GLx Renderer Guide

GLx is FnQL's canonical OpenGL-lineage renderer and the client default. It is the renderer path where OpenGL-family work lands: capability tiers, static-world acceleration, dynamic streaming, material execution, postprocess, output transforms, and GLx-specific diagnostics.

GLx is built in normal modular builds and can be selected explicitly with:

seta cl_renderer "glx"
vid_restart

Renderer Selection

cl_renderer is latched, so changing it requires vid_restart.

• cl_renderer glx: default OpenGL-lineage renderer module.
• cl_renderer vk: Vulkan raster renderer.
• cl_renderer rtx: Vulkan ray-tracing renderer.

Dynamic renderer builds can also use:

renderer_switch glx fast
renderer_switch vk fast

That command exercises the same shutdown/startup surface used by vid_restart, which makes it useful for quick comparison runs.

Build Availability

Normal Meson and Make modular builds include GLx by default alongside VK and RTX. GLx is the client default.

Useful build selections:

meson setup meson/build -Drenderer-dlopen=true -Drenderers=glx,vk,rtx
make BUILD_SERVER=0 USE_GLX=1

For single-renderer static test builds, select GLx explicitly:

meson setup meson/build-glx-static -Drenderer-dlopen=false -Drenderer-default=glx
make BUILD_SERVER=0 USE_RENDERER_DLOPEN=0 RENDERER_DEFAULT=glx

Proof And Diagnostics

Use the runtime sweep for structured evidence:

python scripts/glx_runtime_sweep.py --gate rc-parity --exe path/to/fnql --basepath path/to/game
python scripts/glx_runtime_sweep.py --gate rc-proof --exe path/to/fnql --basepath path/to/game --proof-dir .tmp/glx-proof/windows-x86

Inside the game, these commands are the first things to capture in a renderer bug report:

glxinfo
glxmaterial
glxpostprocess
glxstaticworld 8
seta r_speeds "7"

glxinfo identifies the active product tier and ownership counters. glxmaterial reports material compiler and bind state. glxpostprocess records FBO, bloom, tone/output, screenshot, and capture state. glxstaticworld 8 prints static packet, arena, draw, and MDI evidence.

Troubleshooting

If GLx does not load, confirm the build produced the GLx module for your platform and architecture. A requested GLx load fails closed, so a missing GLx library should be fixed as a packaging/build issue instead of silently falling back to legacy OpenGL.

If the screen is black or the image differs from vk, collect glxinfo, glxpostprocess, r_speeds 7, and matching glx/vk screenshots. Check whether FBO output is ready, whether bloom/output transforms match, and whether the active tier is lower than expected.

If performance regresses, run rc-parity or rc-proof and compare the generated performance aggregate. Useful counters include draw count, stream upload volume, material binds, static packet misses, same-frame stream wrap rejects, and GPU frame time.

If a driver-specific GLx issue blocks play, set cl_renderer vk and run vid_restart to use the Vulkan raster renderer.