Version: 2021.3
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Texture.GetNativeTexturePtr

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Declaration

public IntPtr GetNativeTexturePtr();

Returns

IntPtr Pointer to an underlying graphics API Texture resource.

Description

Retrieve a native (underlying graphics API) pointer to the Texture resource.

Use this function to retrieve a pointer/handle corresponding to a particular Texture as it is represented on the native graphics API level. This can be used to enable Texture manipulation from native code plugins.

Note: When you use the Unity APIs to modify the pixel data of a Texture object, it changes the underlying graphics API native pointer. Call GetNativeTexturePtr to get the new native pointer.

For specific platforms, Unity has the following specifications:

  • On Direct3D-like devices, Unity returns a pointer to the base Texture type (ID3D11Resource on D3D11, ID3D12Resource on D3D12).
  • On OpenGL-like devices, the GL Texture "name" is returned; cast the pointer to an integer type to get it.
  • On Metal, Unity returns an id<MTLTexture> pointer.
  • On Vulkan, Unity returns an VkImage pointer.
  • On platforms that do not support native code plug-ins, this function always returns NULL.

Note that calling this function when using multi-threaded rendering will synchronize with the rendering thread (a slow operation), so best practice is to set up needed Texture pointers only at initialization time.

Additional resources: Native code plugins, Texture2D.CreateExternalTexture, Cubemap.CreateExternalTexture, RenderTexture.GetNativeDepthBufferPtr.