ADB Screen Capture Commands

The following list of adb commands provides you with options for screen capture modes available on the Magic Leap 2 headset.

To begin capturing your headset's display, connect the compute pack to your computer and run the following adb command inside your preferred CLI:

adb shell mlcapture

note

Starting from SDK 0.53.3, you can use the mlcapture tool's -m flag to override the alpha value of content for screen captures!

For example:

adb shell mlcapture video -t <capture_length> -m <alpha_value> /data/local/tmp/<filename>.mp4

Note that you can provide an alpha value between 0.0 and 1.0 (where 0.0 is default behavior and 1.0 is fully opaque alpha) so feel free to play around with it.

Then you can use the following commands to specify your capture options:

List of Capture Commands

The following list can also be accessed via adb shell mlcapture --help command when your device is turned on and plugged into your computer.

Usage: capture image [-c (real|virtual|mixed)] [-q (1080p|720p|4k)] [-r (9:10|4:3)] [-b (alpha|additive|hybrid)]
                     [-l (off|auto|incandescent|fluorescent|daylight|cloudy|twilight|shade)]
                     [-e <index>] [-m <val>] [-n <val>] (-s | <dest-file.jpg>)
       capture video [-c (real|virtual|mixed)] [-q (1080p|720p|4k)] [-r (9:10|4:3)] [-b (alpha|additive|hybrid)]
                     [-l (off|auto|incandescent|fluorescent|daylight|cloudy|twilight|shade)]
                     [-e <index>] [-m <val>] [-n <val>] [-a (voice|world|virtual|mixed)] [-d]
                     (-f <cnt> | -t <sec> | -w) (-s | <dest-file.mp4>)
       capture raw   [-l (off|auto|incandescent|fluorescent|daylight|cloudy|twilight|shade)]
                     [-b (alpha|additive|hybrid)] [-e <index>] [-m <val>] [-n <val>] (-f <cnt> | -t <sec> | -w)
              -b: <type>    Blend type (default is Hybrid)
                  Alpha:    Uses virtual image alpha to blend the virtual and camera content. 1.0 results in
                            fully opaque virtual content and 0.0 results in completely transparent virtual
                            content. This option is best suited when content is using segmented dimmer as
                            alpha channel is reused for the alpha blending.
                  Additive: Ignores alpha and blends the virtual and camera content purely based on colors. The
                            virtual content in the resulting blend does not look as solid as in alpha blend
                            with high alpha values but is best when the user can not control the alpha channel.
                  Hybrid:   Acts as alpha mode when virtual content alpha value is greater than 0.0 and less
                            than or equal to 1.0 and it falls back to Additive blending when alpha equals 0.0.
                            This mode is best suited when the content mixes both segmented dimmer and 
                            non segmented dimer content.
              -c: <type>    Capture type (default is mixed)
              -e: <index>   exposure compensation index for camera frames.
                            Default is 0 (auto exposure), Valid Range is [-9,9].
              -l: <preset>  WhiteBalance preset for camera frames.
                            Valid values are off|auto|incandescent|fluorescent|daylight|cloudy|twilight|shade
              -m: <val>     Alpha Override. Default is 0.0 which means no-override. Valid Range is [0.0, 1.0].
                            Overrides the virtual image alpha value for all non black pixels to the specified
                            value. This only has an effect in alpha and hybrid blending modes. This is best
                            when the user desires virtual content to look more opaque but has no control over
                            the content alpha. Note that the override value is applied identically to all
                            non black pixels.
              -n: <val>     Tint value applied on camera frames. Default is 0.4, Valid Range is [0.0, 1.0].
              -q: <quality> Resolution to capture with (default is 1080p)
              -s:           Stream result to stdout (without -s, destination file must be specified)
           options for video and raw capture:
              -f <cnt>:     Number of frames to record
              -t <time>:    Time in seconds to record. Can be floating point number (e.g., 1.5)
              -w:           Record until something is entered on the keyboard
           options for video capture only:
              -a:           Audio recording type (default is mixed)
              -d:           Use digital video stabilization

Example Captures

Where myscreenshot.jpg or myscreencast.mp4 can be replaced with any path to a specified location on your computer.

Mixed Reality, 1080P

adb exec-out mlcapture image -s > myscreenshot.jpg

RGB Camera Only, 720P

adb exec-out mlcapture image -s -c real -q 720p > myscreenshot.jpg

Five Seconds of Mixed Reality, 1080P

adb exec-out mlcapture video -s -t 5 > myscreencast.mp4

60 Frames of Virtual Content Only, 720P

adb exec-out mlcapture video -s -c virtual -f 60 -q 720p > myscreencast.mp4

Producing a File on the Device

If you're wondering what the -s option is for in the commands above, it tells the mlcapture program to stream the media file out to stdout. This allows you to use adb's exec-out command to produce the file on your PC, instead of on the device. This saves you from having to run a second adb command (pull) to download the file to your PC. But this approach comes with one downside: if there is an error in the capture process, you won't see the reason printed on the console. So, if you're running into issues, your best bet is to try without -s, as follows:

adb shell mlcapture video -t 5 /sdcard/myscreencast.mp4
adb pull /sdcard/myscreencast.mp4