/ This is yet another problem with Khronos APIs, expecting each vendor comes up with a debugger, some do, some don't. At least nowadays there is RenderDoc. On the Web after a decade, it is still pixel debugging, or trying to reproduce the bug on a native APIs, because why bother with such devtools.", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU graphics debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AMD GPU Debugger"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 748239632, "item_id": 46764977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46764977", "by": "mort96", "date": "2026-01-26", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "it got left behind by the Wayland transition and doesn't work anymore", "excerpt": "This is slightly off topic, but do you know of a graphics debugger on macOS which supports OpenGL? ...or a graphics debugger on Linux which supports Wayland? We used to have the Apple OpenGL Profiler etc on macOS, but all of Apple's tools these days are only focused on Metal. We used to have RenderDoc on Linux, but it got left behind by the Wayland transition and doesn't work anymore. So I'm kinda lacking anything to", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "DDD was a great debugger \u2013 what would a modern equivalent look like today?"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["graphics debugging", "frame debugging", "gpu debugging", "gpu graphics debugging"], "compared": [{"slug": "opengl", "name": "OpenGL", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46759387", "title": "DDD was a great debugger \u2013 what would a modern equivalent look like today?", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46193931", "title": "AMD GPU Debugger", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49022634", "title": "Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46396824", "title": "Developing a Beautiful and Performant Block Editor in Qt C++ and QML", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-01": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 784402736, "item_id": 49025171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025171", "by": "cyber_kinetist", "date": "2026-07-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it's night and day if you know how to use it", "excerpt": "I think the dark side of OpenGL for beginning graphics programming is that debugging can be really frustrating! I really think learnopengl.com should have a mandatory section for how to use RenderDoc (https://renderdoc.org/) - it's night and day if you know how to use it. DX11 suffers from the problem that there aren't that much high quality material comparable to learnopengl.com - I really don't like RasterTek which", "context": "", "use_case": "graphics debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL"}, {"id": 748249504, "item_id": 46765594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46765594", "by": "flohofwoe", "date": "2026-01-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "RenderDoc on Linux appears to work fine for X11 apps via XWayland", "excerpt": "I don't know sorry. For debugging GL I usually switch to Windows with RenderDoc (or some current NVIDIA tool - does Nsight still exist?). RenderDoc on Linux appears to work fine for X11 apps via XWayland btw (just testing here via the sokol-samples with the sokol-gfx GL backend: https://github.com/floooh/sokol-samples, just another reason to not have a native Wayland backend but instead rely on the XWayland shim I gu", "context": "", "use_case": "graphics debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "DDD was a great debugger \u2013 what would a modern equivalent look like today?"}, {"id": 748239632, "item_id": 46764977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46764977", "by": "mort96", "date": "2026-01-26", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "it got left behind by the Wayland transition and doesn't work anymore", "excerpt": "This is slightly off topic, but do you know of a graphics debugger on macOS which supports OpenGL? ...or a graphics debugger on Linux which supports Wayland? We used to have the Apple OpenGL Profiler etc on macOS, but all of Apple's tools these days are only focused on Metal. We used to have RenderDoc on Linux, but it got left behind by the Wayland transition and doesn't work anymore. So I'm kinda lacking anything to", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "DDD was a great debugger \u2013 what would a modern equivalent look like today?"}, {"id": 743128640, "item_id": 46445540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46445540", "by": "ahartmetz", "date": "2025-12-31", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "RenderDoc (or another frame debugger if you have one) is a nice tool as well.", "excerpt": "QSG_VISUALIZE=overdraw, and the other options described here help with rendering performance well: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtquick-visualcanvas-scenegraph-renderer.html For another perspective and more details, RenderDoc (or another frame debugger if you have one) is a nice tool as well. Also don't use Rectangle { color: \"transparent\" }, use Item {}. An Item has geometry, but doesn't render anything. A transparent Rec", "context": "", "use_case": "Frame debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "Developing a Beautiful and Performant Block Editor in Qt C++ and QML"}, {"id": 739261249, "item_id": 46203828, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203828", "by": "59nadir", "date": "2025-12-09", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "use RenderDoc to help you out", "excerpt": "> To the point where I recommend people who are dabbling in GPU work grab a Mac (Apple Silicon often required) since it's such a better learning and experimentation environment. I don't know, buying a ridiculously overpriced computer with the least relevant OS on it just to debug graphics code written in an API not usable anywhere else doesn't seem like a good idea to me. For anyone who seriously does want to get int", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AMD GPU Debugger"}, {"id": 739226353, "item_id": 46201647, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46201647", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2025-12-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "At least nowadays there is RenderDoc.", "excerpt": "Yes, Pix. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/pix/ This is yet another problem with Khronos APIs, expecting each vendor comes up with a debugger, some do, some don't. At least nowadays there is RenderDoc. On the Web after a decade, it is still pixel debugging, or trying to reproduce the bug on a native APIs, because why bother with such devtools.", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU graphics debugging", "switched_from": "", "story": "AMD GPU Debugger"}]}