framebufferile

Framebufferile is a file format designed to store sequences of framebuffer images along with per-frame metadata. It is intended for debugging, replaying rendering pipelines, and research in graphics systems. The format emphasizes fidelity and precise timing information to enable deterministic playback across platforms.

A framebufferile file starts with a short header that documents the file version, the color space, and allowed pixel formats. The body consists of a series of frames; each frame contains a timestamp, width, height, stride, and a payload of pixel data. Pixel data can be stored uncompressed or with a lossless compression method; optional metadata can describe the pixel format (such as RGBA8888, RGB565) and color depth.

Typical use cases include capturing frames from a rendering pipeline, recording display output for analysis, or driving a software renderer for reproducible results. Tools may provide capture APIs that write framebufferile files and viewers that replay them at the original timing.

Compatibility and implementations: As a non-standard, community-driven format, framebufferile has multiple informal implementations and no official governing body. Readers and writers often include command-line utilities or library bindings allowing integration with graphics debuggers, emulators, and test harnesses.

See also: Framebuffer, Pixel format, Video container, Raw image format, Graphics debugging.