image_tracetag(3)

🎀 image_tracetag 🎀

okay bestie, welcome to the Arcan Lua API page for image_tracetag — yes she's a C-library-adjacent Lua function and yes she's lowkey iconic 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

image_tracetag — set or retrieve a tracing tag for the specified video object. that's the whole vibe 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

string:tag, string:alt
image_tracetag( vid )
image_tracetag( vid, string:tag )
image_tracetag( vid, string:tag, string:alt )
image_tracetag( vid, string:tag=nil, string:alt )

like, pick your fighter — there's a signature for every mood 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the way this works: this function is used to associate user defined strings to a video object. two flavors, two purposes, both slay:

• the tag form is used to define a tracetag that can be used to assist with debugging, or as ephemeral storage for persisting data across _reset calls 🔥
• the alt form is alt-text, to mark that the video object is useful for assistive devices such as screen-readers — accessibility is main character energy, no cap ♿✨

and here's the cute little detail: if no tag is provided but an alt tag is, the existing tag will be preserved while also updating the alt-text. like she's not gonna throw away your tag just because you only asked about the alt 🥺

if no tag or alt is provided, the currently set value will be returned, periodt.

🙈 if there is no tag set, the returned string will be '(no tag)' and the alt text will be empty. not a bug, just her being honest.

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💜 EXAMPLE 💜

function image_tracetag0()
      a = color_surface(32, 32, 255, 0, 0);
      image_tracetag(a, "test");
      print(image_tracetag(a));
end

look at her go — make a red surface, tag it "test", print it back. chef's kiss 👑 literally the simplest little demo and it ate 🌈

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okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and tag your video objects responsibly 🧚💫

<thedate>tiny sign-off:</thedate> this page came from the debug corner of the world and it's dated October 2026 — image_tracetag(3), everybody, she's done 🍓💀