QQuickRenderControl Class

Member Function Documentation

[explicit] QQuickRenderControl::QQuickRenderControl(QObject *parent = nullptr)

Constructs a QQuickRenderControl object, with parent object parent.

[override virtual noexcept] QQuickRenderControl::~QQuickRenderControl()

Destroys the instance. Releases all scenegraph resources.

See also invalidate().

[since 6.0] void QQuickRenderControl::beginFrame()

Specifies the start of a graphics frame. Calls to sync() or render() must be enclosed by calls to beginFrame() and endFrame().

Unlike the earlier OpenGL-only world of Qt 5, rendering with other graphics APIs requires more well-defined points of starting and ending a frame. When manually driving the rendering loop via QQuickRenderControl, it now falls to the user of QQuickRenderControl to specify these points.

A typical update step, including initialization of rendering into an existing texture, could look like the following. The example snippet assumes Direct3D 11 but the same concepts apply other graphics APIs as well.

if (!m_quickInitialized) {
    m_quickWindow->setGraphicsDevice(QQuickGraphicsDevice::fromDeviceAndContext(m_engine->device(), m_engine->context()));

    if (!m_renderControl->initialize())
        qWarning("Failed to initialize redirected Qt Quick rendering");

    m_quickWindow->setRenderTarget(QQuickRenderTarget::fromNativeTexture({ quint64(m_res.texture), 0 },
                                                                         QSize(QML_WIDTH, QML_HEIGHT),
                                                                         SAMPLE_COUNT));

    m_quickInitialized = true;
}

m_renderControl->polishItems();

m_renderControl->beginFrame();
m_renderControl->sync();
m_renderControl->render();
m_renderControl->endFrame(); // Qt Quick's rendering commands are submitted to the device context here

This function was introduced in Qt 6.0.

See also endFrame(), initialize(), sync(), render(), QQuickGraphicsDevice, and QQuickRenderTarget.

[since 6.6] QRhiCommandBuffer *QQuickRenderControl::commandBuffer() const

Returns the current command buffer.

Once beginFrame() is called, a QRhiCommandBuffer is set up automatically. That is the command buffer Qt Quick scenegraph uses, but in some cases applications may also want to query it, for example to issue resource updates (for example, a texture readback).

The returned command buffer reference should only be used between beginFrame() and endFrame(). There are specific exceptions, for example calling lastCompletedGpuTime() on the command buffer right after endFrame(), but before the next beginFrame(), is valid.

This function was introduced in Qt 6.6.

See also rhi(), beginFrame(), and endFrame().

[since 6.0] void QQuickRenderControl::endFrame()

Specifies the end of a graphics frame. Calls to sync() or render() must be enclosed by calls to beginFrame() and endFrame().

When this function is called, any graphics commands enqueued by the scenegraph are submitted to the context or command queue, whichever is applicable.

This function was introduced in Qt 6.0.

See also beginFrame(), initialize(), sync(), render(), QQuickGraphicsDevice, and QQuickRenderTarget.

[since 6.0] bool QQuickRenderControl::initialize()

Initializes the scene graph resources. When using a graphics API, such as Vulkan, Metal, OpenGL, or Direct3D, for Qt Quick rendering, QQuickRenderControl will set up an appropriate rendering engine when this function is called. This rendering infrastructure exists as long as the QQuickRenderControl exists.

To control what graphics API Qt Quick uses, call QQuickWindow::setGraphicsApi() with one of the QSGRendererInterface:GraphicsApi constants. That must be done before calling this function.

To prevent the scenegraph from creating its own device and context objects, specify an appropriate QQuickGraphicsDevice, wrapping existing graphics objects, by calling QQuickWindow::setGraphicsDevice().

To configure which device extensions to enable (for example, for Vulkan), call QQuickWindow::setGraphicsConfiguration() before this function.

Returns true on success, false otherwise.

With the default Qt Quick adaptation this function creates a new QRhi object, similarly to what would happen with an on-screen QQuickWindow when QQuickRenderControl was not used. To make this new QRhi object adopt some existing device or context resource (e.g. use an existing QOpenGLContext instead of creating a new one), use QQuickWindow::setGraphicsDevice() as mentioned above. When the application wants to make the Qt Quick rendering use an already existing QRhi object, that is possible as well via QQuickGraphicsDevice::fromRhi(). When such a QQuickGraphicsDevice, referencing an already existing QRhi, is set, there will be no new, dedicated QRhi object created in initialize().

This function was introduced in Qt 6.0.

See also QQuickRenderTarget, QQuickGraphicsDevice, and QQuickGraphicsConfiguration::preferredInstanceExtensions().

void QQuickRenderControl::invalidate()

Stop rendering and release resources.

This is the equivalent of the cleanup operations that happen with a real QQuickWindow when the window becomes hidden.

This function is called from the destructor. Therefore there will typically be no need to call it directly.

Once invalidate() has been called, it is possible to reuse the QQuickRenderControl instance by calling initialize() again.

void QQuickRenderControl::polishItems()

This function should be called as late as possible before sync(). In a threaded scenario, rendering can happen in parallel with this function.

void QQuickRenderControl::prepareThread(QThread *targetThread)

Prepares rendering the Qt Quick scene outside the GUI thread.

targetThread specifies the thread on which synchronization and rendering will happen. There is no need to call this function in a single threaded scenario.

void QQuickRenderControl::render()

Renders the scenegraph using the current context.

[signal] void QQuickRenderControl::renderRequested()

This signal is emitted when the scene graph needs to be rendered. It is not necessary to call sync().

[virtual] QWindow *QQuickRenderControl::renderWindow(QPoint *offset)

Reimplemented in subclasses to return the real window this render control is rendering into.

If offset is non-null, it is set to the offset of the control inside the window.

[static] QWindow *QQuickRenderControl::renderWindowFor(QQuickWindow *win, QPoint *offset = nullptr)

Returns the real window that win is being rendered to, if any.

If offset is non-null, it is set to the offset of the rendering inside its window.

[since 6.6] QRhi *QQuickRenderControl::rhi() const

Returns the QRhi this QQuickRenderControl is associated with.

This function was introduced in Qt 6.6.

See also commandBuffer(), beginFrame(), and endFrame().

[since 6.0] int QQuickRenderControl::samples() const

Returns the current sample count. 1 or 0 means no multisampling.

This function was introduced in Qt 6.0.

See also setSamples().

[signal] void QQuickRenderControl::sceneChanged()

This signal is emitted when the scene graph is updated, meaning that polishItems() and sync() needs to be called. If sync() returns true, then render() needs to be called.

[since 6.0] void QQuickRenderControl::setSamples(int sampleCount)

Sets the number of samples to use for multisampling. When sampleCount is 0 or 1, multisampling is disabled.

This function was introduced in Qt 6.0.

See also samples(), initialize(), and QQuickRenderTarget.

bool QQuickRenderControl::sync()

This function is used to synchronize the QML scene with the rendering scene graph.

If a dedicated render thread is used, the GUI thread should be blocked for the duration of this call.

Returns true if the synchronization changed the scene graph.

[since 6.0] QQuickWindow *QQuickRenderControl::window() const

Returns the QQuickWindow this QQuickRenderControl is associated with.

This function was introduced in Qt 6.0.