If you run the attached test program with the HW pipeline, the following exception will be thrown:

% java helloworld.HelloBigSnapshot
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.QuantumToolkit$15.run(QuantumToolkit.java:1409)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRunAndReset(FutureTask.java:351)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.runAndReset(FutureTask.java:178)
at com.sun.prism.render.RenderJob.run(RenderJob.java:37)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.QuantumRenderer$PipelineRunnable.run(QuantumRenderer.java:96)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Exception in Application start method
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.RuntimeException: Exception in Application start method
at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.launchApplication1(LauncherImpl.java:403)
at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl.access$000(LauncherImpl.java:47)
at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl$1.run(LauncherImpl.java:115)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unrecognized image loader: null
at javafx.scene.image.WritableImage.loadTkImage(WritableImage.java:223)
at javafx.scene.image.WritableImage.access$000(WritableImage.java:43)
at javafx.scene.image.WritableImage$1.loadTkImage(WritableImage.java:48)
at javafx.scene.Scene.doSnapshot(Scene.java:1140)
at javafx.scene.Node.doSnapshot(Node.java:1664)
at javafx.scene.Node.snapshot(Node.java:1707)
at helloworld.HelloBigSnapshot.start(HelloBigSnapshot.java:24)
at com.sun.javafx.application.LauncherImpl$5.run(LauncherImpl.java:319)
at com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl$5.run(PlatformImpl.java:206)
at com.sun.javafx.application.PlatformImpl$4.run(PlatformImpl.java:173)
at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication._runLoop(Native Method)
at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication.access$100(WinApplication.java:29)
at com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication$2$1.run(WinApplication.java:62)
... 1 more