Program Introspection

Introduction#

A number of features of program objects can be fetched through the program API.

Vertex Attribute Information

Information about vertex attributes can be retrieved with the OGL function glGetProgram and the parameters GL_ACTIVE_ATTRIBUTES and GL_ACTIVE_ATTRIBUTE_MAX_LENGTH.

The location of an active shader attribute can be determined by the OGL function glGetAttribLocation, by the index of the attribute.

GLuint shaderProg = ...;
std::map< std::string, GLint > attributeLocation;

GLint maxAttribLen, nAttribs;
glGetProgramiv( shaderProg, GL_ACTIVE_ATTRIBUTES, &nAttribs );
glGetProgramiv( shaderProg, GL_ACTIVE_ATTRIBUTE_MAX_LENGTH, &maxAttribLen 
GLint written, size;
GLenum type;
std::vector< GLchar >attrName( maxAttribLen );
for( int attribInx = 0; attribInx < nAttribs; attribInx++ )
{
    glGetActiveAttrib( shaderProg, attribInx, maxAttribLen, &written, &size, &type, &attrName[0] );
    attributeLocation[attrName] = glGetAttribLocation( shaderProg, attrName.data() );
}

Uniform Information

Information about active uniforms in a program can be retrieved with the OGL function glGetProgram and the parameters GL_ACTIVE_UNIFORMS and GL_ACTIVE_UNIFORM_MAX_LENGTH.

The location of an active shader uniform variable can be determined by the OGL function glGetActiveUniform, by the index of the attribute.

GLuint shaderProg = ...;
std::map< std::string, GLint > unifomLocation;

GLint maxUniformLen, nUniforms;
glGetProgramiv( shaderProg, GL_ACTIVE_UNIFORMS, &nUniforms );
glGetProgramiv( shaderProg, GL_ACTIVE_UNIFORM_MAX_LENGTH, &maxUniformLen );

GLint written, size;
GLenum type;
std::vector< GLchar >uniformName( maxUniformLen );
for( int uniformInx = 0; uniformInx < nUniforms; uniformInx++ )
{
    glGetActiveUniform( shaderProg, uniformInx, maxUniformLen, &written, &size, &type, &uniformName[0] );
    unifomLocation[uniformName] = glGetUniformLocation( shaderProg, uniformName.data() );
}