You can transfer a texture between render passes, for example if you need to create a texture in one render pass and read it in a later render pass.
Use the following methods to transfer textures between render passes:
You can also store the texture outside the render passes, for example as a TextureHandle
in a Scriptable Renderer Feature.
If you need to use make sure a texture is available across multiple frames, or that multiple camerasA component which creates an image of a particular viewpoint in your scene. The output is either drawn to the screen or captured as a texture. More info
See in Glossary can access it, refer to Import a texture into the render graph system instead.
You can add a texture to the frame data so you can fetch the texture in a later render pass.
Follow these steps:
Create a class that inherits ContextItem
and contains a texture handle field.
For example:
public class MyCustomData : ContextItem { public TextureHandle textureToTransfer; }
You must implement the Reset()
method in your class, to reset the texture when the frame resets.
For example:
public class MyCustomData : ContextItem { public TextureHandle textureToTransfer; public override void Reset() { textureToTransfer = TextureHandle.nullHandle; } }
In your RecordRenderGraph
method, add an instance of your class to the frame data.
For example:
public override void RecordRenderGraph(RenderGraph renderGraph, ContextContainer frameContext) { using (var builder = renderGraph.AddRasterRenderPass<PassData>("Get frame data", out var passData)) { UniversalResourceData resourceData = frameContext.Get<UniversalResourceData>(); var customData = contextData.Create<MyCustomData>(); } }
Set the texture handle to your texture.
For example:
// Create texture properties that match the screen RenderTextureDescriptor textureProperties = new RenderTextureDescriptor(Screen.width, Screen.height, RenderTextureFormat.Default, 0); // Create the texture TextureHandle texture = UniversalRenderer.CreateRenderGraphTexture(renderGraph, textureProperties, "My texture", false); // Set the texture in the custom data instance customData.textureToTransfer = texture;
In a later render pass, in your RecordRenderGraph
method, you can get your custom data and fetch your texture:
For example:
// Get the custom data MyCustomData fetchedData = frameData.Get<MyCustomData>(); // Get the texture TextureHandle customTexture = customData.textureToTransfer;
For more information about frame data, refer to Use frame data.
The following example adds a CustomData
class that contains a texture. The first render pass clears the texture to yellow, and the second render pass fetches the yellow texture and draws a triangle onto it.
using UnityEngine; using UnityEngine.Rendering.Universal; using UnityEngine.Rendering.RenderGraphModule; using UnityEngine.Rendering; public class AddOwnTextureToFrameData : ScriptableRendererFeature { AddOwnTexturePass customPass1; DrawTrianglePass customPass2; public override void Create() { customPass1 = new AddOwnTexturePass(); customPass2 = new DrawTrianglePass(); customPass1.renderPassEvent = RenderPassEvent.AfterRenderingOpaques; customPass2.renderPassEvent = RenderPassEvent.AfterRenderingOpaques; } public override void AddRenderPasses(ScriptableRenderer renderer, ref RenderingData renderingData) { renderer.EnqueuePass(customPass1); renderer.EnqueuePass(customPass2); } // Create the first render pass, which creates a texture and adds it to the frame data class AddOwnTexturePass : ScriptableRenderPass { class PassData { internal TextureHandle copySourceTexture; } // Create the custom data class that contains the new texture public class CustomData : ContextItem { public TextureHandle newTextureForFrameData; public override void Reset() { newTextureForFrameData = TextureHandle.nullHandle; } } public override void RecordRenderGraph(RenderGraph renderGraph, ContextContainer frameContext) { using (var builder = renderGraph.AddRasterRenderPass<PassData>("Create new texture", out var passData)) { // Create a texture and set it as the render target RenderTextureDescriptor textureProperties = new RenderTextureDescriptor(Screen.width, Screen.height, RenderTextureFormat.Default, 0); TextureHandle texture = UniversalRenderer.CreateRenderGraphTexture(renderGraph, textureProperties, "My texture", false); CustomData customData = frameContext.Create<CustomData>(); customData.newTextureForFrameData = texture; builder.SetRenderAttachment(texture, 0, AccessFlags.Write); builder.AllowPassCulling(false); builder.SetRenderFunc((PassData data, RasterGraphContext context) => ExecutePass(data, context)); } } static void ExecutePass(PassData data, RasterGraphContext context) { // Clear the render target (the texture) to yellow context.cmd.ClearRenderTarget(true, true, Color.yellow); } } // Create the second render pass, which fetches the texture and writes to it class DrawTrianglePass : ScriptableRenderPass { class PassData { // No local pass data needed } public override void RecordRenderGraph(RenderGraph renderGraph, ContextContainer frameContext) { using (var builder = renderGraph.AddRasterRenderPass<PassData>("Fetch texture and draw triangle", out var passData)) { // Fetch the yellow texture from the frame data and set it as the render target var customData = frameContext.Get<AddOwnTexturePass.CustomData>(); var customTexture = customData.newTextureForFrameData; builder.SetRenderAttachment(customTexture, 0, AccessFlags.Write); builder.AllowPassCulling(false); builder.SetRenderFunc((PassData data, RasterGraphContext context) => ExecutePass(data, context)); } } static void ExecutePass(PassData data, RasterGraphContext context) { // Generate a triangle mesh Mesh mesh = new Mesh(); mesh.vertices = new Vector3[] { new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector3(1, 0, 0), new Vector3(0, 1, 0) }; mesh.triangles = new int[] { 0, 1, 2 }; // Draw a triangle to the render target (the yellow texture) context.cmd.DrawMesh(mesh, Matrix4x4.identity, new Material(Shader.Find("Universal Render Pipeline/Unlit"))); } } }
If you need to use a texture as the input for the shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary on a GameObjectThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
See in Glossary, you can set a texture as a global texture. A global texture is available to all shaders and render passes.
Setting a texture as a global texture can make rendering slower. Refer to SetGlobalTexture.
Don’t use an unsafe render pass and CommandBuffer.SetGlobal
to set a texture as a global texture, because it might cause errors.
To set a global texture, in the RecordRenderGraph
method, use the SetGlobalTextureAfterPass
method.
For example:
// Allocate a global shader texture called _GlobalTexture private int globalTextureID = Shader.PropertyToID("_GlobalTexture") using (var builder = renderGraph.AddRasterRenderPass<PassData>("MyPass", out var passData)){ // Set a texture to the global texture builder.SetGlobalTextureAfterPass(texture, globalTextureID); }
If you don’t already call SetRenderFunc
, you must also add an empty render function. For example:
builder.SetRenderFunc((PassData data, RasterGraphContext context) => { });
You can now:
UseGlobalTexture()
or UseAllGlobalTextures()
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