renderdoc/qrenderdoc/Windows/Dialogs/TipsDialog.cpp

/******************************************************************************
 * The MIT License (MIT)
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2017 Baldur Karlsson
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 * in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 * to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
 * all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
 * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
 * THE SOFTWARE.
 ******************************************************************************/

#include "TipsDialog.h"
#include "ui_TipsDialog.h"

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

TipsDialog::TipsDialog(CaptureContext &Ctx, QWidget *parent)
    : m_Ctx(Ctx), QDialog(parent), ui(new Ui::TipsDialog), m_currentTip(0)
{
  ui->setupUi(this);
  setWindowFlags(windowFlags() & ~Qt::WindowContextHelpButtonHint);
  initialize();

  if(m_Ctx.Config.Tips_HasSeenFirst)
  {
    showRandomTip();
  }
  else
  {
    showTip(m_currentTip);
  }

  m_Ctx.Config.Tips_HasSeenFirst = true;
}

TipsDialog::~TipsDialog()
{
  delete ui;
}

void TipsDialog::initialize()
{
  // Tip 1
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Talk to me!",
                       "RenderDoc is a labour of love and has been developed from scratch entirely "
                       "in my spare time. If you run into a bug, have a feature request or just "
                       "have a question, please feel free to get in touch and I'm always happy to "
                       "talk and help out in any way I can - baldurk@baldurk.org."));

  // Tip 2
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Quick channel toggling",
                       "Right clicking on a channel button in the texture viewer will select it "
                       "alone. If it is already the only channel selected, the meaning is inverted "
                       "and all others will be selected.\n\nThis is most useful for quickly "
                       "toggling between RGB and Alpha-only views."));

  // Tip 3
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Quick range autofitting",
                       "The magic wand auto-fitting button in the texture viewer automatically "
                       "calculates the min and max values of any visible channel in the texture, "
                       "and rescales the visible range to include them.\n \nIf you right click on "
                       "it, it will toggle on a mode to automatically rescale every time the "
                       "viewed texture changes.\n"));

  // Tip 4
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Choosing mesh elements to visualise",
                       "In the mesh output pane, you can right click on any of the element columns "
                       "to select that element as either position or secondary property to render. "
                       "This way you can view a mesh in UV space, or visualise normals."));

  // Tip 5
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Visualising secondary mesh properties",
                       "In the mesh output pane, you can select an element as 'secondary', and in "
                       "the solid shading dropdown choosing secondary will display the element as "
                       "RGB colour on top of the mesh."));

  // Tip 6
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Register highlighting in the shader debugger",
                       "While debugging a shader, clicking on a register or constant buffer "
                       "variable in the disassembly will highlight all other uses of that register "
                       "or variable in the disassembly. It will also highlight the matching row in "
                       "the watch windows."));

  // Tip 7
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Shader register value display",
                       "If you want to see to see a register reinterpreted as different types, you "
                       "can hover over it either in the disassembly or in the watch windows. A "
                       "tooltip will show it interpreted as float, uint decimal, int decimal or "
                       "hexadecimal."));

  // Tip 8
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Custom shader watch expressions",
                       "In addition to the pre-filled watch windows while shader debugging, you "
                       "can also enter custom watch expressions. This takes the form of e.g. "
                       "r0.xyz. You can append ,x or ,b to specify the type - full list in the "
                       "docs.\n"));

  // Tip 9
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Shader debugger float/int toggle",
                       "By default register values are shown as floats, but you can toggle this to "
                       "default to ints either in the shader debugger toolbar, or by right "
                       "clicking and toggling int/float display.\n"));

  // Tip 10
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("D3D11 shader debug information",
                       "You'll get the best results in RenderDoc by stripping as little as "
                       "possible from D3D11 shaders. Reflection data is used all over the place to "
                       "produce a nicer debugging experience.\n"));

  // Tip 11
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Shader editing & Replacement",
                       "RenderDoc has the ability to edit and replace shaders and see the results "
                       "live in the replay. On the pipeline state view, click the edit icon next "
                       "to the shader. If source is available, it will be compiled, otherwise an "
                       "empty stub with resources will be generated.\n The shader will be replaced "
                       "everywhere it is used in the frame, the original will be restored when the "
                       "edit window is closed.\n"));

  // Tip 12
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Linear/Gamma display of textures",
                       "RenderDoc interprets all textures in gamma space - even if the data is "
                       "linear such as a normal map. This is by convention, since typically "
                       "external image viewers will display a normal map as gamma data. This can "
                       "be overridden by toggling the gamma button in the texture viewer.\n"));

  // Tip 13
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Seeing texture usage in a capture",
                       "RenderDoc has a list of how each texture is bound and used - whether as a "
                       "shader resource, an output target, or a copy source. When the texture is "
                       "active in the texture viewer this usage will be displayed on the timeline "
                       "bar at the top.\n You can also right click on the thumbnails in the "
                       "texture viewer to see a list of this usage, and clicking any entry will "
                       "jump to that event.\n"));

  // Tip 14
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Custom buffer formatting",
                       "When opening a raw view of a buffer, such as a vertex buffer or compute "
                       "read/write buffer resource, you can apply custom formatting to it to "
                       "dictate the layout of the elements in typical shader syntax. \n \nThis "
                       "formatting is also available for constant buffers to override the layout "
                       "reflected from the shader.\n"));

  // Tip 15
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Pipeline HTML export",
                       "The pipeline view contains an HTML export function, which dumps the raw "
                       "state of the entire pipeline out to a specified file. This can be useful "
                       "for comparison between two events, or for having all information available "
                       "in a unified text format.\n"));

  // Tip 16
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Python scripting",
                       "RenderDoc supports some amount of Python scripting. Open up the Python "
                       "shell in the UI to either use it interactively or load and execute python "
                       "scripts. \n \nThe 'renderdoc' object is an instance of the Core class - "
                       "see the RenderDoc source for more information."));

  // Tip 17
  m_tips.push_back(
      Tip("Pixel history view",
          "RenderDoc supports a pixel history view, showing the list of all modification events "
          "that happened to a specified pixel. To launch it, simply pick the pixel you would like "
          "to view the history of in the texture viewer, and click the 'history' button underneath "
          "the zoomed-in pixel context. \n \nEach event will show up red or green depending on "
          "whether it affected or didn't affect the pixel. By expanding the event, you can see the "
          "possibly several primitives within the draw that overdrew the pixel.\n"));

  // Tip 18
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("List of active textures",
                       "On the texture viewer, the texture list button under the 'Actions' section "
                       "will open a filterable list of all texture resources. Clicking on any of "
                       "the entries will open a locked tab of that texture, always showing the "
                       "contents of the texture at the current event regardless of whether or not "
                       "it is bound to the pipeline.\n"));

  // Tip 19
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Locked texture tabs",
                       "You can open a locked texture tab from the texture list, or by right or "
                       "double clicking on a texture's thumbnail.\n \nWith a locked tab of a "
                       "texture, that tab will always show that texture, regardless of what is "
                       "bound to the pipeline. This way you can track the updates of a texture "
                       "through binds and unbinds, e.g. ping-pong rendertarget use.\n"));

  // Tip 20
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Gathering of per-event callstacks",
                       "RenderDoc is able to gather callstacks either per-drawcall or per-API "
                       "event. You can do this by enabling the option before launching an "
                       "application capture.\n \nWhen loading the log, initially the callstacks "
                       "will not be available until symbols are resolved. Go to tools -> resolve "
                       "symbols to load up the pdbs matching the modules from the application.\n"));

  // Tip 21
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Texture debugging overlays",
                       "In the texture viewer, you can select from several helpful debugging "
                       "overlays over the current view. This can show wireframe or solid coloour "
                       "overlays of the current drawcall, as well as showing depth pass/fail or "
                       "even representing quad overdraw as a heatmap.\n"));

  // Tip 22
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Custom texture display shaders",
                       "RenderDoc supports writing custom shaders to decode the viewed texture, "
                       "which can be useful to e.g. colourise stencil values or decode a packed "
                       "gbuffer texture.\n \nIn the toolbar in the texture viewer, select custom "
                       "instead of RGBA on the left side, and use the UI to create a new shader. "
                       "The docs contain full listings of available constants and resources to "
                       "bind.\n"));

  // Tip 23
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Texture histogram",
                       "RenderDoc can display a channel histogram showing the distribution of "
                       "values within the visible range. Simply click the graph button on the "
                       "texture viewer to the right of the range control, and it will expand to "
                       "show the histogram.\n"));

  // Tip 24
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Attaching to a running instance",
                       "If you have launched a program via RenderDoc or your program integrates "
                       "RenderDoc, the UI can connect to it once it is running via File -> Attach "
                       "to Running Instance, and everything works as if you had launched it.\n "
                       "\nYou can even do this across a network, by adding a remote IP or "
                       "hostname. You will connect over the network and can remotely trigger "
                       "captures - any files will be copied back across the network, to be saved "
                       "and replayed locally as normal.\n"));

  // Tip 25
  m_tips.push_back(Tip(
      "Event browser bookmarks",
      "In the event browser you can bookmark useful events by clicking the asterisk. This can let "
      "you quickly jump back and forth through the log between important points.\n \nWhen you have "
      "some bookmarks, shortcut buttons will appear in a small bar at the top of the browser, and "
      "the shortcut keys Ctrl-1 through Ctrl-0 jump to the first 10 bookmarks - these shortcuts "
      "are global regardless of which RenderDoc window is currently in focus.\n"));

  // Tip 26
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Mousewheel for scrolling",
                       "Anywhere you need to use the mousewheel to scroll, it will work simply by "
                       "hovering over the panel and scrolling, no need to click to change focus. "
                       "\n"));

  // Tip 27
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Event browser keyboard shortcuts",
                       "In the event browser Ctrl-F opens up the find bar, to locate an event by "
                       "its name. Ctrl-G opens the jump-to-event to jump to the closest drawcall "
                       "to a numbered event. Ctrl-B will toggle a bookmark at the current "
                       "event.\n"));

  // Tip 28
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Mesh VS Output camera settings",
                       "The VS Output pane in the mesh output window will attempt to guess your "
                       "projection matrix to unproject the vertices into camera space. It assumes "
                       "a perspective projection and guesses the near and far planes, and matches "
                       "the aspect ratio to the current output target.\n \nIf these parameters are "
                       "incorrect - e.g. you are using an orthographic projection or the near/far "
                       "guesses are wrong, you can override them by opening the view settings with "
                       "the cog icon.\n"));

  // Tip 29
  m_tips.push_back(Tip("Global process hook",
                       "Sometimes a particular program is difficult to launch directly through "
                       "RenderDoc. In these cases, RenderDoc can install a global system hook that "
                       "will insert a tiny shim DLL into every newly-created process on the "
                       "system. This shim will identify if it is in the target application and "
                       "either inject RenderDoc, or unload itself.\n \nNote: Since it is a global "
                       "hook this is not without risks, only use if it's the only alternative, and "
                       "read the documentation carefully.\n"));
}

void TipsDialog::showTip(int i)
{
  if(i >= m_tips.size() || i < 0)
    return;

  Tip &tip = m_tips[i];
  ++i;
  ui->tipTextLabel->setText(tip.tip);
  QString url("https://renderdoc.org/tips/" + QString::number(i));
  ui->tipUrlLabel->setText("<a href='" + url + "'>" + url + "</a>");
  ui->tipsGroupBox->setTitle("Tip #" + QString::number(i));
  ui->titleLabel->setText("Tip #" + QString::number(i) + ": " + tip.title);
}

void TipsDialog::showRandomTip()
{
  int i = m_currentTip;
  srand(time(NULL));
  while(i == m_currentTip)
  {
    i = rand() % m_tips.size();
  }
  m_currentTip = i;
  showTip(m_currentTip);
}

void TipsDialog::on_nextButton_clicked()
{
  m_currentTip++;
  m_currentTip %= m_tips.size();
  showTip(m_currentTip);
}

void TipsDialog::on_closeButton_clicked()
{
  close();
}

void TipsDialog::on_randomButton_clicked()
{
  showRandomTip();
}