MTLCaptureScope

A capture scope works with Metal’s frame capture feature to filter a captured frame to include the specific commands that you choose. By contrast, when you capture a frame with the default capture scope by clicking the camera button on Xcode’s debug bar, the resulting capture includes all the data from a single frame. You create your own capture scope when you want to choose which data Metal should record.

To determine exactly which Metal commands to record in a captured frame, call begin() and end() around the Metal calls you want the capture to include. In the case of a rendering loop, your calls to begin() and end() can capture a small part of a frame, or capture data across multiple frames.

You can use capture scopes in a few different ways:

• You can change Xcode’s default capturing behavior.

• In Xcode, you can add additional capture scopes that appear when you click and hold the camera button on the debug bar.

• You can programmatically trigger a capture session using a specific scope.

For more information about frame capture, see Frame Capture Debugging Tools. For more information on creating custom capture scopes, see Creating a Custom Capture Scope.